Day 149: Playing Around at China Camp with Friends

I met up with my friends “M” and “B” for a day of playing around on the trails at China Camp State Park. We met at “M’s” house which is near the park, and then left from there and headed towards the appropriately named Gold Hill. It's on the back side of the park, depending on how you look at it. The climb up the first fire road isn’t very friendly, and I vowed to show “M” a more rider-friendly route for the start, which I did in the end.

The first climb cleared me of the Peets coffee that I’d had this morning, and the two beers that I had at dinner last night. Talk about purification! Ride up that hill at a good pace, and you’ll be as purified as can be. From where the fire road intersects with the second piece of single track, the fun began in earnest.

It’s a beautiful rolling trail that's exposed to the warmth of the sun and views west towards Mount Tamalpais. Soaking in the sun on a cool fall day, and while riding on a beautiful trail is simply intoxicating. At the next junction we formulated a bit of a riding plan, which of course changed a bit as we went, but that’s to be expected when riding with friends at a place where there are so many options.

We decided to dive down to the front side of the park via some fun single track and fire roads. Once on the Bay View Trail I hit my stride. I felt like I was a Jedi in Star Wars. The trail seemed to have my tires glued down, and I was focused on zooming down, and around, up and down. It was fantastic to hit a zone wherein I could basically make no mistakes. ;-) After hitting the Shoreline Trail I suggested that we ride over to the old Japanese fishing village where we could buy a Coke at the old diner. We rolled over there and were warmly greeted by two older Japanese folks that I can imagine have been at the diner for their whole lives. They’re really nice, and we were on our best behavior. “M” bought us a round of Cokes, and we sat there on the shore and gabbed for a while about vacations, and mountain biking in Hawaii.

We rode back across the lower trails and then began our climb back to the top of China Camp. Along the ride back up I was beginning to feel frisky, and I started passing people on the trail. There were a lot of people heading up. I passed some kids in Levis, a few very fit women, and then a group of maybe five very fit guys. I was on a mission, and it felt good to push hard after weeks of being sick. The bad news is that my rib really, really hurts and I don’t know what to do about that. Arrgh.

After summiting we rode down to J.T. Howell where we rode for a bit before turning right onto the single track that leads all of the way over to the freeway. It’s one of those trails that’s not that “technical,” but because of the steep drop off on the left side, it makes you second guess every move that you make. It simply requires focus. Lose your focus and you will pay. By the time that we had hit this part of the trail system, we had already done about 18 miles of single track, so none of us were fully focused, and in the end, we all crashed along the way.

On the very last section of single track, and when my focus was basically gone, my front wheel got caught in a gully, and I was off’d from my bike, and I went over, or across, the bars. Can I tell you how much my ribs hurt now?!? I played down the pain afterwards. I remounted quickly, and made my way down the rest of the trail to the smooth and soothing pavement.

I’ll be very happy after I have no more illnesses, broken ribs, etc. Tomorrow morning I ride at China Camp again, and at 8:00 am. Wish me luck. Rubber side down as they say. Distance: 21.46 miles Calories burned: 1,905 Time: 2:31:00 hours Elevation gain: 2,749 Garmin Connect ride details: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/18760080