Monday, 05 July 2010
As predicted, the luck ran out, and the weather deteriorated over the long Independence Day weekend. The overnight rain on Sunday dissipated, leaving hot sun and blue clouds on Monday morning, but as ride time neared, the rain clouds slowly built, dumping localized downpours in random areas. Jeff, Sara, and the rest of the surf crew were off-island, and Ckucke and JT had other commitments, so that left Chris, Root and me. Driving out to Waimanalo, the Keolu area was socked in under an evil grey cloud. A light drizzle fell as I passed the stable. The trailhead was dry, but another evil could was on approach from the sea to the East. There was blue sky directly windward of the trail, so we lucked out and the rain missed us.
Chris had talked to some hikers exiting the trail who had done the whole Demon trail, and they said the Eastern extent of the trail was dry. On starting the climb, we found the anticipated dry (albeit heavily leaf-strewn) conditions. At the Ditch junction, there were some Deutsche speaking trail pedestrians taking a break, so we continued all the way up to the side loop turnoff before we stopped for a break so as not to freak them out any. For the most part, the conditions were about the same as last weekend – firm and grippy under the tree canopy, and dry and hard in the open. No muddy spots at all. After climbing out of the side loop, we turned back uphill and went out on the Ditch. On the first dusty right, we nearly ran into a pair of trail walkers – an older clean-shaven (including head) Asian dude and a young Caucasian girl. They were both dressed rather JDM-style, which was weird. Oddly, we never ran into the equestrian couple we normally see out on the trail.
After a rest at the inner loop entrance, we rode up a little ways to look for the top end of the little singletrack Jeff and I saw last weekend coming down into the second switchback outbound. From seeing the beginnings of a line being cut from the ground-level stunt trail, I had somewhat of an idea that the new singletrack came from that area. After rolling through the weird stunts, we turned down the suspected left and wound down several off-camber traverses and switchbacks to meet the line toward the bottom. There was apparently another way down that started further up than we started. Maybe next time we’ll find it. There was no real joy in the new line, so we may not even bother looking.
Rejoining the Ditch, we continued out and did the normal loop up to the big tree, where a couple of enduros went through, looking at us like we were the ones out of place. Instead of dropping through fat guy, we climbed up to the ironwood hill and dropped back to the Ditch through the back door. Even this area was the most exposed to the incoming rain over the weekend, it was still dry to the point of being dusty. The return leg was quiet and uneventful, with no random encounters. I was dragging a little on the final leg. I had neither the inspiration nor the energy to engage the big ring. Maybe it was the fat new tires dragging me down. Probably just too much off-time between Wednesday and Monday spent not riding. Our brief final stop back on the road was cut short by a pair of dog walkers coming down from the top. We took off for the gate before they arrived so we wouldn’t have to pass them on the way down and freak them out.
Pictures here
D = 12.89 km (8.01-miles), Vavr = 12.2 km/h (7.6-mph), Vmax = 36.2 km/h (22.5-mph), T = 1-hour, 3-minutes
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