By: C. Kent, aka (Superman) It was another cold day and there was even a chance of rain. I got up and looked outside and decided it was worth a try. So I layered up and got ready to head for Burger King for coffee. As usual Digger was there before me and we had a few minutes talking before Bloodhound showed up. Not long after that we had Gambler, Quicksilver and MacGyver show up. The next one to arrive was Papillon and that seemed to be about it. Our goal was to head north towards Ramona and then climb through Lamb’s Canyon to first street and then over to Starbucks in Beaumont. I started us off by moving us out onto Latham and then north on Lyon. Bloodhound took off a bit as if he was eager to make it to the climb. The rest of us kept our pace and slowly built up speed the farther north we went. By Seventh Street we had started running in cruise mode of about 20 mph and were a lot closer to catching Bloodhounds back wheel. We did catch him just before Ramona and turned west towards Sanderson only to pick up Bandit on our way. This would be Quicksilver’s first ride up Lamb’s Canyon and Digger was willing to give it a shot even if it was only his second time. As we made it to Sanderson I was in a bit of a quandary because I knew Bandit, Gambler, MacGyver and Papillon would attack the hill but I also knew I should keep and eye on Digger and Quicksilver, at least this time so I ended up about two hundred yards behind the leaders and one hundred yards in front of the followers. Things stayed that way till Quicksilver closed on me just to let me know she had hit her stride and I pulled away again. Before we got the last rise leading to the dump I saw a rider pulled over to the side and ended up stopping to assist MacGyver fix a flat caused by a rather long finishing staple. We let digger and Quicksilver go on and gave chase a few minutes later. As we got to the last hill I could see we were gaining on Digger and Quicksilver was out of sight. I told MacGyver to go ahead just as we saw Gambler and Bandit heading back down the hill. The rest of the group was waiting at First Street and we had a small regroup there. MacGyver had to head home leaving Quicksilver, Bloodhound, Papillon, Digger and me to ride south to Commerce and then up to second street to head over to Starbucks and some hot coffee. There was just a drop or two of rain on our way there so we were concerned that it might rain. It was colder than it had been in Hemet. We had out hot coffee, except for Papillon with his cold Frapichino and decided to head for home before it got any colder.

We were led back to the main road down Lamb’s canyon by Bloodhound before started the log decent back to Ramona. Bloodhound was long gone by the time we got back to the dump. I took us to the last fast downhill and picked up Bloodhound at Gilman before we were all back in line and crossing the Expressway before turning on Ramona and heading to Lyon before heading south to get back to home. I left the group at Latham and headed for home myself. I decided to get a new chain and ended up with 32 miles by the time I got home. All in all it was a great ride, even if I forgot my Camera.