Damp Soil and a bunch of followers

What the hell does that title mean.
No, not that I'm the ride leader and that you will be following me around - not even close.
OK, so clearly you know about the rain and its impact on dust but what do I mean by a bunch of followers.

Let's have a look below at the nifty little chart of our blog and today's activities.
Apparently we have 106 page views today (probably 3 people hitting refresh over and over) and 41 followers.  I bet all those followers and viewers are dying for a post.  Actually, probably not.  I'm probably doing this just for me and a few other dorks.

And now, those 3 other dorks are really bummed about this not-so-ride-related post.

As bitter as I am about missing the CBCCFT3 night last week, I'm still in tonight.

One!

The End of FT3

For the record, when I signed in the FT3 blog had 69969 page views. Kind of stirs the imagination.

To recap some late breaking news, Xteric prepared the following ride report.

The Echo to Echo Cappy birthday ride report goes like this: Start at Echo Summit,

drop some radness, then climb some radness,

then drop more rad,

then climb some smokey goodness,

then shred some twisty, big air, rain laden sickness.

From Meyers we traveled up our own private paved highway

while we enjoyed "one extra ounce"

until we arrived safely back on top of Echo Summit.
Full set here:


Tuesday Report:
Noob and I pulled into the Lot and found B --fully kitted, waving a flag off the Element's tailgate. Pulling in, Partial Credit got forced into a corner of the lot by a pair of ducks that didn't care if he was driving a truck. In spite of a relatively early Xteric arrival and Spawn pedaling up punctually, we still didn't bust out of the Knott Lott especially quickly. Mother Rye bid us out and urged us to hurry back, there would be special treats waiting. We gasped, "Could it be the Chickenbake Chimichanga?!?"

Spawn dutifully lead us on a hard charging ride along the less traveled routes out to a high spot on the Park Creek ridge where we could see the glow of the distant King. Then we bombed down a bulldozed fireline. The pulverized clay soil collected in drifts, some shin deep. We stopped abruptly, turned around and walked back up, stumbling through slash. The dust meter recorded a maximum visibility of 3.14 feet. Once on route, we ripped it back to the Knott as fast as we could.

It may have taken an hour to get kitted, but we unkitted in about 5 minutes. The mood at the bar was one of relief and festivity after the tension of impending doom that loomed over last week's tacos. While rye pours were still deep in their glasses, the first chickenbake chimichangas emerged from the tacohole. Fortunately there were three, which were evenly split into six. After spreading the salsa around, Xteric cut and passed. Miraculously no one tried to snatch the whole tray from the rest of the pack. The next hour or so is a blur of gastronomic bliss. We picked at our courtesy tacos while waiting for another of the crispy shells that were perfect for pouring sauce onto the creamy chickenbake and scarfing. With a jalapeno ring still stuck on his face Credit collapsed onto the table. Surrendering to digestion, we were profoundly melancholy. After noshing chickenbake chimichangas, what was left to achieve in life?

Back outside we solemnly burned our kits. We are no longer FT3. We are now FTCHICKENBAKECHIMICHANGAT.

Silver Lake LRP

The FT3 Hike A Bike Club carpool parked at the end of Dangburg Road in Kirkwood. After some spirited pedaling we quickly got down to business, dismounted, and pushed our rigs up the steep switchbacks onto Thunder Mountain Ridge.

Xteric surveyed the expansive landscape. This ride would take him deep into uncharted territory (since he totally stood us up last time we did the ride).

At one point I noticed a slow leak in my rear tube. Unfortunately, two weeks ago Newb used up all of our 9er tubes and Xteric and I only had 26 inch tubes and B only had a cross tube. The 26 inch tube worked fine.

When Horse Thief Spring was dry, we realized water might be a problem. Some moto guys filled up two of our bottles. But by the time we had ridden down Hungalelti (Squaw) Ridge to Long Valley, then back to Allen Camp, the talk was about how wonderful it would be to get to Plasse's.

Hungry and thirsty, we rolled up to the restaurant. I immediately started filling up water at the spigot. B went inside to check out the scene. He came back out, so excited his voice squeaked. I followed him in and saw a buffet table heaped with steaming dishes. Just as I started choking on my drool, B broke the bad news. He was told it was a private party. And the store was closed. Back outside I started crying quietly in the corner. A moment later the owner came out and apologized. His maintenance staff hadn't told him that it was FT3 who wanted to join the party. Of course we could come in and help ourselves to as much food as we wanted. Which we did. For free. And it was amazing.

In the interest of making it to the River Shack party, we skipped some single track and beat it back to the truck.

Wedding March Revisited

Last week I arrived at the Knot Lot to find Green Fro there early and ready to roll.  He was strapping a rake to his bike.  It turns out that GF had 3 such rakes with him for the intended purpose of grooming the wedding march back into her old time glory.

On the heels of the TS100, Mr. Fro was thinking that some of the riders would be sore and tired and appreciate a more mellow ride.  I don't know how they actually felt about the shorter rider or tired legs, but I loved the effort and idea so I quickly strapped a rake onto my ride and we headed up the hill.  Our group made quick work of the trail and had the last upper section nearly down to dirt in short order.

I can say that Wedding march is really back to her old glory again or as close as anyone can recall in recent memory.  After the trail work, which ended just about the time we needed to turn lights on, we stashed the rakes up Park Creek road near the gate and headed back down to the top of Wedding March.  This was the first top to bottom wedding march for me in what seems like 3 years.  Thanks GreenFro for the great idea and execution.

While it feels like a Monday, it is definitely Tues.  I'm riding.

One