Long Holiday Weekend

Over the long holiday weekend, we were able to fit in a little bit of fun with my dissertation writing. I got the last portions of my lit review very close to submission to my advisor over the course of Saturday and Sunday which freed up Monday for a little bit of family fun.

The first thing that we did on Monday was to head out to Moorpark College to see the last day of the California Cup, an annual field hockey tournament that includes teams from both the US and abroad. This year included teams from as far as Argentina and Taiwan. Nuria was in heaven, running around yelling “Hockey, Hockey, Hockey!” as she saw each person walk by with their field hockey sticks. After spending a few hours out in the gorgeous weather, buying one flourescent pink and one flourescent yellow hockey ball for Nuria and a set of shin guards for me, we headed for home.

After lunch and getting Nuria to bed, I headed out for a quick mountain bike ride (zoomed view) that I was able to turn into my typical mini-epic that consists of Las Llajas Trail to Rocky Peak Fire Road and down the Chumash Trail. If you are interested, follow the two previous links for a few photos of the scenery along the route. The photos are all taken with my phone so please excuse the lack of sharpness in the images.

“But how was the ride?”, you might ask. Well, I like to say that “sometimes you beat the mountain and sometimes the mountain beats you.” Well, on Monday afternoon, I was on the receiving end of a mild beating by the mountain! The steep back side of the Rocky Peak fireroad turned into a little bit of a hike-a-bike section for me. The weather was perfect for my outing, not too hot and not too cold. But it still took a while to complete! I slept very well that night.

Another Simi Super Mini-Epic

Inspired by my mini-adventure last weekend, I thought that I would take another journey into the outback surrounding our home in Simi Valley.  However, this time I decided to modify my route a bit to make sure that I had enough energy to truly enjoy the experience along the Rocky Peak fireroad.  That did not exactly happen, but it was much less exhausting than my mini-epic last week.  I also had the advantage of being able to trade my custom Specialized S-Works Stumpjumper for the Specialized Hard Rock Sport that I rode last week.  My S-Works has been out of commission since I broke the chain and had to replace the derailleur in a mishap a few weeks ago.  Although I very much like my Hard Rock Sport.  After all, it is the bike that got me back into mountain biking after years away.  However, there is a reason that my endearing name for this red bike is “The Tank”!  The bicycle is solid and reliable, but relatively heavy.  Here is a look inside the turret of The Tank.  It is great to have it as a back up to the B-2 Bomber, my personally built S-Works Stumpjumper.  (Please excuse the quality of some of my camera phone photos) 

The two bikes are good in different situations and I like them on different rides for different reasons.  However, it cannot be denied that the B-2 is much more expensive than the Tank.  The Tank is good on fire roads and fairly flat off-road riding while The B-2 Bomber excels on the ultra-rocky downhills that I encountered on the descent of the Hummingbird trail on this, the second of my Simi Super Mini-Epics! 

This time I started out on the Old Santa Susana Pass Road instead of taking the energy-sapping trip up the small trail through Corriganville.  This part took a while but eventually I arrived back at the entrance to the Rocky Peak fireroad, the scene of my mini-epic of the previous week.  Instead of taking the Rocky Peak fireroad all the way to the Chumash Trail, I thought that I would check out the Hummingbird Trail down from the fireroad.  In theory this was an excellent idea, in practice it was not so hot!

From the top of the Hummingbird Trail, it didn’t look too bad.  It looked like a nice rolling trail down the side of the hill.  Little did I know that just over that rise, the trail becomes much more formidable in its descent down the side of Rocky Peak.  It was a good thing that I was on The B-2 Bomber with dual suspension and not The Tank with a single suspension!  I would have never made it down on The Tank!  The singletrack was littered with foot-deep rutts between large rocks as it snaked in and out of the native sandstone formations that cover the mountain.  The singletrack finally reaches the monolithic sandsone formations that dominate the midpoint of Rocky Peak.  As the trail snaked between and over these formations, sometimes requiring a bit of hike-a-bike, I encountered some impressive scenery that included caves and rock chutes.  As I cleared the stoney midpoint, I began to encounter a little bit more dirt than above as I reached more of the alluvium at the bottom of the hill.

This is not a trek that I would recommend to anyone but experienced mountain bikers.  In my attempt of this trail descent I wore knee and shin guards, elbow pads and a full-face bicycle helmet.  Even with my past experience to guide me I crashed 3 times on my descent.  With the padding I walked away with a few bruises, without the padding who knows what would have happened.  If you have the experience and plan to give this trail a shot be sure to wear at least Leg(shin & knee) guards (I use my old roller hockey shin/knee guards), elbow pads and a full-face helmet.

