Mountain biking SDF with Dave and Sparky

Today I got to go mountain biking in SDF with Dave and his dog Sparky. It might just have been the best mountain biking I’ve ever done in SDF.

With the Ragbrai road ride coming up at the end of next month I’ve been focusing on road biking. But the other day when I heard Dave was heading to SDF I went into the spare room, looked at my mountain bike and decided it had been sitting there unmoved for way too long.

The plan was to meet in Mountain View, 40 miles South of San Francisco. I should have brought my bike down there yesterday on the Google shuttle, but since that would have required planning ahead I instead found myself riding through the city towards the train station to get the first train of the day south. If my bike had a name it would have to be Tank. It is totally out of place on city streets; its big, nobly tires, more used to rolling overs rocks and dirt, made a strange whirring sound over smooth asphalt and it’s huge suspension made it a grossly inefficient way to get down Market Street.

I bought my bike in Downieville late last year. It’s a secondhand, extra large Specialized Enduro SL Comp FSR. I don’t know what SL, Comp or FSR mean, because I don’t know anything about mountain bike technology. Luckily I have many friends who do, and when they saw this bike they were all ‘shocks, pegs… lucky‘ about it, which was good enough for me. Mike in Downieville Outfitters named a good price, I took it out for half a day, fell in love with it and took it home with me.

We got to the SDF trailhead at around 11:00 and I was sweating already. The uphill to the ridge sucked, especially when gaps in the tree cover let the midday, midsummer sun through. Lots of sucky uphill means lots of fun downhills though. By the time we got to the top, huge storm had rolled in, shading our path. Thunder rumbled in the distance, and I hoped for a cooling rainstorm.

We cut down Corral, an amazing downhill trail I’d never been on before. There were a few jumps but I skipped them focusing instead on keeping my speed up over the series of speedramp-like bumps. It’s strange, but downhill mountain biking is both safer and more fun if you’re a little less cautious than you think you ought to be. If you go downhill with too much caution, you’ll ride your brakes the whole time and end up going over the handlebars or skidding out on a turn. Sometimes you just have to point your front wheel downhill and trust the bike to do the rest. Pads help with this; sure, they stop you hurting yourself when you fall, but they also stop you from falling in the first place by helping you be not too concerned about falling.

That said, I should have known I was going too fast when I overtook Sparky and got caught up in Dave’s dust cloud. Dave took a jump which I didn’t see coming until my front wheel was off the front of it. I slammed on the front brakes and felt the back wheel lift off the air, sending the saddle into my left kidney. No damage though — just a reminder that blindly following doesn’t work in mountain biking… especially if you’re following someone who is much better at all this than you are!

For the rest of the ride I went at my own pace and looked after myself. The rain came, but only for a few minutes, not enough to make the earth smell. At the bottom of Corral Trail we turned uphill on Sulphur Springs Trail and then back down Braille Trail. My brother would love this place. He’s always been the big mountain biker of the family, and next time he comes out this way we will ride SDF together.

The only bad thing about SDF is the uphill jeep trail back up to the car park. My GPS told me it was three miles long with an elevation gain of 600ft. I don’t know if that GPS is my friend or enemy, though. Is knowing that the end isn’t just around the next corner an example of too much information? Might I be better off just fooling myself? A watched altimeter rises very slowly.

We drove back to Mountain View, I thanked Dave again for the invite and made my way back home to San Francisco and a shower to wash all the dust and sweat away. The endorphins had soaked right into my bloodstream though. They stayed with me and I spent the rest of the day on a high.

• 13.6 miles, 2,500ft up/down. 2:09 moving time
• Photos and videos
  
• GPS map