Forgive Me Father For I Sinned…

Bill: Forgive me father for I have sinned.  I has been over 3 months since I last rode my bike on any routine basis.

Father:  Jesus! <Skies opens, bright light, booming voice…>

Jesus:  What you say?

Father:  No, No, No, I didn’t mean you.  You know, it was the figure of speech thing.

Jesus:  Will you please stop doing that crap!  How do you expect me to listen up for you if you keep hanking my chain?  This ain’t exactly an easy job I got here buddy.  Keep it up and I will fire and brimstone your ass into the next eternity!

Father:  Sorry about that, I’ll work on it.

Jesus:  Yeah, you do that.  <Skies close>

Father:  Sorry about that my son.  So three months off the dirt.  What have you been doing?

Bill:  Father, I let myself become consumed with my work so between my work and my family the biking fell to the wayside.  I got out shape and gained more weight than I would care to mention and generally lost some of my passion for riding.   I also drank lots of really good beer that I had not justly earned .

Father:  What exactly do you mean by good beer?  Be careful how you answer my son.

Bill:   Oh, lots of Stone, Pacfic Northwest microbrews as well as some good east coast brews.

Father:  East Coast you say, have you ever had any of the stuff  from the Victory Brewing Company.

Bill:  Oh My God Yes! (flinched while hoping the sky did not open up), Thier Wild Devil Ale is simply amazing!

Father:  Je……(Stops mid-word, while looking skyward), Man that is some great stuff,   Hate the name but love the complex flavor.

Father:  So anyway my son, balance is very important in everyone’s life.   Without balance, things are just not right.  Take you for example, even through the fine mesh and dark shadows of this box, I can see you have turned into quite the unbalanced lard ass.

Bill:Jes….<Once again a skyward flinch occurs>, come on father try not to sugar coat it for me.

Father:  My son, there is many paths that could be followed, but you must go into the San Jacinto Mountains.  There you will not only atone for your sins, but you may refind the passion you have lost.

Bill:  I will go my father.

Father:  Oh and don’t pass on the Southridge and Snakeskin trails, those are some bitchin bits of singletrack!  Now get outta here!

So bright and early on Sunday morning I went out to Idyllwild for a bit of riding with Bill O’Neil.  I knew I was going to suck, but there are far worse places to suck at than Idyllwild.  We did do the semi-slacker thing and left a vechicle down near Hurkey Creek and then drove up into Idyllwild to start the day with a run down the South Ridge Trail.

There was still some snow up top which was quite a treat.  Just enough to look pretty.   Right out the gate I knew this was going to be a pretty cool day as the conditions were as good as I have ever seen it here.  Just the right amount of moisture in the trail to create that magical balance of traction and speed.   Good Stuff.

We did not drop much elevation before the snow patches were gone and we were left with the sweet flowy goodness that I have long loved in this area.    Oh yeah I did suck.  I was huffing and puffing on all but the slightest of climbs.

The springtime action is in full effect in many places around here.  After tooling around in the May Valley area when took the Missing Link trail down towards the race course.   After Missing Link we decided that it we needed some more May Valley action so we took the most direct way back up into the area.   We climbed Exfoliator.  Now I have descended this trail dozens of time and it is an absolute blast…going down.   Climbing this trail is a much different story.    I was pretty freaking disgusted with what a wussy I had become during my layoff.  One more climb up the fireroad and I would be return to turn mostly downhill back to Hurkey Creek.

Shortly after the climb we ran into some of the natives who were up for showing off some of the bits have not gotten on yet.   I am always amazed at the high quality trails that “grow” out here.  We were not disappointed but the additional singletrack goodness left me completely cooked and fighting off the early warning signs of cramps.

When it was time to head for the beer cooler, Exfoliator was indeed more more fun in the proper direction.    The last hill to climb to get up to the top of “Rage in the Sage” proved to me my own little hell as I was cramping badly at this point and was lagging behind the other pretty bad.   After that it was all downhill gravy and it was soon time to enjoy some properly earned brews.   My legs hurt but I feel that fire in my belly again for mountain biking.   Time to go get back in shape.

Joshua Tree National Park

The last month or so has been pretty tough for me on the MTB front.  Between a couple of injuries, illness and major work project here in San Diego I have not seen much bike action at all.   Big projects at work are a whole lot easier when they involve travel as you don’t have to play the work-family balance game.   A couple of weeks ago, I went out to Joshua Tree National Park to take a look see.  I really did not know what to expect.

