the Eel
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- Sep 23, 2000
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Well we did the Snowy thing, and while Snowy itself wasn’t as bad as people say, the overall effect of the ride was brutal.
We staged out of King’s Campground - where one entrance to Snowy is located. Jack started things off in true Team Knucklehead fashion - he forgot to put on his green sticker again so we had to use the FORCE to get by the entrance to the park. We chatted up the woman working the gate as well as we could and luckily she didn’t check the bikes for stickers. :aj: Then at camp, Jack realized he had left his riding pants at home. So he rode the entire time in jeans. :) Pretty funny.
Snowy started off easy - and the weather was nice - probably in the 80’s. We quickly hit some tricky little rock obstacles which were fun but not too bad. Then we did a long stretch of very loose singletrack - this is where the infamous switchbacks are and they are tight. I certainly wasn’t gonna try to make those sharp turns going downhill so I hopped off my bike each time and walked / wrestled it around each rutted switchback. My lone dirtnap was on one of these switchers where there was a small fence on the inside of the turn. I decided to try and dogpaddle through the switchback and I put my inside foot on the fence as support. Well the fence immediately collapsed and I fell to the inside and my bike fell with me. I was kinda stuck but unharmed. I recovered quickly so as to deprive Jack of the pleasure of seeing me splayed out over the broken fence with my bike on top of me. Mission accomplished - he didn’t get to see it !
My water went fast and I realized that wrestling your bike through stuff this tight gets real tiring. I was out of water about halfway into Snowy. We rested alot and got our bearings every so often. Snowy is a beautiful trail and offers some really nice views. After about 6 miles the trail turns sharply to the right and starts to go uphill. This is where Jack very nearly met his Maker. No kidding .... this was the closest call I’ve ever witnessed. If it wasn’t for Jack being cool, calm, and collected, it would’ve been airlift time.
There was this really tricky rock section once the trail started goin' uphill and both our bikes started boiling over. Jack was about an eighth of a mile behind me because he had stopped to let his bike cool. I decided to walk back down and see what was up. He was fine and we bullsh*tted about the trail for awhile and rested. He was talking about how the section he had just gone through was tricky. I let him know that what was right around the corner was even worse. I decided to walk back up the trail so I could watch him navigate the technical spot I had mentioned. I climbed up the inside wall and sat on a big rock overlooking the trail. Great spectator spot - but little did I know that the carnage I was about to witness would almost turn into the kind we never ever hope to see.
I heard Jack fire up his bike and then he came into view as he rounded the turn. When he approached the rock section he was a little too low on speed and his front tire deflected badly off the rock, throwing him off to the cliff side of the trail. He rolled off his bike and onto his back and quickly began to slide down the cliff face. No kidding - he slid 35 feet down the cliff and was finally able to stop himself just shy of a spot from which there would have been no return. I saw him start sliding and then all he said was “whoa” a few times as he began to pick up speed. Dude - big props to you for keeping your cool so well. I would have messed my O’Neals !!!!! THAT WAS SCARY.
He climbed back up the cliff and of course we rested. I had plotted our way back to camp on trails 129 and 128. We finished resting and moved on.
Now we were pretty tired and I didn’t really know what 129 and 128 were like. Turns out they were almost as bad as Snowy, and I personally thought 129 downhill (Miller Jeep Trail) was actually more tiring than Snowy. 128 is PIRU Creek Trail. So our little Snowy adventure turned into a short (28 miles) but devastating ride. We were dead when we got back to camp. It was so bad at one point that the Jackster lost his cool a bit and kinda went off on me. Next time better let him plan the route back to camp. Turns out there was a nice easy fire road we could have taken back but I apparently didn’t think to include it in our travels. My bad.
So we got through it in one piece. Those three trails made a pretty killer little loop. Riding Snowy was not nearly as bad as I thought it would be - but riding 129 and 128 after Snowy in the heat was more than I had bargained for. It turned into one of those rides where you’re hating life as you’re riding - but feel great afterwards.
