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Flight Articles from Bike & Fly Weekend Starting Saturday 5/6/06 (in order of posting time stamp)
[Skippy] [Bob Ramey]

Bob Ramey
5/7/06 - 5/9 Bike Trip

I left Bates at 9 AM - I arrived at McPherson about 1 pm with 13 miles on my odometer.  I had to push my bike about half way up the hill from Bates.  As it turns out I pushed the bike a lot.  I'm aware that that this is frowned upon but the "pros" but as a practical matter only a few of us including EJ, Little John, and Hammer can do the whole thing with out hiking a significant portion.  My lemma is "keep a pace you maintain no matter what" stressing yourself and trying to rest doesn't work.  Its all about managment of energy reserve.

So I biked across to the turn of to SB canyon.  I think I had may 30 miles on the odometer.  Kept going to Alamar Campground arriving about 7 PM.  Made a nice little fire, a sandwich,  and when to bed at 9 pm after taking care to hang my food from a tree to protect it from bears and racoons.  I didn't feel I could risk losing my food.  At that time I also discovered that my camel back has sprung a leak but would still hold 1 liter so it was ok as long as I kept an eye on it.

The next day I left at 8 am.  I've ridden this road before so no major surprises.  The road is in much worse shape - blocked with rock slides, fallen trees etc - than I've ever seen it.  Totally impassible by any other vehicle.  Down Little Pine past Bluff Camp and arriving at Little Pine at 1 PM Monday.  Didn't stop.  Continued on to the junction of the Camuesa Trail and trail to Upper Oso.  Before we've always gone to upper Oso to Paradise Road.  I'm thinking: I don't want to ride home over San Marcos Pass, and besides, energy management considerations would argue for conserving altitude.  I already had the map showing the route to Pendola which was more or less the same distance to Paradise Store.  So I decide to go east along the Camuesa Trail.

A very beautiful ride - but not the gentle downhill I was expecting.  I had to get off a push a significant amount and hump my bike and gear over a number of locked gates.  Finally I made it to Pendola at 5 PM with 70+ miles on my odometer.  By this time I had seen two people since I left Bates - a hiker and a biker going up Little Pine.  At Pendola I realized that what I really wanted was Juncal - a couple more miles east.  I got there maybe about 6 PM.  I didn't find a really attractive campsite so pushed on up toward to Romero Saddle.  Again lots of pushing.

About a third of the way up its about 1/2 hour before sunset and I didn't think I wanted to ride home in the dark.  By this time I'm at 82 miles on the odometer.  I was also getting tired.  I pulled off by a creek and unpacked some stuff and went right to sleep just as sun was setting.  I awoke early and set off at 6 AM.  Up to Romero Saddle, across to Gibralter Road and home.  Arrived with:104+ miles on my odometer, 5 lbs less weight, broken bike rack, thrashed bike, numerous leg cramps and some occasional chest pains.

Got into the garage, unpacked my stuff, took a shower, went out to breakfast at the Cajun Kitchen - 3 blueberry pancakes and a large orange juice.  Then went to my current job at 11:30 AM.  So it was all in all a pretty successful and interesting trip.  The only thing I can't understand is why no one else wanted to go?