In Search of Epic

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What do you do when you’re looking for something new? Ride a familiar loop in reverse? Throw in a dirt connector? Add another park in your mountain bike ride to make it 5 rather than 4 hours? Even though many of us ride the Hoppers as fast as we can it’s really the challenge of pushing our limits on familiar and unfamiliar courses. It’s been years since we’ve done the traditional King Ridge loop for just that reason. Last year we road up Meyers Grade and for many this was a first. This summer I had the luxury of stopping for a swim at on the Lake Sonoma Loop where Dry Creek flows into it. After a rest I decided to ride the pavement up Old Skaggs Rd the the intersection of Skaggs and the gears started turning. It only took a couple of moments for me to put the pieces together and hatch a plan. It wasn’t until my bday in Sept that Rog agreed to do “whatever” since it was my bday ride. We started out in Healdsburg on cross bikes at 8:00 and headed west. Here are some photos of our epic day. No mishaps or near fatal mistakes. We were hydrated by Osmo so no worries of coming undone. Here’s some photos of our day.

Sweetwater Climb

Old Caz Climb

King Ridge

 

Roger at the end of Old Skaggs Rd. Heading toward Lake Sonoma Single Track. Hour 5 1/2

 

 

Lake Sonoma Single. Clockwise from intersection with Old Skaggs Rd. Thought we might had to walk but stubbornly rode the whole damn thing.

 

Not sure if there has ever been a more perfectly placed spring. All that’s left is a 700 ft. granny gear climb to the top of Liberty Glenn and back to Healdsburg.

No flats. Didn’t bonk. No one got lost. No crashes. Plenty of water. Was it epic? Sometimes something simple goes awry and we’re caught in a hale storm of challenge and discontent. If we’re lucky it’s only on the bike as when is happens others parts of like it can leave us totally spun out. Other times we carefully calculate our explorations and adventures so that we don’t leave the muffler on a bumpy dirt road. Will this be one of those days you need to make sure to carry  a space blanket?You be the judge come Hopper season. Mig

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