  One thing for certain there is a lot of open space out here.   Pinkham Canyon to Thermal Canyon and back was the route for the day.  It was to be an all dirt road  affair.

As far as dirt road goes, I have ridden far less interesting section of dirt in the past.   It is certainly desert out here. 

Out near the end fo the out and back we checked out the leftover bits on the Silver Cloud mine. 

 

While looking at the maps, the thought of doing a multi-day MTB self-sustained camping loop would be cool. 

Unfortunately, 75 percent of the park has been designated as wilderness so much of the cool bits would be off limits to bikes.    I only cut through a small sliver of this place.  I some point I’m going to get back here to check out the northern end of the place.

The Maunawili Trail

This past Saturday was the last day on my Hawaii business trip and I was able to carve out some time on Saturday morning for a ride.  The destination was the Maunawili Trail on the windward side (east) of the island.   I got an early enough start that I had to casually get ready at the trailhead while waiting for daylight to join me at the rally point.

The Maunawili trail is a 10 mile singletrack that countours along the foothills above the Maunawili Valley and near the striking cliff bases of the Ko’olau Mountains.   All of the descriptions of this trail I had found recommended it as a point-to-point from the north end near the Pali Lookout and going south down to the community of Waimanalo.  There was only about 1,000 feet of elevation between the high and low points so that even accounting for some undulations in the trail it should not be too bad as an out-and-back.   The sun did not make a majestic entrance when I started out from Waimanalo.  It was quite cloudy when I set off on the double track climb that would take me up to the start of the trail proper. 

The doubletrack was not horrible, but the singletrack was downright awesome pretty much right from the get go.  Sweet narrow goodness etched into steep hillsides was the theme most the time.     While most of the trail tread is smooth, there were numerous rooty and rocky section to keep your technical skills on point.

 The trail went in and out of numerous foothill fingers and while the cloudy morning was putting a damper on the full beauty of this place it was still impressive.   The prominence of the cliffs often made me feel downright small. 

The beauty of this trail really did a good job of hiding the danger of the steep hillside that was often less than a foot off the trail thread.   If this was a barren desert trail, it would be easy to get wigged out about some of the exposure.    Mother Nature added to the deception and danger of some of these spots with ferns that grow in from the high side of the trail.   I preferred having my faced brushed by ferns over finding a weak spot on the downhill edge of the trail. 

 

 The  flora on this trail was simply incredible.  I only knew what a few of the types I saw where.  Later on I found out that I had been cruising under cool stuff like mango trees, pink guava, a plethora of ferns, and a bunch of native plants that contained way too many vowels for me to pronounce.

As I started nearing the north end of the trail, there was more signs of use and well as trail maintenance.   In some of the wet spots a few boardwalks had been installed to help the trail and habitat keep from getting thrashed.  At this point one thing was for sure, this trail is uphill in both directions.     It took me a lot longer than expected to cover the 10 miles and reach the north end of the trail at Pali highway.    The plan was enjoy the trail in other direction, but I did not have enough time now as I had after lunch work commitments.   With a great deal of reluctance, I played grown up and dropped off the mountain on the road and speedily made my way back  to my car.   The work went well, but I did have to burn some “lamp oil” to polish everything off.   One thing is for certain, this will not be my last ride on this trail.  I’m already looking forward to a sunny day return…someday.

Aloha from the Aiea Loop

I love it when things just fall in place.   I had to “work” in Hawaii this week and was hoping squeak in a ride during the trip.   I had a early flight on Tuesday and found myself on the ground at lunch time.    There was no delay in getting my baggage and the rental car thing went really smooth.   I already knew where I was renting a bike during this visit so went by there picked up and decently equipped hardtail that was basically brand new.   It was right about this time that I realized that I forgot to bring my clipless pedals.    Cleated bike shoes and flats pedals don’t mix well so my next stop was to local bike shop where I picked up a set of SPD pedals on the cheap.     I was all set to squeak in that ride when the opportunity presented itself.   A look at my watch revealed that opportunity was now and the trailhead was just a few miles a way.  The sky was filled with ominous looking clouds but what the heck, the temps were nice and it was not raining right now so time to get some trail while I can.

