Back home

After being dicked over by United once again on the trip home (cancelled my flight a full 36 hours beforehand) I was greeted by a fresh 4-7 inches of snow. The truck crawls out of anything, so far, so all I had to deal with on the drive home was crappy Denver drivers. California was awesome; weather was great, women were crazy hot, food was good, we got 3 good days of riding in, and the company was excellent. The best part was the people were so nice. I always had horrible stereotypes of Californians who'd come to Idaho, rape the land and generally be horrifically arrogant. It seems the stereotype has evolved from folks in SoCal rather than the cool folks in NorCal. I don't think I know enough about either to firmly believe that's true, but it's the running theory.

The rides. First we did the lunchtime loop. I made the mistake of eating a huge sandwich just before getting on the bike. I saw half of it again after the first few hundred feet of climbing. Cheers to Gayles deli; it tasted just as good coming back the wrong way! At the top I saw most of the rest of it and then all the rest of it at the top of the last climb. In the end though it was a great trail. For the Vandals it reminded me of the excavation gulch trail out near Harvard, at least the top half. The second ride was just around Casa de Currie which was much more of a cross-country ride. Similar to a more hilly wilderness park ride in Lincoln. Course I still took a header after taking a bad line. Fun easy day. The next day was the winner. Long fire road climb to the top of the Goat trail. This reminded me of the good trail we used to do on Moscow Mtn; winding through the trees, banked corners, lofty jumps! An adrenaline pumping good time! The Currie got fast in his days in NorCal and the only times I ever saw him were when he was waiting at a crucial intersection. Sweet! We didn't ride Big Sur, but it's nice to finish a trip wanting more.