We rolled from the DeKolds a little after 8:30, and among the usual characters were Erik Dekold, Dave Hekel, Martin Kozicki, Dee Folse, Tony Barghini, Kurt Gensheimer, young Chris and Crazy Gary. Right as we started to roll someone had a quick 'emergency' that needed attending to, so we waited around at the top of dump climb for him. After Dump we hit the normal trails down and out into the bridges neighborhood. As we were cruising along the D.G. through the neighborhood is was awesome seeing all the poor roadies out on their sat morning ride, looking at us crusty dusty mtn bikers with envy.
After the neighborhood we dropped down to the Jungle trail and then over to the Lusardi loop, via some crazy, half grown in, hidden Kurt trail. From there we headed over through some construction area and into 'tunnels' trail system and into the ball fields, where we ran into the ice cream man! Luckily some of us had cash to spot the rest so everyone could grab a nice treat on a perfect SD day.
After the ball fields I pretty much didnt know where I was for almost the rest of the ride. We crossed Black Mountain Rd and into to Ramona, on some nice shaded, pretty flat trails. We were moving along at a pretty decent pace and everything seemed good, when all of a sudden Marty said he needed to stop at the 7-11 coming up in about 5 minutes. It had only been bout 15 minutes since our ice cream stop and Marty was babbling something about needing electrolytes. Being that Marty is newer to single speeding, and we had only climbed about 1,500ft out of 7500ft so far I knew Marty was going to be in trouble!
After our 7-11 stop we came upon our first climb up Ted Williams peak. Knowing there was a few hike-a-bike sections and I had a geared bike Kurt let me lead up the climb. Dee, Kurt and myself took our time on the climb trying not to push it and have a good time. Once Marty got up to the top the first words that came out of his mouth was 'thats it I'm done, my legs are done.' We somehow talked him into continuing on some more, and to try and tough it out, but he only lasted a little bit longer and had to stop at the Sprouts somewhere in Ramona and make that embarrassing call to Kathy to come pick him up. Crazy Gary brought along a pacifier to give to the first person that complained or couldnt continue, here is marty sucking away at the sprouts...
We continued on pretty much unknown-to-me trails through Ramona to the ranger station at highland valley, where we refuled with some water and a couple beers Hekel had stashed away. At this point due to the time lost sending Marty on his way we decided to cut out the stop at Kurts house and just head straight home. Knowing that the next thing on our agenda was ascending 'once is enough' coupled with some fatigue setting in, the ride moved along at a more quite, deliberate pace.
Once is enough is always a bitch and at mile 60 it really sucks! I was suprised at how far Kurt made it on the SS, one day someone from our group is going to clean the whole thing on a single speed! We regrouped at the top, and you can tell that everyone is just about done, and we decided to take the most direct route home. At this point almost everyone is trying to shake cramps and is just thinking about the reward at the end of the ride.
We managed to make it back to Eriks house by 5:00 with a total rolling time of 6:33 minutes, 65 miles and about 7,500 feet of vertical. We fired up the grill, drank some IPA and talked shop into the night, what a great way to cap off an awesome day!
Ted Williams peak 30 miles in
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