I had done the Aiea Loopbefore which was good as I did not have much of a daylight buffer for exploring.    Having all much my gear stuffed into luggage it looked like a yard sale around my car I was pulling stuff out all over the place to get to everything.   Soon I was in the correct garb and ready to head out.    The last time I rode here was in 2004 and I remembered lots of roots.  Yeah lots of roots.   Back in 2004 this trail was my first exposure to roots galore and I remembered it being monumentally frustrating.    Since then I have had a lot more exposure to riding this type of stuff so the roots where down into the challenging category. 

For the first 1.6 miles of of this loop you are climbing some good and twisty singletrack.   I have been fighting off some chest and sinus congestion for the past week so the “redline” on the cardio side of the house was much lower than normal.  Get anywhere near that line for line would quickly turn into a wheezing, hacking mess.    This meant I really got to enjoy the climb as despite the overcast, the scenery was nice with lush vegetation all around.  

  

That lush vegetation however does hide some often precarious exposure that could net you a long tumble down a steep hillside should you blow a move or turn.

Once I reached the highpoint , the fun really got to going as a good chuck of the rest of the route was downhill.    The flowing singletrack typically bench cut in the side of the steep hillsides so there was little room for error along the trail.  I had gotten into flow of the trail and was zipping along quite nicely when the bike gave me a quick reminder that it was not one of trusty full suspension bikes.  I took a root drop that was a little bigger than it looked from up the trail and soon found myself riding a compressed fork nose wheelie for way too far before slamming the rear wheel back and nearly jolting myself off the bike.   After getting the bike to a stop, I starting laughing so hard that I sent myself in another round of congestion hacks and coughs.    Any near miss that you can laugh at is good in my book.     

It was not long before I was back at the trailhead where I cleaned up a bit and did the yard sale thing in reverse and headed out for the hotel.  What a great way to start a business trip.

An incredible ride at Palm Canyon

What exactly makes an Epic? Wither it is online or recounting the days adventure at the trailhead, the question comes up quite routinely. Difficultly, length, scenery, conditions, the variables in the equation are numerous and subjective. The Palm Canyon trail fits just about everyone’s definition of an epic. It is a big classic desert ride than can be brutal for the ill-prepared or in the wrong conditions. I’ve done this ride a whole bunch of times and have the checklist of extra stuff to bring pretty much tattooed on my brain. There is something about the misery from forgetting this kind of stuff in the past that files that stuff in a mentally easy spot to find.

That ready file was opened up Monday afternoon on the drive back home from our Christmas travels when the phone rang. “Hey Bill, what do you think about doing Palm Canyon tomorrow? Hold on a second…. Hey Honey, do you mind if I do an all-dayer tomorrow? …..Dude, I’m down, how does 7:30am at the Von’s parking lot sound? … Sweet! See you then.” That was all the planning involved for this ride. Both Bill O’Neil and I have been on enough rides and trips together to know the drill. Now lets get to that checklist.

O-Dark:30 came O’Damnearly and I was headed towards Palm Springs much earlier than my body would have liked. There was sugar and caffiene in ample supply on the drive. I was taking the “country” route which took me past the upper trailhead near Pinyon Crest on Highway 74. It was a mighty brisk 37 degrees when I went by there. A made a mental note to give the “fellows” a break and change into the bike gear at the bottom. Neither Bill or I were able to rustle up any of the usual suspects for the ride on short notice so it was just Bill and I headed back up the mountain after shuffling stuff around between trucks. It had been two years since either one of us had done this ride so I was stoked. Bill had never done the Pinyon Flats trail and it had nearly been five years since I had last done that trail so we opted to start from Pinyon Flats vice the Palm Canyon trailhead proper.

It addition to being brisk, there was a biting breeze but it was otherwise an exceptionally pretty day. Layered up we set out. I had nearly forgotten how flowy and swoopy Pinyon Flats is in most spots. I was having so much fun, I did not even pull the camera out. Once we met up with the Palm Canyon trail, one thing became blissfully obvious. The trail conditions were simply the best I have ever seen. The rains had packed the soil and enough moisture remained to provide both great traction with no additional drag on the tires. Mother Nature had served up some downright sexy dirt.

