A Party Weekend in San Diego & One 'Hell' of a Ride

Well a few weekends ago I headed down to San Diego (bit over 2hrs drive) with the boys I live with and all the fellows from work. 8 of us in total as a bit of a final shindig for Jake who is moving back home very soon to Philly. It was a great weekend. We ended up booking the wrong hotel. It was a long story but we ended up in Chula Vista (about 12 miles south of SD). It is basically the Mexican Bronx as it is right on the border. When we got back at at about 1am we asked if there were any pubs to get a drink. The Taxi driver said that we should go into our Hotel, lock the door and stay in there till the morning. Pretty exciting aye. We all had the good sense to listen to him. When anybody could be packing a magnum I think it was a good decision.


The "Yard House" in SD. 100 beers on tap from all round the world. No NZ beers and the only Aussie beer was Fosters. They really have no idea who makes a quality lager. I really miss Macs and Monteiths. Even Speights :-)

The next day after we soaked up the remaining Alcohol at Denny's with an All American Breakfast we headed north of San Diego to Pacific Beach (PB). Here we had splashed out a little and got a hotel right on the beach front. The weather was gorgeous. We proceeded to spend from 11 to 4.30 on the beach. The water was dam cold like home due to cold Artic currents, but the air temps and sun made up for that.

In the afternoon the amount of people really was astonishing. I guess this is the stereotype of SoCal (Southern California). Constant flows of people running, walking, biking, blading, posing, showing off and of course sun bathing, swimming and playing games on the sand.

The nightlife was much better at PB. More relaxed and more fun. Less stuck up. The difference really between going out in Auckland vs Chch. We had a good night and again were rather hungover the next day. Far too many Bourbons were consumed :-) Still a big breakfast burrito helped out somewhat. Overall it was a great weekend. One I will not repeat too often as the sun and booze really takes its toll on both your body and wallet.

The Pool at our hotel. Pic taken from our room.

I hired a car the following weekend so that I could look at cars. Many dodgy dealers over here and it is rare to get a Warranty on a used car unless you are willing to pay for it. Things really are done quite differently. No consumer laws exist in the way we are use to it in NZ. That's right, the main reason I got a car was to do the CA Drivers License test. After passing with flying colours both the written and driving test I am at a lost as to why it was so easy and why the two people in front of me failed the practical. It was so easy. No parallel parking, no reversing round corners, no hill starts. Anyway it suited me fine. Made life really simple. Overall I have been lucky. Everything has gone very smoothly. Banking, insurance, driving stuff, social security numbers and now I am also the owner of a 2nd hand 1994 Toyota Camry. A V6 3 litre with a cool sunroof. Touch wood; it is going well so far after I gave it a good spin in the hills in the last couple of days.

Part of a large outdoor shopping complex called Victoria Gardens

I headed up into the hills to a place called Crestline and went for a bit of a bash down a river. Pretty cool scenery but the local hills large that they are, all look very similar in terms of the bush and general feel. Not has diverse as the hills back home.

Lake Gregory

Right, this last weekend I went on my inaugural ESRI Hell Ride. Its an annual event and is run by Al, the guy I have been riding with. We had 18 riders turn up of all sorts of abilities and fitness levels and made for a very long but enjoyable day. The total I would have ridden for the day which includes a bit extra like biking home and some single track not all did would have been about 45 miles, with 3-4000ft of climbing and 7500ft of decent. We did the whole Santa Ana River Trail. Way up high at 5500ft the weather was nice but once we got back into Redlands 9hrs later it was 36 degrees. That's smoking hot after a big day in the sun, then I needed to bike home on the big bike up the hill. I sweated so much. I had 2 litres of Gatorade and heaps of water in an hour and was still thirsty. For me the sun and length of time in it with all the waiting and no shade made it a "Hell Ride". For others the distance was the cruncher. Others the technical stuff, my flatmates have some pretty solid crashes under their belt as a reasoning for it being called the "Hell Ride". Great times and I will do it next year. I can't wait to do the same ride much faster. Maybe in about 4hrs sometime shortly.

Before we hit the Trail (Jamie and Alex)

The Lineup at 6000 odd ft. About 2000m.

Getting the slinky effect going, waiting for the tail to catchup.

The Lead group, Al and the Intense Tires Distributor in tow...

I chose to follow Al upstream off the bank into and out of the river. Got real wet but unlike NZ at times you were dry 10mins later. These guys made the log crossing appear tricky. It was pretty narrow.

Bit like the Craigiburn Scree. Momentum is the key here. The Enduro loved it.

Some proof of some carnage. I tell ya we got some looks biking home through town :-)

At some stage I will put some video of the ride somewhere when I get some time to do it.

So yeah I guess overall things are going really well. I have lots to get use to come the summer with the lack of humidity and the temps. You get so dry and doing hardcore sports stuff really exacerbates things. Still I will keep the liquid up and give it my all.

My weekends are slowly booking up. This Sat we have a social Track and Field day for ESRI people. The Sat night is Jake's final farewell party. The next day (Lance you will be Jealous) I will head down to March Airfield base for a day of free airshows by the US Airforce. They will have F22 Raptors on show and a Stealth plane. As well as the Thunderbirds. Over here they use F16s as there stunt plans, not little Red Checkers. A couple of weekend after that may well be my first MTB race over here. At the Californian State Champs in the expert class.

Anyhow keep in touch and mind the spelling. The spell check is not working and I have no time to proof it. Of to play soccer at 8.45pm to help to Derek's team. They are short tonight.

