Californication

The first hurdle one needs to overcome to participate in events such as the E100 is making it in time to the starting line. That worked out pretty well, and armed with my helmet mounted Jet Lite (6am in Park City is 5am in San Francisco and it is quite dark) I waited for Boris to count down… “five, four, zree, two, one, go!” and off we went.

The first mile was a steep climb on a fairly loose dirt road - I went too hard at the start and knew it when my heartrate didn’t want to go down. Or was it the elevation? Anyway, things didn’t improve on the narrow, twisty and rooty singletrack climb known as John’s (or John 99, I’m not sure), where I still tried to go too fast - you’re concentrated on the guy in front of you and feel the pressure from behind. Pointless trying to go too hard the first 4 miles of a 100 mile course but I couldn’t help it. I could get some breath and assess the damage once John’s was done and we got on Mid Mountain trail, where there was plenty of space for things to thin out. I felt like crap, and blamed it on elevation and not properly warming up.

But watching the sunset on the ‘rolling’ sections of Mid Mountain was quite a treat, and soon I was finally enjoying myself - the trails are really nice here. Holly’s Downhill was even nicer, though at some point my Garmin 305 launched off my handlebar (damn plastic latch) - thanks to a friendly fellow racer I got it back. I took a brief break at the end of the first stage (mileage was 20) and went up Holly’s Uphill. Tough climb, but I felt strong - even better on that rolling section of Mid Mountain that we now took on in the other direction, and I kinda really liked the rocky climbing section of it. A long and fun downhill later we got back to our original starting point.

Stage 3 now - we needed to do this one twice. A long and brutal singletrack climb, for the most part along a trail called Spiro. Spiral of Pain, as I started calling it, since we were lined up to do this not twice but three times, no four times, as stages 4 and 5 ‘borrowed’ this climb as well. Upon reaching the top of the climb in stage 3 I expected a cool descent during which I could recover nicely - enter John’s again. Remember the root infested climb in the beginning? We would now do this downhill, and it was a slow and tricky affair through a labyrinth of beautiful aspen that demanded a lot of concentration. I normally love this stuff, but 50 miles into the race I started getting worn out.

I was still on schedule though for a timely finish (in an estimated total of 13 or so hours). That changed a bit during the second coming of stage 3 as I felt miserable during the whole climb and wiped out somewhere in the Labyrinth of Aspen when my handlebar clipped a tree. The fast guys were lapping me now and it was pretty cool to hang for a few seconds with the likes of Chris Eatough and Josh Tostado. Hell, I technically even did better than Tinker Juarez, who quit during stage 2 or 3, supposedly because he missed a turn and got lost.

Getting thoroughly wasted, I rolled into the staging area again, trying to mentally prepare myself to tackle the Spiral of Pain another time. If I did reasonably well on the climb, I could still make the cut-off time (6pm) for the last stage (which was basically a repeat of stage 4). Various body parts were hurting like hell now, I’ll spare you the details but let me tell you that I felt things I hadn’t experienced on a bike before, and they weren’t of the type you’d like to keep fond memories of. I managed to drag myself up the Spiral of Pain again, but did I mention that stage 4 would ascend a good thousand feet higher up on it than stage 3? And this extra part turned out to be nothing less than soul crushing - I basically stalled and had to take more breaks than I could keep track of.

But I used these to shoot some photos and take in the stunning surroundings and beauty of the course. It took me forever to summit, but I finally did and savored the moment. It was already past the cut-off time now and I still had to do the 10 mile descent. I probably had to give up on stage 5 - as Morrissey would say ‘it made me feel slightly sad but I didn’t cry’. The downhill was great, but I couldn’t fully enjoy it, I felt so beat up that I hardly had the energy to absorb the highly entertaining ‘whoop-de-doo’ bump series along the way.

That last passage in the staging area felt good though and soon I was chatting with Boris and a couple of finishers. 81 miles and 12000 feet of climbing - I’ll have to return here next time to get the job finished. The organization of the event was excellent and the course to die for, so no doubt I won’t need much convincing.

As usual, more stuff on the MTBGuru trip page here.