I hope that you have enjoyed the writeup as much as I enjoyed finishing my Second Simi Super Mini-Epic.  Hopefully you are a little less bruised by the whole journey than me! 

Super Mini Epic

This past weekend, I ended up riding a Mini-Epic mountain bike ride, if you want to call it that.  I originally only wanted to take a ride into Corriganville to see the end of a trail that I had only followed halfway up the hill toward the Old Santa Susana Pass Road. 

 So I headed into Corriganville, crossed the railroad tracks and headed east up the hill on a trail that runs through the cut toward the Old Santa Susanna Pass Road.  Emerging near the top of the the Old Santa Susanna Pass Road, I decided to head up the Rocky Peak Fire Road to see what was up there.  Following the fire road to the top at an altitude of approximately 2,600 ft, I passed the top of the Hummingbird Trail and continued along my way, by this time determined to make it to the Chumash Trail for my return trip home down the mountain. 

Once I got to the top of Rocky Peak, the trail flattened out and gradually began to slope down toward the north.  In this photo, I am looking back up the trail to the south.  The post marking the turnoff at the top of the Chumash Trail appears to have been repeatedly burned and cannot be read.  Luckily I ran into a nice couple that were just exiting the Chumash Trail onto the Rocky Peak fireroad and was able to confirm with them that it was indeed the Chumash Trail.  It was then just a couple mile descent that was rocky in a number of sections that required more than one dismount.  The trail winds down from the Rocky Peak fireroad through some very impressive scenery.

From the bottom of the Chumash Trail it was a ery uneventful descent on roads home.  The grand total of my mini-adventure was ~13 miles, not too bad for this weekend warrior.

Various Items from the Good Ideas to WTF…

I have come across a few different things over the last few weeks that either deserve a little bit of attention or I just wanted to share with the public.

From the Very Good Idea/Resource files:

 The first item pertains to cycling, one of my present passions.  Are you interested in cycling to work in LA but didn’t know enough about the routes or traffic to really feel safe doing so?  There is a program called Roll with It run through the C.I.C.L.E. (Cyclists Inciting Change through LIVE Exchange) that will set you up with a Bicycle Commuting Coach/Mentor to help you plan your route and to actually ride with you to work.  The program is free and is a good way to give bicycle commuting a try with the support of a more experienced cyclist.  You may find that you get to work faster and feel better once you get there than when you commute by car or SUV.  You will also be doing the city a favor by reducing traffic, smog and fossil fuels consumption.   If you are already bicycle commuter in LA, why not sign up to be a Mentor and help spread bicycle commuting across Los Angeles? 

From the Very Cool but WTF File:

KFC has earned the destinction of being the first brand to be visible from space.  Recently KFC built a corporate logo of Colonel Sanders near Area 51 in Nevada.  The 87,500 square-foot logo was constructed of 1 foot by 1 foot individual tiles and can be seen on Google Earth very clearly.  I first read about this on Amber Mac’s (from Call for Help on Canadian Tech TV) Webpage.  She links to her original source, complete with time-lapse video, here.  Very strange ambitions that some folks/companies have, but in some strange way, very, very Cool!

Update: It appears that the largest corporate logo seen from space may be the ReadyMix logo created on the Nullarbor plain of Australia in 1965.  Well, maybe the KFC logo is the first color corporate logo seen from space?

Santa Monica Mountain Rides

I thought that I would take the time to write an entry on the riding that I have been doing in the Santa Monica Mountains. All of my family, friends and colleagues have already heard about most of this ad-nauseum, but hey, there are more ears, or rather eyes, out there for me to talk to!

For the last couple of weeks I have been taking rides into the Santa Monica Mountains on the weekends. It is such a great escape from the urban life of Los Angeles. It is really just like being a kid again and going exploring for a few hours on the weekend. It is so close to home but feels so far away! I have previously mentioned some of my journeys in a previous blog entry but now have pictures to show for it. The first batch of pictures is from August 5th and was my first journey up into the Santa Monica Mountains by myself on my mountain bike via Brentwood. They give you a little bit of an idea of what it looks like up there and how quickly you can leave the urban sprawl behind. These photos were taken with my camera phone only about a mile or two into the Santa Monicas from the trailhead. In the first three photos, you are looking west down into Mandeville Canyon. While the fourth shows you a bit of the fireroad that comprises this section of trails and the fifth shows you the entrance to the Whoop-dee-doos just off the fireroad. On this particular day I did not get much further than the Whoop-dee-doos. I was still not used to the steep climbing and was beat by the time that I got a couple miles in.

