Ja and I celebrated Father’s Day morning with a 6am departure to Demo. 17+ miles including Ridge -> Sawpit -> Sulphur Springs -> Braille -> out. All in under 3 hours. Trails were a bit dusty, but the weather was absolutely perfect.
Followed that up with some US Open and bbq. All in all a fantastic day.
Oh…and less than 3 weeks until Downieville. You guys ready? Ja – have you figured out which bike you are racing? CK – have you figured out IF you are racing? My opinion? 6.6 and YES respectively.
Saturday was a long day between the drive, the ride/repairs and the bar. I hadn’t really decided what I was going to do on Sunday and (not that surpisingly) I slept a little later than expected. This was no real problem as the early shuttles were all sold out … Earliest shuttle available was 1pm w/ Downieville Outfitters. After getting some breakfast and trying to get my gear together went back down to Yuba and convinced them to run a 4pm shuttle.
The weather definitely turned better on Sunday–night and day. 75 degrees, mostly clear and sunny. Ja missed out on the prime weather unfortunately.
After getting geared up at the top I was still a little uncertain about what I wanted to do … was thinking about maybe doing one long ride (Big Boulder->2nd) and bagging the second shuttle. Considering the previous day’s troubles and that I was solo I decided that might not be the best idea … that way I’d also get a couple runs down the DH course to prep for the race. So two shuttles it would be …
By the time I started my first run it was already around 2:05pm and I had to be back by 3:40 or so to ensure I could make the 2nd shuttle. I cruised down the hill … Butcher was in prime condition. Water flowing through the creek, rocks strewn all over the trail, etc. RFX was feeling much better after making a couple tweaks to the Lyrik.
Hit the climb up from the bridge and continued … In order to save time I didn’t bother taking off the pads and passed a group of DH riders who were walking up the hill. At the top I took about a 5 minute break and then continued. Bombed down third which is in prime condition and onto first. Legs were aching on 1st divide but continued pushing hard–had to make that shuttle.
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Ja-mon and I made the road trip last weekend to Downieville. I was planning on leaving town Friday night but we drove up on Saturday morning instead, bright and early.
The plan was to go for an epic ride … start with the downhill portion of the XC course so Ja could preview it before racing it in July and then after lunch continue on the newly completed North Yuba singletrack to Indian Valley. All told the ride would be 35 miles with (guessing) 3k feet of climbing and 6k of descending. We took two cars and and planned to stash one at Indian Valley …
We cruised on the drive, stoked on the idea of the ride arriving at Packer Saddle in 3.5 hours including stops to stash a car at IV, etc. When we arrived it was cold up top and after getting our gear together we headed out on Sunrise. I’d heard that Sunrise had some snow left and after about a 1/2 mile on Sunrise we encountered a large drift directly on the trail. Sunrise is a narrow, ledgy trail but there was a ribbon through the snow where bikes had gone before so I aimed my front wheel at that ribbon … but I missed it just slightly!
I thought that my tire would just cut a new line through the snow … and it started to but then the snow immediately compressed, turned into ice and nearly sent me tumbling off the ledge down the hill. Ja seemed focused on this moment the rest of the day … still not sure quite why. Must have looked funny–whatever. Minor “get off”, all things considered. So we sludged through this stuff off and on for a mile when we came to a point where it was pretty clear we had missed a turn. Sure enough we saw some bikers up the hill about 200 yards and rejoined the trail.
After Sunrise we pedaled over to the start of the OHV trail that begins the descent into Pauley Creek. This is a pretty gnarly trail with a lot of rocks, etc, and it didn’t disappoint. Unfortunately about a 1/2 mile into it Ja yells out ahead to me that his tire is leaking air. Oh sh*t! Too early into the ride for the flats to start I’m thinking.
I pull off his tire and the rim tape has shifted. Now I have had my own mishaps with rim tape–I DNF’ed at last year’s Downieville Classic due to my own case of it shifting so I knew he was in danger of not getting down the hill. Unfortunately I have moved on to tubeless tires mostly and no longer carry rim tape. Ja had mentioned that the rim tape had shifted a few months prior and I mentioned in no uncertain terms that he should get it fixed but alas he didn’t … fscking Ja! 
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