Ik schrok mij bijna een ongeluk toen ik overlaatst wat aan het zappen was en ineens het onderstaande beeld zag verschijnen, vergezeld van een mij niet geheel onbekend klinkend stemgeluid dat zowel gezang als commentaar aan het leveren was, in een thick flemglish accent (enfin, zo erg was het accent eigenlijk niet).

Helmut Lotti in Amerika! En eigenlijk ook in Rusland, aangezien hij onder meer zijn ‘Russische’ CD aan het promoten was. Uitgenodigd door het publieke station KCSM (en ingeschakeld in een van hun ‘fund drives’ - een soort bedelsessies waarin kijkers en luisteraars gevraagd worden vrijwillig een steentje bij te dragen). Eens kijken wat KCSM vertelt over Lotti:

Crooner is the word used for a male singer who specializes in a smooth, even intimate, style of singing - primarily songs of love. Backed by the Golden Symphonic Orchestra, Lotti lends his versatile voice to renditions of favorites made popular by artists like Nat “King” Cole, Louis Armstrong and Dean Martin.

…Lotti recalls the Italian flair and easy manner of Dean Martin

Hier kan Eddy Wally een puntje aan zuigen! (Hoewel die natuurlijk in Sina is geweest…)

Voor een peulschil kan u overigens dit aanschaffen:

Toch als u meer croon-tolerant bent dan ondergetekende…

A couple weeks ago, PARC’s Forum speaker was Dale Dougherty - known and rather famous as co-founder of O’Reilly Media and founder and publisher of Make magazine. He supposedly also was the first to coin the term ‘Web 2.0′. His talk was mainly about Make magazine and its companion publication Craft (it can be watched or downloaded here).

To me however, Dougherty is mainly the guy behind the legendary Global Network Navigator (circa 1993-94), the first index site or portal of the then proto-web, when the animals were still talking and people were using Mosaic to browse the net. The ‘Whole Internet Catalog’ section of the site (based on an early O’Reilly bestselling book of the same name) in particular was very useful as a search tool (Yahoo would only be founded a year or two later) - we nicknamed it ‘Den Baard‘ during my brief stint at Imec back in ‘94, because of the hairy alchemist/scientist on the cover:

It’s been forever since I posted but I’ll make up with a very long one - about a very long ride.

The Plan

I went up to Tahoe the other weekend with a plan: circumnavigate the entire lake by bike, on trails, as much as possible. Bikes are only allowed on parts of the Tahoe Rim Trail (TRT) and some sections on paved road would be unavoidable.

My planned route: South Lake Tahoe to Tahoe City by road, then up the Tahoe Rim Trail to Brockway Summit, road to Kings Beach and Incline Village, road climb up to Mount Rose / Tahoe Meadows, TRT to Flume trail, North Canyon road to Spooner Lake, TRT to the Bench and Kingsbury, followed by the section of the TRT known as ‘The Punisher’ (Monument Pass to Star Lake and Armstrong Pass), to Big Meadows and back to South Lake.

I’d try to do it solo and unsupported (except for Starbucks breaks), in a day-and-a-half, and I wanted to camp out in the wilderness so I’d need to lug quite some stuff along. My original route proved to be a bit over-ambitious as you’ll find out, but I did manage to close the loop (didn’t have much choice, actually…).

South Lake to Tahoe City

Driving up to Tahoe on a Friday in mid-summer was my first challenge – after some traffic trouble I finally got ready to roll some time in the late afternoon. Besides the normal biking stuff I also had to carry the camping gear – lightweight pad and sleeping bag, camping stove and food were shoved in or attached to my backpack and I felt like a snail on my Yeti those first couple of road miles. But after a while I got somehow used to it, and was starting to enjoy the beautiful scenery and rolling roads around Emerald Bay.

Twenty five miles later I made it to Tahoe City and had my first major stop: water refill, a quick chill out near the beach. Then it was time to hit the TRT for the first time, but it was fair to say that the TRT hit me instead – going north out of town the trail climbs up steeply, gets very rocky and at some point turns into a mere trace through piles of stones and scree. It was as if the entire mountain was made of loose rocks.

