Crowded

I never saw so many people out at the Ditch.

When we met at the trailhead on Sunday morning for a quick spin, the parking area was full. Chris wondered if Xterra or something was coming up, though we didn’t see anyone who really fit the flailing triathlete profile out on the trail. Almost immediately, a lady with a helmet came out through the gate. She didn’t have a bike, which confused me. Was she just a clumsy hiker? Later as we were heading in, she went in to retrieve her bike that she had left just inside the opening in the fence. Her riding companion had finally arrived at the bottom of the trail and was expousing her learned wisdom on the Maui shark attack victim from Germany. Just as we were starting the climb, a pleasant lady sand her two pleasant dogs also began the trail.

Getting a morning start at least made for cool conditions on the climb up Government road to the side loop entrance. I guess it was a testament to the returning state of conditioning that we were able to do the whole climb in one pitch. It wasn’t easy, but it wasn’t dreadful like last time. Along the climb, there was a bunch of pink ribbons coming over a drop on the right halfway up, along with a rock unceremoniously spray-painted pink. As this didn’t look like a rideable entrance or exit, it was probably the trail running crowd who did this. At the entrance to the side loop, there were more pink ribbons and paint. One of the ribbons was labeled with some number. While we were examining the markings, an unfriendly dude popped out of the side loop and continued up Gov’t. road. I guess he’s one of that demographic that thinks the side loop is an uphill trail and those horrible switchbacks cut at the descent off the first traverse are a good idea.

Several meters into the side loop, there were more ribbons at the finger leading down off the first right turn, and the trail there was heavily trafficked. The vegetation was either groomed or trampled down and the surface seemed to be cleared of things that would trip two-legged users. Reaching the lower traverse, we ran into all kinds of pink ribbons between the left turn that marks the bottom of the finger trail from the top traverse and the rock-up. The runners had made all kinds of loops and side trails from the finger to the lower traverse. Just so long as nobody widens the trail or increases the headroom to the point that horses can get in, everything is good I guess. I do miss that hateful log at the sharp right turn on the lower traverse and the proper downhill line that was obliterated by the switchbacks. I’ll never stop griping about that.

While we were snacking at the Ditch junction, some doesn’t-look-both-ways-before-he-crosses-the-street guy came blasting out of the trail on a younger version of Root’s bike. Heading out along the Ditch, we bumped into dog-walking lady. Some random guy dropped in behind Root when I stopped to pet one of the dogs. I kept on him in big ring, just close enough to make him nervous and keep him making quick glances back. At least two of the times he looked back were at the tops of little ascents, where I was usually aired out and crossed up for maximum pressure benefit. Chris and Root realized it wasn’t me behind them and stopped to let an oncoming group pass, and let mystery guy go on ahead. Chris though It was the grumpy old fart, but I thought it was someone younger. The oncoming group was another bunch of old timers like us, and Chris recognized one of them. The second guy on an ancient Mongoose flatly said, “two more of us coming,” and the first thing that came to my mind was, “clones!” We would eventually meet up with them again going in the opposite direction later in the ride.

Motoring along at a fairly good clip, I started ringing my bell, just in case. The sound of a helicopter above and some terrain considerations took my attention away from the bell, so of course on the next turn there HAD to be horses! I stopped as quickly as I could and pulled right, and the first horse did a nose-wheelie. The equestrians were rightfully upset, but not angry. I switched from bell ringing to shouting before turns. This worked out better, as when we met the horses on the return leg, the horses had heard us long before they could see us.

Slightly before the normal turnaround, we turned into a side trail that wandered between the upper and lower trails. Unlike the aimless trail we had gone on above the upper trail the last time, this one was much more rideable, but still had several pointless up-then-down-then-up-again turns. There were some entertainingly challenging terrain features near the end, like a limbo log followed by some log-overs. Unlike last time, I didn’t feel ripped off having expended the extra effort to ride the new trail, and I didn’t damage any hardware.

Returning to the rest stop, we climbed up along the old doubletrack and the abandoned stupid ground-level plank platform runs. Again, though heinous, the climb wasn’t as bad as any of the climbs last time felt. The inner loop still appeared to be used, but there was a lot of large deadfall, pig diggings, and trail runner ribbons. It was like the trail runners set up a maze of intersecting trails almost oblivious to the existing trail network. Above the rock garden, a large albizia tree fell, knocking major branches off an adjacent albizia. The main trunk was actually nearly at ground level, so with a bit of work to prepare a ramp up to it and a clear sortie off of the bottom, it can be turned into a rideable stunt. There were also some large deadfalls within the rock garden, so not all of the boulders could be ridden, and some could not be ridden the same way. Someone had moved the rickety bridge to become a ramp up to a boulder, but the roll-out was not in line rendering the effort pointless. We made the two ascents and intervening dip with surprisingly little suffering, then dropped through the lauae ferns to the main trail, only to double back and climb back up the finger to do the rockface drop in. We passed an older couple twice going back around, and saw them again at the trailhead.

On the grind back out, my legs weren’t as depleted as last time, but the seat was definitely taking its toll. We reached the trailhead around noon, so packing up and loading up bikes was at the hottest part of the day, leaving me with a touch of a headache.

D = 10.93 km (6.79-miles), Vavr = 11.4 km (7.1-mph), Vmax = 28.6 km (17.8-mph), T = 57-minutes (about two-and-a-half hours total trail time)

GPS says 8.9 km (5.5-miles) Other data not available (oops!)

Pictures here.