{"id":80,"date":"2008-07-18T17:10:32","date_gmt":"2008-07-19T01:10:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mountainbikebill.com\/blog\/?p=80"},"modified":"2009-05-26T23:29:49","modified_gmt":"2009-05-27T07:29:49","slug":"bill-and-will-roadtrip-day-3-mount-pinos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mountainbikebill.com\/blog\/?p=80","title":{"rendered":"Bill and Will Roadtrip Day 3 – Mount Pinos"},"content":{"rendered":"

Man, the things we do for our kids.\u00a0\u00a0 I got up at around 7AM and loaded up all my gear in the truck while Will was still sound asleep in the tent.\u00a0\u00a0 All of Will’s biking gear had been staged in the tent last night.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I drove down to the bottom of the mountain at 6,400 feet and started a 6.5 mile pavement climb back up to the campsite at 8,200 feet.\u00a0 Will certainly has it in him to do this\u00a0climb as he had tackled\u00a0Palomar Mountain earlier in the year <\/a>which encompassed 4,700-foot climb over 11.1 miles.\u00a0 I wanted this ride to be more about fun than fitness today so I cut out most of the climbing for him.\u00a0\u00a0The climb back to camp was\u00a0not a steep one and I found it\u00a0pretty easy to keep a pretty descent\u00a0pace even with 2.6 Stick-E rubber tires.\u00a0\u00a0 I thought about taking the McGill trail up but I wanted both Will and I to experience a “new” trail together.\u00a0 When I got back to camp, Will was already up and making himself some breakfast.<\/p>\n

\"Views<\/p>\n

I had left a few things back at camp so I would not have to climb with them, mainly my camera.\u00a0\u00a0While I was getting that stuff in my camelbak, Will (who had already gotten geared up)\u00a0commenced to start talking a little smack about Dad being a fiddle-fart.\u00a0\u00a0So, I set him up.\u00a0 I snippedly told him to “Go on ahead, you know I’m just going to catch you, even though I already climbed over six miles this morning”.\u00a0\u00a0 Well that was all it took, Will took the bait.\u00a0 He casually said, “See you up the road” and\u00a0pedaled off at a normal pace.\u00a0\u00a0I yelled at him as he rode off, “Don’t start off too fast or\u00a0you’ll be sorry!”\u00a0 The hook was set.\u00a0 Just when he thought he was out of view (but not quite), I saw him\u00a0drop the hammer.\u00a0\u00a0 Nothing left to do now but reel him in a few minutes after the pace,\u00a0grade and the thin air above 8,200 feet get done with him.<\/p>\n

I finished up what I was doing and got\u00a0rolling.\u00a0\u00a0 After a couple of turns in the road and Will still being out of site, I was impressed.\u00a0\u00a0 One turn later and I saw him, hunched over his handlebars on the side of the road.\u00a0\u00a0 The voice of Phil Lidgett came through my head, “Oh my, the young rider has cracked! There will be no hopes for a mountain top win for him today.”\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Will got to rolling when I neared, but his pace was mighty slow and he complained of not feeling good.\u00a0\u00a0 We took an extended break\u00a0for him to recover and I could not help but get a devilish grin\u00a0on my face, when I told him to come on and stop fiddle-farting.\u00a0 I wish I had my camera out\u00a0to catch the look on\u00a0his face when it dawned on him\u00a0that he had\u00a0fallen for a parental version of a Jedi Mindtrick.<\/p>\n

\"View<\/p>\n

After he recovered, we\u00a0soon left the pavement to continue climbing on a fireroad up to the Mt Pinos summit at 8,830 feet.\u00a0\u00a0 It was a fairly mellow climb and the views were pretty nice even with a bit of lingering haze from the NorCal wildfires.<\/p>\n

\"Bill<\/p>\n

From here it was a mostly downhill affair back to the top of the pavement where we hooked up with some pretty nice and mostly buff singletracks that included the\u00a0Harvest and Southridge trails.\u00a0 These bits of goodness\u00a0took us back by our camp and down to the McGill campground.<\/p>\n

\"Harvest<\/p>\n

From the McGill campgroud, we picked up the amply\u00a0named McGill trail which was an absolute heavenly bit of\u00a0singletrack that worked its way down the mountain.\u00a0 The grade was never steep and it was virtually buff the entire distance.\u00a0\u00a0 I rolled through\u00a0hundreds of Kodiak moments and\u00a0only captured a few.<\/p>\n

\"Will<\/p>\n

This picture provides very little justice to the view.<\/p>\n

\"Killer<\/p>\n

Will\u00a0had one of those moments of inattention that caused him to\u00a0take a soil sample on a switchback.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0After the initial uggh following the thump, he\u00a0chuckled and\u00a0dusted himself.\u00a0\u00a0 He then\u00a0went back\u00a0up the trail and nailed it\u00a0the second time around.<\/p>\n

\"Dusting<\/p>\n

The blissful descent was over far too quickly and we were soon back up at camp and packing up.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Will has not learned much about repairing flats and other mechanicals yet so a solo descent down the\u00a0McGill trail was not on the table.\u00a0\u00a0I did let him ride the road down.\u00a0 He thoroughly enjoyed the speed-fest coming down the mountain on the pavement.\u00a0 We spent the rest of the day getting home and chatting about what a cool week we just had.\u00a0\u00a0 Once home it took all of about 15 minutes before Will\u00a0was out the door to skate and hang with his friends and basically get back into his busy routine.\u00a0\u00a0 I’m sure as the teenage years roll in and along the competition for his time will get tougher so I am really thankful to\u00a0have the time with him now.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a6lt;\/p><\/p>\n

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<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t Wednesday Alpine Stoke<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t <\/a>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
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<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t South Mountain 08 Video<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t <\/a>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
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<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t Noble Canyon Fun (Kinda)<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t <\/a>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t <\/div>\n<\/div>