Bobs get dirty!

[maillotpois]

Birthday! Virtual polenta coming your way........

YUM!

[Aggie_Ama]

Now if you start matching all your clothes including shoes and helmets, I'll get worried.

Or tell them to get on a tandem. I often see tandem riders looking like twinsies.

[Aggie_Ama]

Another note- most drug stores have small first aid kits. DH and I both carry the Camelbak Mule with tons of storage so our first aid kit that one of us always has is a bit big in height but it is slim. We don't even notice the bulk.

[sundial]

Jobob, I'm impressed! I am soooo envious of your trail.

Where Mr. Jobob did his endo--

[andtckrtoo]

Ooooh!!!! Give me some heads up and I may join you. I started my cycling career on dirt. I'm not any good any more, but I'll give it the ole college try! :P I'll have to nab DD15's bike (as my poor old MTB needs major work), but if she needs a bike she can take my road bike.

[maillotpois]

We're leaving Mill Valley about 9:30 tomorrow morning....

[jobob]

... and there will be a goodly supply of Deschutes Brewery's finest awaiting our return.

[snapdragen]

... and there will be a goodly supply of Deschutes Brewery's finest awaiting our return.

Oooh, I hate you all.....

[andtckrtoo]

Okay, give me a little MORE heads up. :P Tomorrow I promised to take DD15 Christmas shopping. I swear I will get out riding with you soon! I have too much life getting in the way of my cycling right now.

[jobob]

No worries Chris, our paths will all cross eventually.

[Miranda]

Congrats! Those are awesome pics and great bikes.

You might find too certain skills will improve in both areas of your riding now that you have crossed over. I think it makes a person a more well rounded better rider. Each type of riding has it's high points. Great for mixing it up.

Ride in fun and good health.

[Selkie]

Jo - You have the best calves! Looks like you were having a blast - nice trail and the best of company. How could you go wrong? Can't wait to see photos of and hear about future rides. ENJOY.

[andtckrtoo]

So, Jo and Maillotpois - how was the ride?! What did I miss?

[jobob]

What a great day!

We rode from mp's place in Mill Valley up mostly fire roads to the summit of Mt Tam.

I'm almost embarrassed to admit that I've never actually been to the summit of Tam - either via a bike or car. So this was a real treat. And it was gorgeous up there - but no cameras came along so you'll just have to take my word for it.

Heading back down was loads of fun - the trails were well groomed with conveniently located bumps for a bit of airtime. Yee-hah!

As we approached the West Point Inn I rode thru some thick gravel, skidded and fell over - onto my left side, natch. Oh well, the bruises on my left leg needed some touching up anyhow, they were starting to fade.

The rest of the ride down the mountain went well. It started sprinkling but luckily it didn't amount to much. It was pretty chilly out but I had ample woolage on so my body temp was fine, but, just as well we didn't get more rain because it probably would have turned to sleet, yech.

We headed down the Panoramic Highway part of the way. It felt so odd cruising downhill on a paved road on the mtn bike! It felt like I was crawling but evidently I was going a reasonably good clip. I had my Garmin in my Camelbak and I couldn't really gauge how fast I was going. Those disc brakes work very nicely when its wet out - I felt very secure even on the wet road.

A few miles from mp's home she suggested we take a trail that cut through the woods. We had to walk parts of it - lots of ruts and tree roots and tight steep ascents & descents.

There was one section that we were riding that was starting to give me a serious case of the willies. The left edge of the trail dropped off steeply down the side of a hill covered with lots of brush & trees & gawd knows what else. About the time I was about to get off, I went thru a tricky bit and yep, fell over onto my left side. (Do we see a pattern forming here?) The good news is the ground was nice & soft there. The bad news is, I fell over onto the very edge of the steep downslope! It was one of those slo-mo falls and I distinctly remember thinking to myself "this is gonna turn out bad". But somehow I managed to put my left arm out and stop myself from sliding down the hill.

So, there I was, lying on my left side, still straddling my bike, my upper body pointing downhill and supported by my left arm. There was no way I was going to be able to get up without some help. Lee & Sarah were a bit ahead, and I figured sooner or later they would notice I wasn't behind them anymore and come back to investigate. In the meantime I just laid there like a doof.

Moments later a really nice lady out running along the trail ran up asking me if I was OK, and I told her I was fine, but I really could use some help getting up. So she pulled my bike out from between my legs and then I was able to scooch back up to more level ground. After she made sure I was fine and brushed some of the leaves off me (she was really sweet) she took off on ahead. She encountered Lee & Sarah a little ways ahead and told them I was OK and would be there in a moment.

The rest of the short ride along the trail went sort of without incident (unless you count the near miss with the falling tree log that some other guy who was behind us experienced ), until we reached a short steep narrow downhill section with a 90 degree turn at the bottom. I was up ahead at this point and naturally I walked down, but Lee behind me decided he was going to ride down it.

It didn't turn out so well. He got to the bottom, didn't quite make the turn, and flipped around. Somehow his bike was facing the opposite direction when he came to rest in a heap. He banged up his knee pretty badly - popped it out actually It was scary there for a while, I thought he might be hurt really badly. But after a while his knee popped back in again and he was OK for the rest of the way back.

Once it became clear that Lee was going to be OK and we were just hanging around until he was ready to go, mp blurted out "Oh My God, I broke the Bobs!!!". Her expression was priceless.

Thank goodness we were at the end of the Trail of Death by then and it was only about a mile back to mp's place from there, all downhill on paved roads.

Since it was so damp and chilly, instead of beer I opted for a cup of tea, followed by hot chocolate with a goodly slug of peppermint schnapps. Hit the spot. Lee got some ice for his knee and a couple of vitamin I's - and a cup of tea.

Lee's still hobbling around a bit, and the finger he jammed is swelling some, but all in all he's fine. And I have a few new bruises to add to my collection.

But we had fun!

[crazycanuck]

Good work bob's! Nice to see you're having fun on the dirt

I think your right side might be a bit jealous of your left, how about falling on the right next time

MP-thank you for taking the bob's trail hunting!