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.