Saturday morning the group met up at Santiago Oaks for a challenging but short ride. The Oaks makes you climb three considerably steep hills before it pays you back with some entertaining downhills. RL didn’t care for the first ascent so he tried flapping his wings to pass up the next two.
We had a good sized group that included RL, Priscilla, Khoa, John, Joel and myself. I was playing tour guide for the day. I think everyone was hating me by the end of the second climb. Khoa was nice enough to be our photographer for the day and had to lug his equipment up the hill. He said he kept seeing exotic birds that required him to stop several times. That’s an inventive excuse if I ever heard one so I’ll take it!
As we crested the last climb I looked back to see Priscilla passing a guy(not from our group) who looked thoroughly humiliated. Way to go Priscilla!
After everyone made it to the top without puking, we saw a table jump someone had built up, with a perfect, gentle rise. John, RL, and myself got some playtime in. I felt like a kid again. Good, dirty fun!
We also hit up this little 5 foot drop. It’s not too big but you can’t see the landing until your already in the air so you have to keep your nerves in check. RL attacked the drop, but his foot came unclipped, mid-air. He put on his game face and saved it nicely.
Speaking of saving, further down the trail we hit a technical rock descent. During Joel’s attempt he did a perfect nose wheelie and even kicked his feet off the pedals for some style. Showoff!!
I was really impressed with the way everyone tackled the rocky downhills. This trail demands your utmost attention. Mine faltered at one point and I took a little face-plant for it. I think everyone had a great time on the twisty downhill runs and we all made it out alive and with some big smiles.