Killer trail conditions and an exceptionally clear day with the temperatures somewhere between cool and mild is what continued to develop as the day went on. With just the two of us, we were not burning any daylight on regroups and other delays that typically scale up with the group size. We were not really hammering, just flowing along taking advantage of the wonderful conditions. Before long we were at the bottom of Dry Wash. A three-mile sandy climb awaited us. While chilling here it was nice to realize that barring some misadventure we had a huge daylight buffer now. The ride up until now had been so awesome that I could have cared less if I had to walk nearly all of the next three miles if the sand sucked.

The sand did not suck. The dry wash was also in the best shape I had ever seen it and for the most part completely rideable. You still had to look for the firm lines in the sand but the wash was not in its usual death march form. After the wash it was time for the Hahn Buena Vista trail after a break at the dozer. Once again the trail conditions were incredible. The camera remained packed away as nearly all things must yield to the sirens song of tires holding their line through flowy downhill goodness.

After the giggling like school boys descent we payed back some elevation up the Catherdral Canyon and then over to the saddle at the Wildhorse and Claire Burgess trail junction. There was a good dose of fatigue set in at this point and the breaks came a little more often. It was all good as there are far worse things to do than stopping and smelling the flowers around here.

I love the Wildhorse trail, the plummeting elevation drop on either side the ridge top section this trail make for some splendid views. There is also a mental boost of seeing your destination below. It is much better seen in person than described.

The ubiquitous trusty steed shot from the peak on Wildhorse with San Gorgorino is in the distance. It had been sometime since the Spider had seen some trail love so it was called into action today. It was certainly the correct weapon of choice today. Man I love this bike, such a wonderful XC machine.

After dropping the steep switch back section of Wildhorse we worked our way through the Goat Trails and soon rolled back down to the lower trail. What exactly makes an epic? There was no debating that question this afternoon, all the variables of that equation were scattered across the 30 miles of awesomeness countryside that lay behind us. There was nothing do now but celebrate the Palm Canyon Epic.

Golden Eagle

This pasy weekend I ventured about as far as I am willing to travel for a single day ride.    The Golden Eagle Trail is on Liebre Mountain about 60 miles north of downtown LA.   It is a long haul from San Diego.   Why drive that far?  Well is a really awesome trail and with the recent snow and rain, the conditions should be prime.   So I was up at O-Damn Early and headed north.

After meeting up with Bill O’Neil in the LA area continued onto the trail.   We mulled over some kind of epic shuttle but our shuttle vehicle was acting a little flaky so we opted for the out-and-back option. 

It was a rather brisk start when we started the climb up the singletrack, but it did not take long to get warmed up.  Most of the main climb up onto the mountain is on its north slope and offered some shelter from the morning breeze.   The predominate ground cover on the north slope was this incredibly green grass that reminded me on an oversaturated photo.  Simply incredible.   What was not incredible was my climbing speed.   Maybe it was too much breakfast, snacks and coffee on the drive up here but I was having “issues”.     By the time I made it up onto the ridgeline I was feeling rather sick and something bad was about to happen.   It was one of those feelings that creates uncertainity about what should be pointed where.   After some gastrointenstinal “adjustments” I started to feel better and we continued.

Once up on the ridgeline we did quite a bit of rolling up and downs with each undulation gathering a little elevation for us.  The trail not technical to speak of, just sweeting flowing goodness.

There were patches of snow here and there as we cruised along that for the most part were rideable.   Some of the patches were as deep at six inches which offered some challenges to keep going and maintaining control.     After handling a bunch of these patches I got pretty complacent with the stuff, hitting them with more and more speed.    One particuarly small looking patch decided to refocus my attention as I got bit sideways in the patch.  Upon leaving the patch and suddenly regaining traction, I aburptly switched from out-of-control cyclist to amateur geologist.  FYI, there are much easier ways to take soil samples.

Soil samples aside, we had a great time on the ridgeline.   Once the Golden Eagle trail ends you can continue along the ridge on a fire road and explore around a bit.   We did this for a while until turning around.  The return leg was really cool as there was more down than up along the ridge.  The final segment is all downhill and it simple rocked.  The conditions just don’t get any better.  The trail in this section was incredible with the perfect balance between traction and speed.   This trail is also open to motos so most of the turns have berms which made for some insanely fast turns.   Bottomline – We ripped down this section back to the truck!   

