Murphy Mack's Mendocino Mountain Bike Madness - aka The M5

I just got back from this event. I just somehow stumbled upon it online a few months ago, and others already wrote about previous editions and posted better photos. Everything that the Superpro Racing web page advertised was true. If you love mountain biking on really (I mean really) good trails, in redwoods, with a group of friendly people, then you should regret you were not there (about 120 of us were).

The Woodlands Camp is a special place on its own, deep in a ravine about 10 miles east of Mendocino town. The surrounding areas have been explored and trails built by a group of local enthusiasts, who, for some unclear reason, want to share their secret with the rest of us and gladly guided us on their trails.

What the organizer's web page does not tell you is that besides three days of intense, absolutely fantastic riding, you will meet interesting people, mountain bikers who, for a change, won't try to impress you by "dude, sick lines, dude" speak, or long descriptions of their past races, or bore you by some other sort of shallow "sports talk". There were many very skilled riders who went out for all day hammer fests, even on medium rides the level of skills was high, but this was not a race and the first rule of group rides was that you were responsible for the rider behind you at every trail intersection (it worked).

Well organized, well supplied by quality food and adult beverages, laid back and super friendly atmosphere. As a surprise, there was a wedding ceremony under the big trees on Saturday night, and the women to be married had to walk down an isle made of people holding their bikes upright. Dancing party, more talking to interesting characters, more beer...

I came back very tired, but with knowledge that the mountain biking spirit (bike sprite?) is well and alive here and that I will be counting days to the 2015 M5. Thanks Murphy!

Uncharted (Morgan) Territory

The hills surrounding Pleasanton are visible from pretty much any place in tow. Besides "The Ridge", the horizon is dominated by Mt. Diablo and Morgan Territory to the north and east. I have ridden around and up to Diablo summit in 2011, all on pavement. This time, I was interested whether there was a trail connection between the two parks. Neither of the official park maps showed a clear connection (Morgan being East Bay regional park and Diablo a state park). Some online sources suggested there was a way, and a detailed trail map of Mt. Diablo confirmed it.

Bay Area, 21st Century

Gravel bike paths took me easily out of Pleasanton and into Livermore, where I crossed I-580 and within a quarter mile, the scenery changed from suburban sprawl to deserted ranch land. The flat roads continued for a bit more, then after a turn onto Morgan territory Road the climb started.

Climbing to the radio tower on the horizon

The climb felt easy and I was really enjoying the scenery. As the road twisted around canyons and grassy hills, views of the valley down west were revealed.

It looks like there should be caravans of camels on this picture, instead, I saw lots of cows, horses, three donkeys and an ostrich. I arrived at the park staging area thinking how easy the hill was. Here, while refilling water supplies and fixing a dragging rear rotor, I spoke with a road cyclist and racer, Vojtek, originally from Poland. He noticed my Beskidy Challenge jersey, and it turned out he used to be involved in that race and even worked as the course photographer.

 Here, the first paved section of the ride ended and I hit the dirt roads. These were smoothly graded fire road highways, with surprisingly good amount of tree cover for shade.

There were lots of absurdly steep short pitches, several fantastic descents and the views of double-headed Devil's mountain changed depending on the view angle.

 

 

 I came to an intersection where I could have continued along the high ridge, or drop steeply down towards Sulfur Spring trail. Despite my legs were turning into two columns made of mashed potatoes, I chose the downhill, knowing well that I would have to get back up, actually higher, on the slopes of Mt. Diablo.

Sulfur creek was dry as a bone and except a mud bog with lots of hoof prints and an empty structure, there was not much here at the canyon bottom, other than a steep road up. I climbed around a knoll where the views opened up briefly before dropping down again towards Old Finley Road.

