Ride through the Redwoods

The last big ride we took Mo and Alex on while they were visiting us was a "Tour de Redwoods" MTB ride along the Avenue of the Giants. We started out at the Avenue Cafe in Miranda where "Uncle" Bill Staples (pic to the left) hooked us up with some incredibly delicious breakfast (the buckwheat pancakes are a must have if you ever visit and Tsering's swears by the french toast). Our buddy Bill is one of SoHum's first cyclists and has been a supporter of Tsering and I since we were just kids. He's hooked up the team with sponsorship this year, but more than anything, he's a great guy, an awesome friend, a cycling historian, an expert mechanic, a trail builder/ advocate, and the best cook!

The four of us departed from the South Fork High School parking lot where we shammied up while the kids were on break. Got lots of confused looks as I walked through the library in spandex wearing my helmet to use the bathroom, but it was cool to visit my old school and catch up with the members of the HS MTB team such as Mike Radenbaugh who was eager to wheelie my new bike.

The singletrack trails were so beautiful that day- and totally empty being as how it was a week day in January. I can't believe how lucky I was to grow up in a place with trails like this out the back door!

The ride along the Ave was also the first ride on my Ahrens frame which we built up the night before. I was so pumped about the new bike! It rides like a dream- so much smoother than my old bike! We had to stop and make a few seat height adjustments and things like that, but overall it was a great initial impression. I was especially blown away by the way it handled. The ride of steel combined with the custom geometry gave me some new found confidence in my descending and I was really able to let loose on the trail. The new Fox Fork and disc brakes were also a huge improvement.

The new bike is so pretty! I will post a full review soon.
This section of the trail is gorgeous- you pop out of the Redwood grove onto this short trail that sits way above the freeway. We were discussing whether you could huck from up here past the freeway- our conclusion was probably NOT :).

We couldn't resist a tourist photo of the 1964 High Water mark in (what used to be) the bustling town of Weott. It's crazy to think that such a huge flood wiped out the whole town in just a couple weeks. The information kiosk was right: MOTHER NATURE CANNOT BE TAMED!

Before turning back, we rode up the edge of the river and checked out some crazy animal tracks in the sand. We added our MTB shoe tracks to the collection.

And of course, no trip to Humboldt would be complete withour the pre-requisite photo of big Redwoods. Behold my friends, I have not forgotten:

And of course, thanks again to Mo for the great pics! Until next time! -E

Kimtu Ride in Humboldt

So, school has started up again for Tsering and I and we are busy bees. We've still been doing lots of training and are excited to send off our jersey order this week and finalize some team business. In the meantime, here are some lovely pictures from Alex and Mo's visit to Humboldt and the sweet riding up there.

<----Cement flat in Kimtu. We rode from the quaint town of Redway to Garberville, rode the super fun singletrack that is ever expaning in the Community Park. Then we rode from Kimtu to Benbow along the Kimtu trail that our riding buddy Bill created some 15 years ago. We then stopped by the Benbow Inn where Tsering and I worked as assistant servers for over 4 years! Sort of a thankless job, but a beautiful historic Inn in the mountais nonetheless!

Motown befriended a cement doggy in front of the Inn. We contemplated muching on the free tea and scone in the lobby but we had to head back to make my date with Bill to get my bike built.

Check out the sweet reflection in Tsering's sunglasses!

Check out Maureen's "on the bike photography" skills. And holy moly- is that a clear blue sky in Humboldt during Janaury?! This global warming stuff is no joke (but it's great for riding!). -E

Tour de Humboldt: Mo and Alex's visit

Tsering and I were ansy for some new training partners. He was growing tired of tearing off my little legs on our huge rides and I was getting tired of staring at his bum for hours on end each day. So, our wonderful friends from Berkeley- Maureen Kunz (aka Mo) and Alex Weissman came to hang out and ride with us in SoHum for a couple of days. We had a blast! Went on three awesome MTB rides, got my Ahrens frame built up, enjoyed some local specialty foods like fresh coffee each morning from Signature Coffee Roasting Co, went to a classic SoHum birthday party for my friend's 21st, and even did a day of sight seeing out at Shelter Cove. It was awesome to hang out with Mo and Alex and to share some of our amazing mountain biking with them!