A week later, on Aug 12, 2006, I decided to give it another go and try to get up to the Nike Missile site on the tip of San Vicente Mountain and back for my weekly ride. There are a few pictures from that trip hidden deep on our personal website. On this particular day I started on the Kenter fireroad and headed up the hill. As you can see in the first three photos, it was sunny but kind of hazy on this particular day. This time I did not stop at the Whoop-dee-doos on the way up the hill, I was on a mission to get to the top! So I proceeded up the fireroad to Canyonback, above the Mountain Gate ritzy housing tract and golfcourse, along the trail to dirt Mulholland and finally made it to the Nike Missile site on the top of San Vicente Mountain. There are some beautiful views from up there. You can see most of the LA Basin on one side and the San Fernando Valley on the other. Underneath you is Mandeville Canyon and off to the west is the Pacific Ocean.

After seeing all of these great sights, I was really hooked (you know fitness coupled with exploration can be an addictive combination!). So after my back had healed (I mentioned that I hurt my back in an earlier blog entry and it took the better part of August to heal), I decided to head back up into the Santa Monica Mountains again on Sept 2nd to see some new sights. Since I am trying to increase my fitness level, I decided that I was going to retrace some of my previous trips to try to meet up with a ride that was organized by the North Ranch Mountain Bikers. The ride was to leave from the south end of Reseda Blvd and precede to the Hub in the middle of the Santa Monicas. The group was supposed to meet at 9:00am at the south end of Reseda. I decided to ride in from the westside and started in from Brentwood a little later than I had anticipated at 8:30am. Needless to say, this didn’t leave me much time to get the 6 miles over the mountain! As you can imagine, I missed the group but kept on going until I reached the intersection of the Temescal Ridge Trail and Dirt Mulholland. At that point it was starting to get a little bit hot and I stopped for a few minutes and talked to a very pleasant man and woman that were also taking a break (it really is amazing how many pleasant people are in the Santa Monica Mountains on any given weekend). After an extended gab session about some idiots that they had run across smoking pot in the Santa Monicas earlier (really a stupid idea if you know anything about the ecology of Southern California, but then again pot-heads were never known for their brain cells!), I continued on the next 2 miles to the Hub. The Hub is a very interesting place. It is overlooked by a very interesting looking peak and consists of a signboard, a trashcan and a Porta-Potty. You can see the signboard behind my bicycle in this photo. At any rate, as I was taking a break in the shade of the signboard (the only shade around) I ran into another guy on a mountain bike and the organizer of the North Ranch ride that I had missed earlier in the morning! I then started the long 11 mile trip for home. I think that I bit off a little more than I could chew a little bit too late in the day because I was so hot and tired by the time that I made it back to the Nike site at the top of San Vicente Mountain that I had to sit down, eat and rehydrate for about 30 minutes before I could even begin to think about starting my trip back to Brentwood. Compounding the problem was the heat. In the Santa Monicas, you notice that there is NOONE left up on the trails after about 11:45am on a summer day. The only ones left up there are the folks like myself whose optimism is only outwieghed by their stupidity! At any rate after soaking my bandana and jersey in water, I made my way down the mountain and home.

I have not yet decided if I am going to repeat the trip a little bit earlier or whether I will try an alternate route. Wish me luck!

New Bike Shop

I threw my back out this past Thursday and could not go for any rides this weekend on the mountain bike. Kind of a bummer for me. I am really getting to like the Santa Monicas! There are so many trails to ride and so many different places to explore.

So instead of going for a ride, I visited a new bike shop here in West LA named Cynergy Cycles. They are located at the corner of 23rd Street and Santa Monica Blvd in Santa Monica near St. John’s Medical Center. The folks in the shop are really nice and took the time to talk to me as a person, something that we don’t see very often this day and age of big box stores. In fact, I have been boycotting Performance Bicycles ever since I was treated so poorly by their staff in the Santa Monica store over the course of a couple of visits. In fact, not only do I not shop there but I let anyone that will listen know that they should not shop there either! I guess when you are one of the largest volume cycling retailers in California, you can pick and choose who you are nice to! This negative criticism does not include all Performance Bicycle Shops. The Performance Bicycle in Ventura has always been great to me every time that I have gone in there.

But anyway, based on my good experience at Cynergy Cycles, if you get a chance, check them out. You might like what you find! I have a tick in my bottom bracket right now on my mountain bike and I think that I will be taking it to Cynergy to get checked out.