Counting stars

I made it through but it took a lot out of me; luckily there was a short but sweet downhill break before the climbing ensued. It was getting late (past 8pm) and darker, so it was time to set up camp. I found a nice spot in a corner behind some big rocks with a lake view – that would do. I got out the camping stove to cook up dinner – on the menu was ramen noodles and soy beans, truly a balanced meal! But a real relief after the diet of power bars and goos from the past couple of hours. I didn’t have a tent, and I didn’t think I’d need one, until I got bugged my mosquitos – I was far from standing water and thought at this elevation there wouldn’t be a problem but either I was wrong or I’ve managed to find the one spot in the area popular with the buggers. Anyway, at least I didn’t run into a bear, and watching the stars and near-full moon illuminating the lake was an eerie experience.

To Brockway Summit

The next morning, after a pretty sorry excuse for a good night of sleep, it was to time to get rolling again. I started the day with some more technical climbing – instead of my usual double shot of caffeine. A slow-motion uphill stumble and fall didn’t improve my mood. But the very sweet descent towards Watson Lake did.

Meanwhile, I was running out of water – this side of the Tahoe basin seems really dry, no streams with running water to be seen (perhaps the mountains on this side are too low in elevation to have any snow melt left). I finally arrived at Watson Lake, but found the water there look rather disgusting. I poured a some in my water bottle with built-in filter but the iodine didn’t really make it taste very appetizing. So I took out the stove again and started boiling some water, and added a tea bag – the cooked water/tea went into my Camelback and have to say was rather tasty.

Some more technical climbing and I was worried about how it was wearing me out – was it the altitude, the lack of sleep, the heavy load? Not a good sign, as this was just an appetizer for all the climbing that was still to come. A low speed endo in one of the downhill rock gardens didn’t help to lift my spirits either – I only ended up with some bruises, nothing broken – except for the latch that kept my saddle bag in place (nothing that zip ties couldn’t fix). The rest of the downhill to Brockway felt great though, and soon I was cruising on the road into King Beach and later Incline Village.

Flume trail

Starbucks break and decision time. The thought of having to tackle the 12 mile road climb on the Mount Rose highway to Tahoe Meadows was weighing on me: it was hot, I felt not too great already and it would be a soul-crushing boring affair with cars and trucks flying up the road inches from me. There was an alternative: climbing the Tunnel Creek dirt road up to the Flume trail; I would have to miss one of my favorite sections of the TRT but wouldn’t have to deal with the Mount Rose Highway Hell.

So I went up Tunnel Creek: 2.5 miles for about 1400 feet of elevation gain: how bad can that be? Answer: very, very bad! Tunnel Creek is steep but more importantly: very loose. Last time I went down this trail I didn’t quite appreciate the latter fact. The loose sand all over the place makes climbing it in the mid-day heat a death march from hell. Maybe the Mount Rose option would have been better after all. Oh well. Just keep going and it will be over at some point. As soon as I hit the Flume trail, my worries went away: this five mile stretch was all I needed now: really relaxed cruising, with jaw-dropping scenery all along the way. The biggest hurdle were the shuttle people coming from the other direction, but everyone was friendly and enjoying themselves and what else can you on a place like this?

Climb to The Bench, descent into Kingsbury

After the Flume, there is Marlette Lake, then a short climb and a long descent to Spooner Lake. Another refueling station for me as there is water and a bike shop selling power bars and goos. After my lunch break, it was time to take on another major challenge: the five mile climb up the TRT to the Bench – when I last did this a while ago, I was relatively fresh and not carrying so much stuff, and still I remember it to be quite painful. Now, it felt like a mind-numbing test of willpower. For every hard section or rocky turn I managed to clear, there were two more that forced me to hike. It was an ordeal, but I concentrated on the great descent I knew was in store for me after that, and struggled through it.

The final stretch

After having taken in the gorgeous vistas near the Bench, it was time to take on the rocky goodness of the descent into Kingsbury. It was great fun, but the short climbing intermezzos that I usually don’t even notice, were hurting and stinging like crazy – I was getting really worn out. I then took the ‘Kingsbury Stinger’ downhill trail, but couldn’t muster the courage to even consider tackling The Punisher after that, so I cruised back into town.

I still had to ride about 12 road miles to the car, but was delirious because I knew I had closed the loop: 95 miles total, of which 65 miles this second day. An excellent stretch of the legs, as Jeff (TahoeBC) would say.

It was tough but a great and rewarding experience - only noticeable really after it was done ;). The GPS track and many more photos can be checked out on the MTBGuru trip page.