This past weekend I was treated with an invite to the shamrock north hide away & a great ride was had in the piute foothills near southlake, mount mesa, & weldon. Snow & frozen trail above 6500 ft kept us on lower elevation single track both days with the conditions cool & a little wet. A dozen riders were supposed to show with six actually making the trip. (due to some wetness in the L.A. area, however 2 travelled from sacto gentlemen.) ) Hospitality & comradeship was great as always with these guys, thanks Ken, & all of us were well fed with a great round of stuffed porkchops sat night, Thanks Abe! 3 of us had a good ride sat afternoon on the enduro training loop ( 5 miles per lap) with a big hill climb at the top end of the route, actually 3 big mountain sides in a row make up this climb that gets steeper with each section containing many boulders as the top of each section is reached. I got way upside down in the rocks on sat, gave it a few more tries then called it a day. Sunday
AM we all hit the trail & went back up to that climb to warm up. I had my way with the hill I was humbled on, but not without a great deal of effort, 2 retries & 4 restarts on the middle section, not clean by any means but I was able to rest in the snow at the top while enjoying the view of the south sierras, the greenhorns & a very empty lake isabella, with all the weather system moving thru. Our ride then progressed up the long canyon switch-back trail in & out of several good size drainages then on up to some deepening snow between 6000-7000ft. At this point in our ride, the grip heaters I had installed the night previous had paid for themselves, steaming hands in freezing weather is a good problem. A unanimous decision was reached by all in our group that it was approaching lunch time & beer-30, so a 180 was navigated & more great single track was taken in back to the ranch, P-CHOPS so called mental reset button had been pressed & set for the next week or two, life is good! :ride: :) :ride: :cool:
AM we all hit the trail & went back up to that climb to warm up. I had my way with the hill I was humbled on, but not without a great deal of effort, 2 retries & 4 restarts on the middle section, not clean by any means but I was able to rest in the snow at the top while enjoying the view of the south sierras, the greenhorns & a very empty lake isabella, with all the weather system moving thru. Our ride then progressed up the long canyon switch-back trail in & out of several good size drainages then on up to some deepening snow between 6000-7000ft. At this point in our ride, the grip heaters I had installed the night previous had paid for themselves, steaming hands in freezing weather is a good problem. A unanimous decision was reached by all in our group that it was approaching lunch time & beer-30, so a 180 was navigated & more great single track was taken in back to the ranch, P-CHOPS so called mental reset button had been pressed & set for the next week or two, life is good! :ride: :) :ride: :cool:
Last edited:
