So I got out the house by 8am yesterday. Not bad for daylight savings day after.
Hadn't been on any bike or trainer for nearly a week due to my newborn's sleep irregularities. So just heading up to the Henninger Flats gate had me feeling a little sore and unsure but I was out of the house and on my new bike so I just went with it.
Got to the gate for the first time. It was even closer than I imagined. I'd probably passed it once or twice at night without knowing it. I recorded my track with the Garmin but didn't keep track of my time to the gate. Not ready for that challenge yet. I floated down to the bridge. It was early but not so early as to beat all the hikers that get out there.
Having never been on the Henninger trail I was blown away that it was all so close to home. People I spoke to were nice. Even other MTB-ers were nice. Such a different vibe than I'm used to with road folk. I started making way up the trail to Mt. Wilson
but gave myself many breaks. I was more interested in just feeling the new bike and how it handled on it's native surface. It felt great. I continued grinding up the trail surface and found some parts to be slippery and also found I needed to pullover more than I expected. I did so taking in views and snapping some photos. Almost immediately the views give decent payoff. As I was climbing I did think now why would I not want gears for this? I was glad to have the triple up front. It gave me even more respect for single speeders and made me wonder why double ring crank sets were becoming the latest range if any significant climbing was involved.
Hadn't been on any bike or trainer for nearly a week due to my newborn's sleep irregularities. So just heading up to the Henninger Flats gate had me feeling a little sore and unsure but I was out of the house and on my new bike so I just went with it.
Got to the gate for the first time. It was even closer than I imagined. I'd probably passed it once or twice at night without knowing it. I recorded my track with the Garmin but didn't keep track of my time to the gate. Not ready for that challenge yet. I floated down to the bridge. It was early but not so early as to beat all the hikers that get out there.
Having never been on the Henninger trail I was blown away that it was all so close to home. People I spoke to were nice. Even other MTB-ers were nice. Such a different vibe than I'm used to with road folk. I started making way up the trail to Mt. Wilson
but gave myself many breaks. I was more interested in just feeling the new bike and how it handled on it's native surface. It felt great. I continued grinding up the trail surface and found some parts to be slippery and also found I needed to pullover more than I expected. I did so taking in views and snapping some photos. Almost immediately the views give decent payoff. As I was climbing I did think now why would I not want gears for this? I was glad to have the triple up front. It gave me even more respect for single speeders and made me wonder why double ring crank sets were becoming the latest range if any significant climbing was involved.
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| Awesome views even with the mediocre iPhone lens. |
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| Never realized this was in my own backyard. |
Not much more to say about my climb because I used the 1 hour mark as my safety net for which I would turn and go home. I got as far as a power pole with a pretty good view of the valley though I was clearly only at the start of this climb. I used it as my reference point for next time. I decided to call it for the day and see how the descent felt. I let a little air out of my tires before heading down to give myself some more tire contact.There were plenty of hikers on the way down so there would be no ripping around turns which wouldn't have been smart anyway. I tried to be friendly on the descent and said hello and excuse me as to create a good vibe between mtb-ers and hikers. Instead of recrossing the bridge to the gate I dove down into the Eaton Canyon trail and cruised all the way down to the parking lot at Altadena and New York. Man, that was fun. I could've done that for hours and thought my nine year old would like the descent through the canyon too. I was pleased to have the big ring for the ride home too so I could gain a bit more speed on the pavement. Also happy to be out on the mtb for all the road construction in the neighborhood.
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| Nice wide trails feed down the canyon. |
Once returning home I found myself pleased to see the coat of dirt all over my bike. Clearly the bike had been given an inaugural welcome and I couldn't wait to do it again. I rinsed the bike down. Made a few adjustments to stem height and lubed up the chain and pedals for the next go around. I see rain for Sunday's forecast which will be my designated day to do these outings but I found myself thinking about the painful climb up to the Flats and how I was going to get higher and faster in the coming year.
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| My Salsa El Mariachi |
One thing was made clear from the morning ride. I really missed mountain biking and I look forward to getting better at it.