It always feels good to push your personal envelope and come out on top. I’d do it again in a heartbeat ... just not right now. :)
We staged out of King’s Campground - where one entrance to Snowy is located. Jack started things off in true Team Knucklehead fashion - he forgot to put on his green sticker again so we had to use the FORCE to get by the entrance to the park. We chatted up the woman working the gate as well as we could and luckily she didn’t check the bikes for stickers. :aj: Then at camp, Jack realized he had left his riding pants at home. So he rode the entire time in jeans. :) Pretty funny.
Snowy started off easy - and the weather was nice - probably in the 80’s. We quickly hit some tricky little rock obstacles which were fun but not too bad. Then we did a long stretch of very loose singletrack - this is where the infamous switchbacks are and they are tight. I certainly wasn’t gonna try to make those sharp turns going downhill so I hopped off my bike each time and walked / wrestled it around each rutted switchback. My lone dirtnap was on one of these switchers where there was a small fence on the inside of the turn. I decided to try and dogpaddle through the switchback and I put my inside foot on the fence as support. Well the fence immediately collapsed and I fell to the inside and my bike fell with me. I was kinda stuck but unharmed. I recovered quickly so as to deprive Jack of the pleasure of seeing me splayed out over the broken fence with my bike on top of me. Mission accomplished - he didn’t get to see it !
My water went fast and I realized that wrestling your bike through stuff this tight gets real tiring. I was out of water about halfway into Snowy. We rested alot and got our bearings every so often. Snowy is a beautiful trail and offers some really nice views. After about 6 miles the trail turns sharply to the right and starts to go uphill. This is where Jack very nearly met his Maker. No kidding .... this was the closest call I’ve ever witnessed. If it wasn’t for Jack being cool, calm, and collected, it would’ve been airlift time.
There was this really tricky rock section once the trail started goin' uphill and both our bikes started boiling over. Jack was about an eighth of a mile behind me because he had stopped to let his bike cool. I decided to walk back down and see what was up. He was fine and we bullsh*tted about the trail for awhile and rested. He was talking about how the section he had just gone through was tricky. I let him know that what was right around the corner was even worse. I decided to walk back up the trail so I could watch him navigate the technical spot I had mentioned. I climbed up the inside wall and sat on a big rock overlooking the trail. Great spectator spot - but little did I know that the carnage I was about to witness would almost turn into the kind we never ever hope to see.
I heard Jack fire up his bike and then he came into view as he rounded the turn. When he approached the rock section he was a little too low on speed and his front tire deflected badly off the rock, throwing him off to the cliff side of the trail. He rolled off his bike and onto his back and quickly began to slide down the cliff face. No kidding - he slid 35 feet down the cliff and was finally able to stop himself just shy of a spot from which there would have been no return. I saw him start sliding and then all he said was “whoa” a few times as he began to pick up speed. Dude - big props to you for keeping your cool so well. I would have messed my O’Neals !!!!! THAT WAS SCARY.
He climbed back up the cliff and of course we rested. I had plotted our way back to camp on trails 129 and 128. We finished resting and moved on.
Now we were pretty tired and I didn’t really know what 129 and 128 were like. Turns out they were almost as bad as Snowy, and I personally thought 129 downhill (Miller Jeep Trail) was actually more tiring than Snowy. 128 is PIRU Creek Trail. So our little Snowy adventure turned into a short (28 miles) but devastating ride. We were dead when we got back to camp. It was so bad at one point that the Jackster lost his cool a bit and kinda went off on me. Next time better let him plan the route back to camp. Turns out there was a nice easy fire road we could have taken back but I apparently didn’t think to include it in our travels. My bad.
So we got through it in one piece. Those three trails made a pretty killer little loop. Riding Snowy was not nearly as bad as I thought it would be - but riding 129 and 128 after Snowy in the heat was more than I had bargained for. It turned into one of those rides where you’re hating life as you’re riding - but feel great afterwards.
It always feels good to push your personal envelope and come out on top. I’d do it again in a heartbeat ... just not right now. :)
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