MIA Status

So man, long time no post for me. Truth be told, I have been enjoying other pursuits as of late. After spending plenty of time traveling and riding over the summer I have found life at home in the “slow” lane really freaking fun. I have been on the bike a bit, but first a little catchup.

 

The family (and a couple of friends) played hookie one day and enjoyed some mid-week fun at Knoxberry Farm. No lines was pretty freaking awesome.

 

Over Thanksgiving, we kicked up some dust in my Brother-In-Law’s yard with the go-carts.

 

Then there has been the weekly hockey practices and games. If it is not Jake on the ice at the Escondido Iceoplex,

 

It is Will at Tricity Inline rink. Always good times.

Early this week, a few friends and I did a little riding east of the Laguna Mountains. This is an area that I have not done much riding in so it was cool to check out some new stuff. Kitchen Creek, Fred Canyon, and Thing Valley were all on the menu.

 

It was not too long into our uphill exploration that some of the white stuff made an appearance. While just in the shadows at first, by the time we got up into the Lagunas proper there was more snow that not on the trails.

 

It is always a treat to get snow on your tires here in Southen California. Today’s dosage was just right, while enough to be a bit burdensome in spots it was for the most part  fun to hear the crunch under your wheels.

 

After bit of play up top we worked our way back down to lower elevations and a welcomed bit of warmth.  There looks to be some good scenic loops that can be put together out here. I have to go back a time or two to get everything figured out. One thing is for certain, I had a pretty cool time out there on the bike.

I Love the Yellow Snow!

What a great couple of rides I had this weekend.  I took Friday off to show my bud Matt one of my favorite around around Idyllwild.

We started off my dropping a truck off at Herkey Creek and then continuing on up through Idyllwild to the top of the Ernie Maxwell trail.   This trail sees a lot of hikers on the weekend to the point that they can kill your “flow buzz”.   But on this Friday morning there were only a couple of hikers to be seen and singletrack bliss is about the best way to describe the descent.

After Ernie, the fireroad climb up to the South Ridge trail wipe the smile off our face but the views from the top were worth it.  There was a singnificant marine layer to the west but Santiago and Mojeska peaks in the Santa Ana Mountains were easily seen peeking up on the horizon.

From here we dropped into the May Valley area.  Despite the dry and some what loose conditions there was much grinning and lots of whoops and hollers.

The fall colors were really awesome up here with vibrant yellows on the trees and the various diminishing shades of red to brown leaf litter on the trails.    We had an awesome time checking out on the trails in the upper area until we started to feel some cookage in the legs.   After that we hooked into the Herkey Creek race course  and rode towards the sounds of tiny bubbles in brown bottles below.     Matt went off to find a camping spot for a Mega Palm Canyon Epic the following day while I went back to San Diego to play Dad on Saturday.

Sunday I met up with some of my riding buds that I have not in quite a few moons.  Bill, Billy, and Cliff.   Yep, three Bills and a Cliff, it already sounds like an epic in the making.  Our plan was to take the SART and from South Fork campground to Mentone.     After dropping a truck off down below at 8AM we were heading up the mountain and decided to go a bit bigger.   We continued past South Fork and started up in the mountains near Big Bear.     (Yes, I’m being vague for a reason 😉 ) .   The temps were nice and the air was thin.

After heading up our bonus mileage, we connected up with SART at South Fork and proceed along our or orginally intended route.    I the colors of falls were impressive through here.  There were several sections where a good breeze was blowing the leaves off the trees and it looked like a gentle snow storm of giant yellow flakes coming down onto the trail.   Blissful moments for sure.

We came across a group of 20 plus riders from SocalTrailriders.org  at Glass Road, but besides that we pretty much had the trails to ourselves for the day.

The SART from Glass Road to Middle Control road was a good as I have always remembered it.  We have all ridden this trail quite a few times so we all got into our own groove and just rolled.  This is such good trail.

Once at Middle Control road we decided to take the road up to the Post Office to grab some snacks and liquids for the rest of the trip.  We were all feeling it on the climb.    With Cliff being the sole single-speeder in the group today he obviously got up to hill before us.   This pictures pretty much how we all felt at this point.

The consenus was that the little break at the Post Office did not do any us any good as we were all feeling a little stiff as we headed out to hook up with the SART again. Beyond this point it was new trail for all of us. There was bit more climbing that I expected in this section but the views were pretty killer.