Seeya al,

Kurt

Work is good... People are good... & most importantly the Biking is good

Well I have now spent 3 weeks in Redlands. Just had my 3rd weekend. My last post was after a week driving round sorting stuff out before work. I have now been at work for 2 weeks. It has been good. Will take a while to get right into things but there is heaps of scope that’s for sure. The people in my team are great as are many people at ESRI. Many have been welcoming and through a combination of the Flatmates and ESRI people I have met quite a few people. It’s great. People for socializing with and some great people for mountain biking with.

My Office (nice and cosy with the bike)

Last weekend I had my first ride in Redlands with Jamie and Jared. Alex also came alone with his new bike (brought a week after I arrived – I had nothing to do with it… I swearJ) and had a great time. None of us knew where to go but found some good challenging climbs (or hikes as Alex prefers) and some fun fire road and one good single track downhill. After 15 odd miles of biking we cruised to town and had a great sandwich for lunch. Mmm… Cranberry and Chicken.

Trails at Loma Linda (Jamie had just a wee spill)

The next day I went out with Al. He is a semi pro and so is Rob who also came along. (http://donsbikesraceteam.com/default.aspx) They proceeded to pull my legs apart bit by bit. It was a great ride up in Crafton. Yet another area ridable form home. The up was a bit like the Makara Pk 4wd road (or Rapaki for the Chch lot). Down was a fast single track, open with heaps of Hairpins. Then we went up the highway a bit and hit up 5 miles of sweet as, flowing rocky single track alone the floodplain of a river. Its called the ‘Wash’ and was a ton of fun. Both of them were well impressed that on my first run that on a hardtail I kept up with them. They were fast but I was loving it. Al has a Santa Cruz Nomad along with their sponsored Intense race bikes. So yeah all in all a great time. Can’t wait to get fit again and do some real epics with these fellows and maybe some races. We will see. Depends how well my lungs continue to filter out the smog which at times is real bad.

This weekend Redlands has been host to one of the largest cycling events in the States. Many top riders were here from the States and Europe. The Criterion in the town centre was awesome. The guys have big b**ls I tell ya. The speeds through some of the corners 4 deep are just awesome to watch. Mate on the little half inch of rubber touching the ground its awesome how far the lay the bike over. I also watched some of the road races which were up around where I live a few miles out of the town centre.

Patrolling the Redlands Classic (looking at his legs you can tell he does not walk... Still he has a gun so I am not going to argue)

On Sat before the racing I went back out to Loma Linda. This time I had been out during the week with someone from work (Andrew) and knew some of the tracks like Jedi and Razorback. Hehe at this stage I had my new bike. Did not take long aye. It is a Specialized S-Works Enduro. 2007 model and was a bargain. Got it through Don’s Cycles and Al. What a wicked bike. How a full suss should be. No more Jamis’s for me J Anyway the tracks were pretty cool. Pretty sandy and drifty. Razorback is a 4wd track along a ridge. It’s fast with heaps of rollers that you pump. Too much speed and if you are hitting it wrong you eat dirt as you front wheel piles into the next wee roller all wrong or you just lose it as you get kicked from one jumpy thing to the next or thrown in a rut. I was fast on the DMR but jeez the speed on the Enduro is just freaky. One thing I will get good at in these parts will be drifting. The sandy gritty stuff just asks it. Hit the front break at all in some spots and it will dig in and you will be superman for a split second before you crumple to the ground.Today I went out with Al to the lower reaches of the San Bernardino Mtns (The hills where I drove on my last post). I can see that there is going to be some great riding up there to come. Epics galore. Anyway we headed up the Old Californian 38 Highway. It is all slipped in and overgrown but was a great way of gaining some height. Through Angelus Oaks and further up hill. We got out of the pea soup and were well above the cloud layer. I was real impressed with how the new machine pedals. For a 6inch bike it zips up the hill pretty well (must be the new 08 Fox Shox). I guess it’s only 33 pounds, but it will get me fit taking it out lots instead of the hard tail. Anyway got to the top of the hill and dropped into 5 odd miles of sweet single track. It was part of the Santa Ana trail.

A Mtn store at Angelus Oaks after about 1600 ft of climbing

View well above the clouds about 5000ft above sea level

Pushing the new machine up what was near to a small cliff :-)


Back into the muck

Anyway this single track was sweet. A bit reminiscent of the Craigiburn Trail back home. Scree slopes, drops, rocks, heaps more shingle and some snow not to mention some evil alpine plants. It was wicked trying to hang off the back of Al on his Nomad tearing it up. To think that the Santa Ana track in its entirety is 35 miles of that sorta single track. Can’t wait. After pluggin along this we were back into the pea soup and it was cold. Al got a flat then we charged down the fire roads. I was a bit tentative about getting a 6 inch bike so early (I mean I don’t even have a car yet) but it was sooooo worth it. The ruts and terrain and line picking down these fire roads was wicked at speed with some suspension so swallow it up. I would have been a cripple after doing it on the hardtail, well at speed anyway.

Take 2: A rocky sketcy swicthback (much steeper than it looks)

So yeah my impression of the mountain biking so far; the tracks in Chch and Welly are better in terms of the ones which are ridable form work/home. However they still seem fun here. Further afield however some wicked riding is to be had just 15 mins drive from home. So yeah I think it’s going to rock. Of course within 2-3hrs drive the options are countless. There is so much to explore. Joshua Tree, Santa Barbara, Fontana, San Diego, Laguna Beach. 5-6hrs hour’s drive = Crafton Mesa in Utah (many here say its better than Moab), Flagstaff and Sedona in Arizona and Mammoth Mtn in Northern California, also the stuff near San Francisco. Bring it on…

Redlands Classic Photos

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=33590&l=2007f&id=518882572

Mountian Biking Pics in Redlands Areas so far

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=33591&l=d330a&id=518882572