Riding there is amazing. The terrain is diverse. One moment you're on hardpack; the next it's momentum eating sand. You might climb steep, loose gravel with a 15% grade, and then descend through a bone-shaking rock garden at 35 miles an hour. I was excited to get as much riding in as possible, because I can't imagine a better week of training.
It was my second year going out there. Last year, Orange Seal sent me out for work, but this year I was free to my own devices. I drove out with some friends I know through the Peddler, and we stayed at Rancho Topanga, a small but nice campsite about seven miles down the road from the main festivities.
On day one, we hit the Airport Trails and then the Dome Loop. There's a new trail there called Fresno Divide. It starts off with a pretty tough climb and then a long, rough descent. It's pretty fun.
On day two, we did the Rincon Loop. An old tire puncture that I'd plugged busted loose, and I had to nurse it a bit. It sealed back up, and we tore through the rest of the loop pretty fast. We took the new trail, and managed to cut off to the road. It deposited us on 170 where I took this.
That's the Rio Grande over to the right, and behind me is AJ from the Peddler and Paul and James from Mafia Racing.
On Saturday, I did my first IMBA Epic. It was actually epic, and AJ and I rode it together. One of his tires was losing air right from the start. Luckily, Richardson Bike Mart was out there wrenching, and they topped off his sealant for him. After that, we didn't have any more problems. A few miles later, we got to a sign that described two different routes. One was seven miles, but included a loose, 3/4 of a mile climb; the other was eleven miles without the climb. We decided to take the climb, and with that, we made up some time and caught the lead group on the ride. There were so many brutal climbs and gnarly descents, but I managed to keep the bike rubber side down (as opposed to last year when I cut my left shin to the bone). On the way out, we added the Dome Loop to make up for some of the miles we'd missed, and then we biked back to camp.
That final night, we went to Starlight Theatre for dinner. It's the central hangout spot for all the locals and during the Desert Fest, it sees lots of traffic. My buddy Paul and I split the Diego Burger. It's easily more epic than the epic route. With all the snacking we'd done at the campsite beforehand, it was still difficult to get through just half. Next year, I'll make sure I'm half starved before attempting to eat it.
Yes, it is as big as his head; that's not a trick of the camera.
Boo-yah.
And with that, we ended the trip. Another year at the Desert Fest an amazing success, though this year, it really went by too quickly. Hopefully, those miles did my legs some good, because next week is the Mellow Johnny's Classic.
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