After what seemed like a long time of climbing, things finally turned downhill. The technical factor and exposure went up in some spots as well. I don’t have much in the way of pictures beyond this point as we were having too much freaking fun to stop.

We did not leave much of the day behind once we got to the bottom. For those that like numbers, we knocked out about 2,500 feet of climbing and 7,500 feet of descending over 34 miles. For me a better measurement is that my soul was full and my body was drained. Here is a view of the remains of the day on our way back to fetch the upper truck.

I have enjoyed lots of new dirt away from home over the course of this year, but getting on new stuff near home turf was a real treat.

Back to Hitting the Local Stuff

I got back from Japan a couple of weeks ago and have been taking it easy for the most.  Enjoying the “normal” things in my life like the kid’s hockey games, practice, honey-dos, etc…. Oh, and I managed to break my FN left big toe just strolling through the house.    So not much in the way of blogging about mountain biking.  But I been squeaking in some ride here here and there.

Before the toe breakage, I met up with one of the usual suspects at one of the usual suspect spots for some playtime on the rocks.   After not riding here for over six months, the rocks and all the moves looked bigger.   I’m going to have to repolish my game in this area.

Just a couple of days ago, I tested out the toe on ride through Calvera with my youngest son, Jake.  While the toe was mildly a pain, it is okay to ride with.

 

What I was really stoked about was how well Jake was hanging.   I rode at around 90% of my normal pass and he was right there the whole time.  We did not do a whole lot of stopping either, just riding.  

Kids never seem to amaze me at the rate at which they progress.   We had a really good time out there and we got in around 12-14 miles all together.  It was a good day to be a Dad and on a bike.

“Taiiku no hi” Ride

 This past  Monday was Columbus day in the United States, but I’m not in the States.  Lucky for me Monday was also the Japanese Holiday of  “Taiiku no hi” which is “Health-Sports Day”.   What better way to celebrate that than a bike ride. 

Fall is happening here.   The summer heat is gone and the cooler temps of fall have taken over. There are no huge splash of colors just yet but you can tell that mother nature is dusting off her brushes and shaking the paint cans.

The closest mountain to town is Yumihari.  I have been on most of the flanks of this mountain and have found some stuff to ride in all those areas.   The place suffers from little use and even less maintenance.    This place would be incredibly awesome if there were enough riders to keep this place debrushed.  I was focusing on the southern area today and was quite pleased with what I found and that it is seeing some use.   One such trails was an awesome benchcut along a ruggedly steep hill side.

I eventually found my way over to what I was looking for.  There is a large statue that you can see from town perched up along the ridgeline that I had been eyeing from work for a couple of weeks now.    This thing is huge.  At least 20 feet high and it sets top of 20 foot raised base.  This was a great spot for some snacks so I enjoyed them while taking in some of the views. 

There was an old couple there tending to the grounds.  Eventually the husband and I struck up a conversation which was a mixture of my bad Japanese, his bad English and a healthy dose of International Charades.   From the jest of the conversation, the man was 70 years old and his father made the sculpture.    He was very proud of his father’s work.  He was also proud of the fact his wife was much younger than him (only in her 50s).   The wife snickered at this and gave him a gentle slap on the arm.  While I did not catch what see said, the facial expressions translated to something along the lines of “You Dirty Old Fool”.  While he looked old, he was mighty healthy and was doing some significant work like cutting grass, trimming back branches, etc…   I hope to be that spry when I am his age.  You can tell they loved and cared for this place.    After a bit more broken chit-chat over a can of coffee he gave me, I was on my way.  After such a nice little life enriching experience I could have called it a day right then and have been quite happy.

Lucky for the me the old man had “Charaded” me some more information on trails, so settting off from the shrine, I did some more snooping around.

What the old man had pointed to was a really cool bit of trail where you descend down along a mostly steep ridgeline through a forest of mixed bamboo and hardwoods.   It was a pretty fun descent with some scary bits thrown in when things got rocky and really steep.  

After this I climbed back up the mountain and hit some one the loops I have done several times which put me back onto the side of the mountain I wanted to be on.   After another rather technical descent I popped out into another neighborhood.   From here I zipped along a series of narrow twisting sidewalks that descended the rest of the way down the mountain back into town.  I love when the navigation calls for anyway that is downhill to get “home”.    I might get another ride or two in before I leave Japan but if not this would be a downright cool closer ride.