Navigation was really easy, as every intersection was marked with a post and trail names. I guess Old Finley fire road runs along the boundary between the two parks, I took Oyster Point trail, which is on Mt. Diablo park land, and appears to be one of the few bike legal singletracks in the park. As such, it did not add much to the park trail quality reputation. It was steep and very rutted, forcing me off the bike often. I was spent by now and thought that a fire road would have been a better choice. Further up, the incline lessened somewhat and the trail surface improved and I was able to ride with something resembling a rhythm. As I climbed, the surrounding nature changed from grass, oaks and chaparral to sandstone formations and pines.

From where the singletrack ended, I had another 1.5 miles of climbing on a sandy fire road to the park road. The Diablo summit with its stone lookout tower seemed really close, but the idea of another 1500 or so vertical feet seemed really bad at this point.

The descent on South Gate road was a welcome change for my tired legs and I cruised down the hill thinking that the tough part was behind me. All downhill from here! Wrong, there were some more climbs on Blackhawk and the manicured developments around were not pleasing to look at. I thought how designed neighborhoods look like prisons to me, despite the luxury homes and expensive cars on the road. But there was an advantage to being back in civilization: a cold bottle of Gatorade at a gas station.
The final 7 or so miles on the Iron Horse trail could be described as the final push home while running on empty, except I got to talk to a fellow cyclist who used to work in Czech republic, ran a Prague marathon and cycled around the country. Chatting made the last miles go by quickly, and cold Pilsner never tasted better at the finish.

 

Ordinary life

Since moving to Pleasanton earlier this year, our life has taken on a new rhythm. I would almost say it is a routine now. This new routine does not include long miles in the saddle, thousands of elevation feet, and all day outings. It is not boring by any means, just the priorities got reshuffled. There is my new job and it is really my first priority. I feel there is a future in my projects and I like the company. And we also have fun on the job. A week ago, I have put together a modified itinerary, based on Steve Blanks' Hacker's Guide, to tour places around the Silicon Valley that played important roles in the semiconductor industry. At the times when DNA analysis is moving from optics to electronic detection devices, I thought this trip would benefit my mol bio team.

Palo Alto - Site where a vacuum tube triode was invented

HP Garage in Palo Alto

San Antonio Road in Los Altos, this sign in front of a defunct produce store marks where Shockley Semiconductors once was, a company that fathered all today's chip makers

The Museum of computer history in Mountain View

A recumbent bicycle loaded with computers and electronics. Why?

Although I run and ride less then in the years past, I do get outside and there are also new activities that take a good chunk of my time during the week. We go to Bikram yoga classes twice a week, that's three hours a week of sweating and trying our best to nail all 26 asanas. I do my upper body workout sessions, going through all my exercises takes over an hour and I try for 2-3 sessions a week. My morning or afternoon short runs around the Rec Center park are just a maintenance exercise, but help me deal with the steep trails around here. Once a while I venture into an unknown territory. On one of these exploratory runs, I ran through some hills where gold mines used to be, and a small amount of poaching lead to discovering a connector between XYZ trails and the Pleasanton Ridge trail.

After climbing here from the valley below, I am now on the "legal" side of the fence

Rewarding views of SF and Bay Bridge from the Ridge

Pleasanton Ridge trail system is well marked

Seven miles of trail exploration and I now have a nice loop mapped where the chances of meeting another person are slim.

Couple of weeks ago, I have joined a Meetup group for a Tuesday night ride around Lake Chabot, the ride leaves every Tuesday from Endless Cycles in Castro Valley and besides brisk pace and nice views of sunset, it has pizza and beer at the bike shop for post ride socializing.

I keep thinking about longer bike trips, rides and events and also spam a group of unfortunates, who at one point shared their emails with me, with ride suggestions, yet there are also bike rides that despite not being long or strenuous make me happy. Every Saturday, we put panniers on our bikes, ride to the farmer's market and then pedal home with the bags full of the best fruit and veggies in the world.

Living close to downtown, I can even grab the fat bike and show off on the Main Street! I feel like the Fat Pepper deserves to be taken off the rack once in a while and the ice cream is a great motivation for a 2 mile ride.