Our first ride was the beautiful Chemise Mtn Trail- about 12 miles of sweet singletrack that borders the sea. Tsering and Alex rode all the way from Redway to the trailhead (about 19 miles with an excruciating hill in the middle) while Mo and I drove out. I was on a rest week and only needed a couple more hours we let the boys suffer the hill alone. It was gorgeous day for the ride- incredibly clear and sunny. It was pretty chilly and windy at times, but not bad for January. Mo was enamored with the scenery during the ride and made a point of stopping to grab pictures of all the great views. Mega thanks to her for providing all of these great pictures. The trails were in great condition (pretty dry and only a couple fallen trees). The trail took about 2 hours total (its steeep!). Tsering and Alex motored back towards home and got in a about 10 miles on their bikes before Mo and I caught up in the car. We met up with Alex just before the Ettersburg junction and he was feeling pretty toasted so he cruised home in the Subi with Mo and I. Tsering champed it and did the whole ride (about 5o miles) on his Ahrens bike, arriving home just as the sun went down. Check out the sweet pics and be sure to ride Chemise if you are ever in the area.

Epic Adventure: King's Range MTBing

Tsering and I have been hearing all of this hype about new singletrack trails being built in our own backyard- the magnificent King's Range coastal mountains near Shelter Cove. We were feeling up for an adventure yesterday, so we quickly scanned some maps we found on the BLM website and planned a day of riding in the boonies. Tsering had done a ride out that way about 3 years ago with some riding buddies of ours, so we planned our day based on his hazy memory of the route. We stopped off of Kings Peak Rd and parked at Tolkan campground area where we easily found the new trails that stem right from the campground. The new singletrack was sweet! Definitely built with bikes in mind- the switchbacks were wide and bermed so you could carry speed and the trails never got too steep. The routes we took take you steadily downhill back to the main road. Rumor has it that as soon as Fall 2007, all of the trails will be complete and you will be able to ride 14 miles straight of sweet singletrack. After hopping on and off the new trails, we decided to ride down Horse Mtn Creek Trail as we thought it was part of Tsering's ride 3 years ago. Turned out it wasn't (just goes basically straight down the hill to the ocean). We eventually turned around and worked hard to climb back up the steep pitch. Once we got back to the main road, we decided to re-evaluate our ride plan. We cruised back to Tolkan and then saw that the trail to the peak of King's Range was much further down the road. We hopped into the car and parked near where we thought was close to the summit trail. After climbing up the dirt road at a vicious pitch for about 3o mins, we re-evaluated that thought. Eventually, we ended up at what was the trailhead at 4pm. It was getting late, but we decided to keep riding- determined to make it to the peak of the range. The trail was double-track basically the whole time we were on it and pretty steep. We were either climbing or descending. An hour later, we had crested three peaks, but apparently we weren't to the top yet! Sadly, it was getting dark so we turned around and high-tailed it back up the hills. Almost the whole way back to the car, we were in the dark. Thank goodness we had a big moon that evening to help us find our way. Even though we never made it to the peak of the range, it was a fabulous epic adventure on the bike and Tsering and I vowed to return soon to get our revenge on the elusive highest peak on along the Pacific Ocean.

Check out the BLM website for info on King's Range: http://www.blm.gov/ca/arcata/kingrange/

Recent Ride Pics

Tsering and I have been doing lots of winter training rides. We have been fortunate with some good weather around SoHum and are hard at work finalizing sponsors for the team. Keep a look out on the website for pics of our newly designed jersey and our title sponsor announcement. Check out the sweet pic to the left of Tsering killin it on a descent with his new Ahrens bicycle. My disc brakes came in yesterday so my bike should be built up and ready to ride very soon!
The other day we did a motopace ride through the redwoods. It was a ton of fun to follow Tsering in the car and scream at him to hurry up while in the comfort of my warm car :). I took a nasty crash on my ride yesterday and have some sweet bruises my knees and hip, but I hope to be fully healed soon. Ride on everybody! -Emma