New Year’s Ride at Carbon Canyon

I’m a looser. I loose things. I’d lost my camera for a week and finally found it. Hence the reason for this post-filled Tuesday. On with the show. With race season fast approaching I headed out to Carbon Canyon with my buddy Ryan for a “racing vibe” ride. 🙂 I first rode this trail with Priscilla, Jeremy and Khoa about 2 months ago. It starts immediately with a 6 mile hill climb up the side of the hills to the infamous Four Corners. After that it’s a little singletrack and then a lot of short up and downhills. Luckily the temperature was up from the recent cold spell(by So. Cal standards) and we had a nice 65 degrees to ride with. The main theme of this ride proved to be the wind. It was absolutely kickin!

Didn’t see the piles of doodoo until after I shot this

The first climb was a non-stop fireroad ascent that looks much the same the entire way. This makes the grind really difficult as every bend fools you into thinking the top is just ahead. As we approached the apex of the hill we noticed the wind steadily increasing in strength as our tree cover became less and less. At the bottom it was a breeze but when we neared the top it was really howling.

Last ascent on the long climb

Climbing is tough enough but when you’re pedaling against the incline and the wind it feels like your fighting for every foot. Every couple of seconds I’d see both our front wheels turn to one side from a gust and then we’d both correct our position on the trail. This would happen to us both at precisely the same instant and by the end of the climb I was almost laughing about it. What else can you do? We both figured it was good to ride in adverse conditions like this as it made us adapt our riding style to cope. By the end of the ride I noticed both of us were lowering our bodies to avoid the push and pull of the wind.

Starting the year off right

At the bottom of the first climb is Four Corners. This was the first time I didn’t see anyone gathered there. Usually it’s a chat/resting spot for lots of bikers in the area as multiple trails converge there. Then again we only ran into a couple of people the entire time. I guess partying not hard has its perks too.

Four Corners…population us

After the long climb and Four Corners, we were rewarded with some nice little singletrack that took us back up to the ridge.

Dammit I love singeltrack!

The downhills proved even more hairy than the climbs even though they were mostly fireroads. On one downhill I stood up and managed to actually slow almost to a stop with no brakes. At another point I’d be tucked at full speed and a gust would come directly from the side, almost pushing me off my bike.

Squeezin’ the fun out of fireroad

We both managed not to take a spill but were both beat from battling the trail and the wind. All in all it was quite an adventurous ride and we both had a blast. Trail riding on New Years gives you solitude on the trails and is always my favorite way to kick off the new year. Mission accomplished!