We’re Out

That’s right folks, the United States National Men’s Soccer Team is now officially eliminated from the 2006 World Cup in the group play phase.  After only scoring one goal (the second was an Italian own-goal) in the process of losing two games and tying one game in group play, the US team will soon be on their way home.  So much potential, and so little to show for it.  I guess that #4 world ranking in April and #5 world ranking in May can be kissed goodbye!  The most frustrating thing about this world cup campaign was the feeling that they were capable of so much more.  Even in the first game against the Czech Republic, you never got the feeling that they were being beat soundly as much as you got the feeling that they were just not executing and playing their own game. 
 
The team had a few defensive breakdowns over the course of the last three games but it really was their lack of any type of offensive production that really sunk their campaign.  They just did not score enough goals!  You can play defense as well as you would like but if you do not score any goals, the best that you can hope for is a tie!  GRRRR!  Frustrating.  I am a US Soccer fan and all it seems to get me is heartbreak after heartbreak.  I am a believer (they can beat good european sides!) but that just seems to make the heartbreak worse!  If I didn’t believe, I wouldn’t have this hope!  Oh well, there is always the next World Cup….

In the meantime, my two other teams, Spain and Germany, made it through the group stage and will continue in the tournament.  

Ever since I lived in Spain, I have been a Spanish soccer fan.  In the past, they have brought me almost as much heartache as the US soccer team.  They are perennial underachievers.  But this year looks like it might be their year to go far in the tournament.  

Ever since Claudia, I have of course been a German soccer fan.  Claudia and I have both spoken about the fact that the Germans seem to be a great tournament team.  They do poorly in between the European Championships and the World Cup, but once they get into either one of those tournaments, they get their act together and can beat any team in the world!  I think that they have a great chance to go far this year.  They will definitely beat Sweden and I don’t think that England can stop their offensive push.  

That’s all for now.  We will see if I am right or wrong very shortly!

The Tour of Angels

Yesterday, I took part in a GREAT event. I rode in the Volvo Tour of Angels, a fundraiser for the Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles. It is a bicycle ride through the streets of Los Angeles. The event included a rolling roadblock by the LAPD which meant that we didn’t have to stop for any stopsigns or traffic lights! Have you ever run a red light right in front of a police officer and had them do nothing at all? What is more, they even told us to do so! What a great experience.

There was an Advanced Ride and a Recreational Ride. I rode in the recreational ride that was about 35 miles and only had about 2000 feet of elevation gain, while the advanced ride was about 45 miles and included quite a large set of climbs in Griffith Park. It was really great to ride with over 1000 riders that were out there to have a great time riding their bicycles. There were road bikes, mountain bikes, tandems, parents towing children in bike trailers and sidecars, and kids on bicycles of their own. Cycling can be a very isolating sport and these group rides really put you back into the community of cyclists in Los Angeles.

Next up, the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition 6th Annual River Ride on Sunday, May 21, 2006. Maybe I will see you there.

The Men’s Basketball National Championship Game

Did any of you watch that game last night? It was not the best game that my Bruins have played. However, the officiating was negligent once again. The officiating in this year’s NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament has been TERRIBLE! And I am not just talking about a mistake here or there, it has been consistently bad from the beginning!

Last night was particularly bad if you are a UCLA Bruins fan. I am sorry, but Noah did not block all of those shots. At least three were fouls and at least one was trapped against the backboard! I am not trying to say that was the difference in the game (how could you do that when UCLA shot around 35% from the floor during the game), but the game would have been ALOT closer if they had been calling fouls on Florida for the same things that earned the Bruins fouls. Case in point, alot of over the back going on under the basket by Florida, alot of offensive charges with a shoulder into the defender by Florida, alot of chest bucking by Florida defenders whenever a Bruin would head to the hoop and, worst of all, alot of travelling was done by Noah throughout the game. The Bruins still should have made their shots but the officiating could have been alot better.

We at UCLA are very proud of our basketball team regardless of the result last night! They were awesome in the tournament and overcame great adversity throughout the year to win both the Pac-10 conference and the Pac-10 tournament. They were only picked for third in the Pac-10 at the beginning of the year. Boy, did they surprise everyone but the most faithful over the course of this past season. With this loss last night in the National Championship game, they should be really hungry next year. They are returning almost the whole team and you can bet that if they face Florida in next year’s tournament that it will look nothing like last night’s game! Bring on the recruiting, bring on the regular season and bring on the 2007 NCAA Tournament. The Bruins will be ready!!