6/07/2010
By: C. Kent, aka (Superman)

Hemet, Ca.

I don’t know if you could even wish for a nicer day for a ride than we woke up to this morning. We had clear blue skies with no wind and an average temperature that never got over 72 degrees during the ride. I left the house and headed towards the parking lot feeling a bit like someone in a Rockwell painting.

I took a few extra minutes for me to leave the house because my trip computer battery must have been low and wouldn’t stay in contact with my sending unit. By the time I got to Burger King Ocelot was already there wondering if she was early or if she had the wrong day. It didn’t take long before there were nine of us and we were ready to head out.

I like the simple ride over to Bautista because the ride there is a pretty leisurely one that takes us through some of the quieter neighborhoods in the city. After we worked our way through the houses on Thornton we ran east on Stetson and finally turned on Columbia and started to follow Crest. Rocket and Rick looked ready for the canyon as the rest of us talked and rode behind them heading east.


It is always good when we ride through these older neighborhoods and the easy pace we often set while doing it. We get a chance to know each other and talk about things without huffing and puffing and trying to get the words out while on a full sprint. I was feeling pretty relaxed and was looking forward to making the run up the canyon.

Duramax was sticking with Ocelot, T-3 and Oso Rojo so I felt free to close with Rocket, Rick and Hit man. As we turned onto lake and then Stetson GT-40 chatted casually about Shadows accident and the necessity of wearing a helmet. Rocket and Rick were waiting for us about halfway up Fairview and we pulled over to see if everything was ok. T-3, Ocelot, Oso Rojo and Duramax rode on by just in case it was a nature stop.

Rocket, Rick, Oso Rojo and Hit man took off heading up the canyon and GT-40, Duramax, T-3, Ocelot and I stayed together almost all the way to the first turn before we started to pull away. By the white fence about two miles up GT-40 kicked it up a gear and up ahead I could see we were closing on another rider. Somehow that seemed to add a little energy to my legs and I increased my speed as well. Turns out the first rider we passed wasn’t with our group. Then I caught site of Oso Rojo and noticed that GT-40 was closing on him at about the 4 mile mark. I knew it was Oso’s first trip up the canyon and I could only hope he wasn’t going to run the whole thing at the same pace he was going as I tried to close on him. At about 6 miles I was ready to down shift and just spin the rest of the way when we hit the second of the last three little hills when I noticed I was closing even faster than I thought. I managed to catch him on the last hill but discovered it was more than likely only because he was having trouble with his front derailleur. Still for a first time up the canyon Oso Rojo had shown a lot of power.

We waited for a few minutes and decided to head back down the hill to see where Duramax, T-3 and Ocelot were. Before we got back to the first big right hand turn we saw them coming up the hill. Some of us turned back and returned to the turnaround point with them and then we made the run back down the hill towards Fairview. Hit man and I took off together and ran hard all the way to the beginning of the road and waited for GT-40, Duramax, T-3 and Ocelot.

Once we regrouped at the bottom of the hill we started the run down Fatheirview and Carl’s and once we got to the little bridge three of us went into a full sprint and stayed in it till we got to Mulberry. Once I sat up it sounded like my chain was dragging so I shifted into the small ring and suddenly my chain jumped off of the small rear rubber sprockets. We tried to align them back on but it kept jumping off so I had to stop at casino Bike shop in Val vista before going on to Carl’s for some quick iced tea and the ride home. Still even with all of the little problems I had today I was glad I was out with friends and in weather as nice as we had today. I hope the Wednesday ride turns out as well.