Hiking in SF and such

This weekend, I stayed in SF.  On Saturday, we hiked around McLaren Park.  On Sunday I showed Eileen the trails we've been working on in Laguna Honda and then we also did a hike on Mt. Davidson.

One of the trails on Mt. Davidson.  There were some Red Tailed Hawks soaring overhead(not pictured).

New Loop at Skeggs

I tried a new-ish loop at Skeggs today. Oljon -> Steam Donkey -> climb up Springboard -> Blue Blossom -> climb up Gordon Mill.  It was fun, but climbing up Springboard was tough.  I had to hike a few bits on that.

It rained a few days ago, and the trail was in decent shape.  I did clear out a few drains that were clogged with debris.  It only takes a minute, and will save the trail from erosion.  Trail building is hard labor, but maintenance of a properly built can be really easy.

There were a lot more Redwoods on this loop than I normally see out there. I grew up on the East coast, but man I love Redwoods.  There is something just magical about them.

I liked this tree covered in moss w/ the sun behind it.

I cut the ride short, because I've been noticing more vibration/noise than normal on the downhills.  I think there is a little lateral play in the headset bearing, and that is rattling when going downhill.  It's beyond my abilities to diagnose/fix, so I'm going to take it into my local bike shop soon.

China Camp

I rode China Camp again today.  It rained a few days ago, and it's going to rain more tomorrow.  So I figured I would head out there to get a ride in while I could.  The frontside usually has good drainage after a storm, especially since there hasn't been raining much for the past month.

The parking area was really crowded today.  When I pulled in, I thought maybe there was a bike demo event or something.  But it was just a few high school mountain bike teams.  When I got there, they were mostly done so the trails weren't too crowded.

2017 Recap

2017 was great.  I did a lot of traveling, a lot of skiing, and a lot of biking.  I skied 32 days with about half of those in the backcountry.  I mountain biked ~30 days.  Here is the list of trips I went on:

Paso Robles, CA - Wine country and tacos
British Columbia - A week at Sol Mountain Lodge
Lake Tahoe - A bunch of ski trips
Seattle - Week long work trip
NYC - Hanging out in NYC for a week
Philadelphia - Hal's graduation
Santa Cruz - Beach chilling, mountain biking, and good times
Napa/Sonoma - Wine tasting and such
Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Park - Camping
Los Angeles - Baseball and food
Litchfield Beach, SC - Boyd's bachelor party
NY Finger Lakes - Boyd's wedding
Boston - Eileen showing me around her old hood
Atlanta - Georgia Tech Homecoming
Greenville, SC - Thanksgiving
Asheville, NC - Hanging out with friends
Nicaragua - Serious beach chilling

I downloaded this on Google Timeline.  Apparently I don't stray to far from the coast.

Riding at China Camp

I was oncall for work today, and I needed to be within 30 minutes of my computer.  I've figured out that this means I can leave the it in my trunk, and ride the main loop at China Camp.  If I get paged, I can be back at the computer and online in less than 30 minutes.

I started up with the workout class again this week, and I'm still pretty sore from that.  So I wasn't planning on going fast, and my last ride felt pretty clumsy.  But I was killing it today.  I did the opening climb without stopping(except for a picture), and felt great.  According to Strava, I set 10 PRs.  I think a lot of my improvement is coming from getting more comfortable with the dropper post.

Climbing up Echo Trail.

Tamarancho on Christmas Eve

I rode Tamarancho yesterday.  I didn't turn on Strava until half way through, but I still managed to rack up a bunch of PRs.  It's funny, because I felt like I rode pretty badly.  Overall I felt rusty.  I managed to make a lot of mistakes.   I fumbled with the dropper post control a few times.  Instead of dropping the seat while going into an obstacle, I switched gears by accident and rode with the seat up high.  Oops.  On a few ascents and descents, I had to jump off a few times to avoid crashing.  And I went back and tried to clean some features that I wasn't able to clear the first time.  All in all, I felt like I could have ridden a LOT better.  But the numbers said that I had actually improved on my old times.

I think there has been a good amount of trailwork since I was last there.  The main trail was in good shape, and it seemed like it was harder than before.  Some rock gardens were rougher, some challenging obstacles seemed to have materialized from no where.

I haven't been riding as much as I would have liked, and this was a good reality check.  It was challenging in a way that tells me that I have room to grow.  I've been reading too many biking message boards and watching too many biking youtube videos.  To become a better mountain biker, I don't need a nicer bike, or different trails, or coaching.  Most of all I just need to practice.

Happy Holidays!

p.s. I'm not doing much skiing right now, because Tahoe is going through a dry spell.

Paragliding

This was a total surprise.  I had no idea this was going to happen.  For my Christmas gift, Eileen gave me a seemingly random packing list(ski helmet, hiking boots, mountain biking gloves, two jackets) and we drove out to a park behind some random neighborhood.  The only clues I had was that we were meeting some people there, and it may not happen that day.  Once we got there my best guess was that we were going LARPing, which I thought was hilarious.  Hey if Eileen had set it up, I would have LARPed.

As we were waiting by our car, someone else pulled up behind us and waved.  As soon as I saw the huge pack in their backseat, I knew what was up.  Eileen and I had previously found this really cool park called Mussel Rock Beach Park near Daly City.  And sometimes there are paragliders flying around.  The paragliders have these huge bags strapped to them.  And once I saw that bag, I knew what was happening.  Eileen completely surprised me with a tandem paragliding ride.

Once we met the instructor and signed the paperwork, we hiked up to the top of the hill.  The other instructor was already up there testing the winds.  I was strapped in, and we took off.  Once we were in the air, I turned around said "Hey, I probably should have asked earlier, but what do I need to do to help land?".  It turns out landing was easy.  If the winds were stronger, we would have gone higher and maybe I could have taken the controls.  But instead we went back and forth over this hillside skimming the ground about 40 feet up.  Since we were so low, the margin of error is lower.  It was actually a very relaxing experience, and not an adrenaline rush like jumping out of a plane.  I found it really interesting to feel how the amount of lift was determined by where we were on the hillside.  I don't know anything about sailing.  But I'd imagine it was kind of like that.  You read the wind, and plot a course that takes you where you want to go, while simultaneously trying to stay aloft.

TODO: post some of the pics that Eileen has