Greetings, Loyal Team Seagal Fans. Today, Thursday, 4 Seagal Soldiers (Nico Toscani, Dr. Wesley McLaren, Shop Minister, and Yours Truly, Casey Ryback) pedaled their way onto the battlefield in hopes of entering into glorious battle. We are happy to announce that we all came out victorious. That's not to say there weren't a few close calls. Part of the trifecta today was to do some reconnaissance for the upcoming
Time Trial , and to also make up for the fact that we won't be able to participate with the surprisingly-well-received and possibly-going-to-be-well-attended
Aggro Trifecta. We all hope that the ride is well attended, because more people need to ride their damn bikes.
As I said, our glorious ride today was nearly cut short by a dramatic pile-up/over-the-bars incident involving Dr. Wesley McLaren and Shop Minister. Only a couple of minor cuts and one hard junk-racking. Good thing there was a Doctor present. It left the bikes like this:
We pressed on after completing about 1.25 laps and then headed straight for Matson Hill. We absolutely CRUSHED that hill, with very little out-of-the-saddle climbing. Considering the nature of that wall-like hill AND the fact that we're all on singlespeeds, that's pretty fucking good. It's nearly a given now, that the Matson Hill trail is better done counter-clockwise. We passed by the spot where Mr. Toscani has
this unfortunate incident, too.
Making quick work of all trails that lay before us is part of our job description. With that being said, we set our sites squarely on Klondike Park, and the trails that lie within. Oh yeah, we also stopped by the Judgement Tree to pay our respects (or do whatever you do at the Judgement Tree.)
Heading up Hogsback is a daunting task, but the trail was hooking up really well, and the droves of riders that show up for the Time Trial on Sunday will be pleased to see a gobs of buff trail surfaces like this one:
We played around on the teeter-totter for a bit, and then continued down to clobber Donkey Kong instead of feed him tacos.
Shop Minister:
Descending Hogsback is much more fun than climbing it, so we had to descend. Double Switchbacks? In the words of Arnold Schwarzenegger, No Problemo.
Here, Nico shows off his aero-tuck technique, which looks a little strange if you ask me:
We pacelined the shit out of that ride back to the cars.
-C. Ryback
In case you were wondering, our recorded mileage for this ride was 38 miles. That is with a route as follows:
-starting at the mound, riding the Hamburg Trail down to the Lost Valley Connector.
-Lost Valley connector down to the Lost Valley loop, where we turned left down the powerline strip and did a full clockwise lap.
-Right turn back down the powerline strip, where we took the singletrack over to the Lost Valley parking lot.
-Crossed 94 onto the Katy, rode Katy down to Matson.
-Turned right up Matson Hill Road, and then proceeded to do one counter clockwise loop, then came back to the Katy.
-Right turn down to Klondike where we turned right onto the gravel extension (across from the Klondike boatramp) and came over to the bottom of Hogsback.
-Climbed Hogsback, then rode over to do the loops on the west side of the park once, and then again on the way back. (Doubling over our tracks.)
-Road back over to Hogsback where we climbed up the asphalt path, and did Hogsback as a descent.
-Jumped back onto the little gravel connector which took us over to the Katy.
-Took the Katy back to the Hamburg Trail, where we turned left and climbed up to the mound.
