We took the new bikes out to the local regional park today. We started off on one of the trails we usually do after work and then went down the ridge to the other side that we don't get to very often. It was nearly perfect riding weather - temps in the low 70s. A little too breezy, but on some of the exposed climbs that was a welcome relief.

The first part climbs up 950 feet in about 3 miles. It's fairly gradual for the first mile, but the middle mile has some sections of 9 and 11% grade as you go up and down at the top of a ridge. The last mile still climbs, but is again gradual. We had stopped riding this trail because we both felt like we couldn't spin nearly enough on the really steep sections on our old bikes. Yeah we could get up it - but it was a real grind with only 21 speeds. It was still a bear, but it certainly felt better today.

We decide to try something new, even though we forgot to take the map with us. We both remembered the same name for the trail we wanted to take.

To get over there you go down the backside of the ridge you just climbed. This was a really fun descent, fairly straight until you get to an off camber 90 degree turn. I was glad I had approached the turn with some caution. The trail - really a fire road- straightens out again but ends with a dip at the bottom. Suspension handled that like a charm.

We climb up another ridge to get to the trail that we want. It is suppose to be a loop and we are going to do it clockwise. Again it goes along another ridge and there's lots of steep ups and downs. We go down a hill and at the bottom there's a sandy section, just like I remembered from the KREBs map. Then it climbs up over this rough, cracked earth that we seem to get around here. The texture of it reminds me of the lava fields in Hawaii. Bumps and cracks every eight to ten inches, 2 or 3 inches high. I hate riding on this stuff. It makes climbs just miserable and keeps you from enjoying the down hill. Not so with front suspension! Ahhh!!! I love this new bike.

We ride on for about another half an hour and by this time we expect to see another trail going off to our right to bring us back to our starting position. No trail. We keep going. It's a pretty trail. If you stay on it long enough, you'll end up on Mount Diablo. Not our plan for the day. So now we're beginning to wonder if maybe we misremembered the name. We climb up another little hill to see if we can see the trail looping off to our right. Nada.

Now we're afraid maybe we're on the wrong trail. We have both gone through one water bottle. We each have a full one left. So we turn around. Forty five minutes to climb up to that point. 25 minutes to get back! Love downhill! The best part was going into this turn just perfectly, didn't touch the brakes, kept my speed up. Thom was behind me and said it was just beautiful. In fact he even took the same line. Right into the next corner too, which was slightly off camber and I ended up on the berm, thinking "Just ride through it." and giggling after at my own stupidity. I didn't see it, but Thom said he ended up in the grass. Ahh, but that first corner - pure magic.

The rest of the ride was pretty uneventful. Some downhill, some more climbing. I love at the end that we start with that three mile climb. It's a nice downhill and I know it pretty well.

I do want to change out the brake pads on the bike. Probably change over to Kool stops. Otherwise the setup feels pretty good.

We did take a risk today. Our old bikes had Schraeder tubes. These have Presta. We didn't even think about new tubes when we got the bikes. As I was putting together the tool kit this morning, the omission occured to me. We decided we were never going to be more than a couple of miles from civilization and it was such pretty day - we'd risk it. No flats - gotta love those thick knobby tires.

Oh and the trail - was the right one! We had about a third of a mile to go to our turn.

I hope this great weather holds for a few more weeks.

Veronica