6/27/2011
By: C. Kent, aka (Superman)




The summer is here and the start times for our ride have been moved up and I was ready for a good turnout for today’s ride. Bautista Canyon is both a popular ride and one that allows both the A and B group a chance to have a good time. It was still cool at 8am as 14 of us pulled out of the parking lot and headed over to Lyon for our trip down to Thornton.


We picked up Gary, (Goliath) after we crossed Acacia and he fell in with us as we moved towards Johnston with T-3 pushing the pace just a touch. Vortex, Tax Man and Bandit were not far behind and it was shaping up to be an interesting ride as we got ready to turn east on Thornton and head towards State Street. We quickly worked our way to Santa Fe and then to Stetson and over to Columbia with T-3 in the lead much of the way. Most of the group turned down Columbia and back down to Thornton before we moved over to Crest and worked our way east with Wolf rolling along like he was in a hunting pack.

We talked and joked as we moved through the old houses on Crest and got ready to turn by the larger places with horse property. It is always a relaxing ride through that part of town because there are very few cars even if the roads could use some improvement. Finally Goliath moved up front with Vortex and pulled us over to Lake Street and up the little hill north towards Stetson again.

Both Tax man and T-3 were way ahead of us and already heading towards Fairview as we crested the rise on Lake and came back to Thornton. I knew things would pick up a bit from this point on and looking back I could see the A riders forming up like a swarm of Bees. Rocket, Gambler, Bandit, Vortex and Goliath were sure to take off once we got to Fairview and I found myself looking forward to the pull on Stetson.

Just as I had expected the run for the canyon started part way up Fairview. Rocket, Gambler, Bandit, Vortex, Goliath and Wolf took off, followed closely by Full Throttle and his son, (Jack Rabbit) T-3 and Tax man were already part of the way to Bautista and Dura-max and Ocelot were behind me. I caught up to Tax man and stopped while he made an equipment adjustment. Dura-max and Ocelot passed us and we managed to catch Full Throttle who was beginning to suffer from the heat. Tax man was having heat issues as well but kept pushing while drinking his water. About ¾ of the way up the canyon we saw T-3 heading down and going home. Most of the A group were well on their way back before Tax man and I joined the rest of the B group at the top of the canyon.

I ended up in a rather exciting pace line with Wolf, and Goliath. We cut through the canyon and back down to Fairview were we regrouped with the rest of the Bs. We took off to Carl’s and five of us stopped for coffee and conversation. When we left for home there were only four of us left. Dura-max and Ocelot had gone another direction while Goliath, Wolf, Vortex and I headed back to Burger King.


Goliath headed for home about Buena Vista and we moved on without him. I pulled into the parking lot with about 36 miles on the computer. Everyone seemed to have had a good time and everyone seemed to have accomplished something today. I guess I would have to say it was another good day to be part of the group.