Fort Ord

Mud Otter 2007

April 13 and 14, 2007

I've been dying to go to the Sea Otter Classic in Monterey for a long time. I've heard so much about it. Since I wasn't prepared to race, I decided to do the "fun ride," or MTB Tour. I took the day off Friday an drove down. Before going to the Expo area, I had to register for the MTB Tour, in a long line of racers. I got to put a tag on the front of my bike for the 20 mile fun ride.

The Expo was interesting. I met all sorts of folks, including a group that runs a mountain bike tour of Bend, Oregon (ooo.. a new state to bike in!), some decent eats (vegetarian food today, it was plenty hot). The cool thing was running into some folks I haven't seen in ages. It was still just bizarre seeing all the people there for mountain biking.

I signed up for a skills clinic, but that didn't start until later in the afternoon, so I watched the jumping contests. Fortunately, Tony had some great pics that he took.

I had signed up for the Women's only bikeskills.com. Tara Llanes was the instructor, and since there were a lot of folks in the class, Joe Lawwill joined us. What was cool was following Joe's lines downhill. I sure could learn a lot from him. The class was very basic, but I met some cool folks and saw lots of sheep on the trail.

At first, the sheep didn't seem so close, but then getting across the trail became a bit of a challenge. Ironically, I really thought we were on the Goat Trail (Trail 41). One of my classmates was cool--she's a co-owner of a bike shop up in Oregon, Bike Newport.

After the class, I hung out with a bunch of folks from Mere Mortals and some other guests before retiring for the night. Looking at the pictures from the first day, you're probably thinking why the headline Mud Otter? Well, Saturday was completely different. My roommate Anne-Marie spent a considerable amount of time arguing with a non-functional coffee pot before her race at 8am. After I got up, I drove to the trail with some common sights.

The women's only class was an unexpected 6 mile ride yesterday, I wasn't going to even try to the 20 mile today. Fortunately, the 10 mile was an option. However, I was still worried about my fork, and before meeting up with the Ventana guys, the folks at SRAM were nice enough to rebuild my fork (warranty issue). It wasn't going to be done in time for me to start with the tour group anyway, and it was starting to look like a true Sea Otter. While i was waiting, I even got to pose with the Otter.

At the start of the ride, we caught up with Gary Fisher, who I thought I would have been impressed with, but I wasn't. Sherwood, Aaron, Leah (a non-Ventana riding Mere Mortal) and the other Ventanaphiles were much more impressive and fun. The views in Ft. Ord are always beautiful, no matter what the weather is like.

After Aaron and I finished clearing the climb, we met up with the rest of the gang and then it poured. Unfortunately, at this time, my front brake went completely out due to a bad brake line, and the next downhill section (which looked like a lot of fun), I had to walk. But, it was definitely a good thing for someone, because I found their GPS. That, and it gave Leah and I some time to chat and walk together.

Unfortunately, after this point, there was significantly more hiking, more rain, and very frozen legs, hands, and fingers, so we just finished the ride and got back to the Ventana booth to clean up.

Planet Ord

April 15, 2006

Ugh, still rainy. Still cold. And it's freaking April. I was hoping to try to make it to Sea Otter last weekend, but I just couldn't motivate myself. However, the weekend after there was a big MTBR ride with a D level ride! Yay! :-)

We started up the wet asphalt and out the trail. It's something to be on a ride with 40+ people. I couldn't believe how amazing it is to see so many folks going up the trail. In the D group, we all started with everyone else with the other (faster) groups. We continued uphill until we all reached a stopping point to wait up for some of the other folks. When the rest of the folks caught up with us, we were on our way. On our way up, you had to watch out for the people-eating shubbery. One of them attacked me, but no harm done. The nice thing is this section was good and tacky. We reached a big open area before continuing on more tacky singletrack. The worst part of Ft. Ord is it's really easy to get lost and all the trails are numbered and very few are named. The next section was really nice because it was a gradual climb before heading downhill. This section was great. A nice swoopy singletrack ribbon of fun. What amazed me is some of the views in Ft. Ord. You could see crags in the rocks, and even at one point presented us with a technical section. Being on a new bike kinda hurt my confidence, so I volunteered to take pics instead. After this section, all the ride groups convene at the same point, and we take a break before separating. The next trail we reached was a fireroad. No big deal, until you realize it's too steep for any mere mortal to climb. Ugh. We all hiked our bikes to the top of it. The views were nice, but it was even more fun to shoot down :-) When we hit a crossroad, we all had to check the map. This is a confusing place, and it helps to have a tour guide or two. The other thing I discovered that some of the trails that were fun to go down and not as much fun up (espeically after mile 10). Because I climb at the speed of a moving trackstand, Larry had gotten pictures of me climbing. After we continued out, instead of going back to the cars right away, we explored some of the other short trails. some of which circumvented a lake. When we got back (17 miles later), man we were sore. However, we didn't go as far as the A, B, or C groups, and we got to see them return, as well as enjoy a bite to eat before heading back. Route taken: I wish I knew. Too many trails with numbers. Thanks to Larry for the pictures.