Quoted message said:i all,
I'm out of town in Minneapolis, but just saw this and feel I have to
respond here on the forum.As someone who has ridden all of these trails, this schedule has
problems.First, Noble Canyon is San Diego's signature trail. This shouldn't be
scheduled for Friday. Lots of folks can't make the Friday ride due to
work or school, plus many arrive too late in the day to join an 8:00
ride that day. Also, Noble is a long, difficult ride (a great ride, but
a challenging trail), so putting Noble on Friday risks wiping everyone
out for the remainder of the weekend. The recent ride by some of our
stronger riders had them commenting about sore legs for several days
afterward (and this from teenagers!). Also, Noble takes 5 hours "on the
trail" to ride by strong riders. With all types of riders coming to
CMW, you can't expect it to finish in the time allotted. Plus, it's a
shuttle ride, so to start it at 8 means assembling the group at 7...my
experience at CMW's is people don't necessarily get going that early.
The trailhead's also about 45 minutes out of town so that means even
earlier for leaving hotels and campsites. It just makes more sense to
plan Noble for Sunday (like Downieville has been in the past at other
CMW's).Saturday looks basically ok as a trail plan except for the timing. It's
too optimistic to figure people can ride Iron and then 45 minutes later
be at and ready for a trials comp. Iron will take anywhere from 2.5
hours (if you just do a straight up and down with no playing around) to
4+ hours if you go the long way around (up main trailhead and back
Ellie Lane for example). The timing just looks too tight.Third, Sunday's Mt. Woodson ride doesn't qualify for CMW in my opinion.
It's just shy of 2 hours just to hike up. Plus the lower half to 2/3 of
the trail is totally non-technical and boring road. Yes, the top third
is pretty nice, but not worth the hike to access. Also, the ride down's
flat out a pain in the quads to suffer through the long, boring lower
section. We have better options, such as Elfin Forest, or Cowles
Mountain.Sorry to kind of rain on the parade here, but this just doesn't look
workable or appropriate to me. That's my 2 cents' worth.Jerry
Okay Jerry, I've moved Noble to Sunday so I guess this will have a
memorable ending ride. I can move the trials comp back on saturday, and
I listed the dinner that early because so far it's looking as if the
trials comp and the dinner will be at the same place.
I actually haven't ridden Noble yet, but I'm thinking we would
do just the second half to make it a bit shorter and easier on people.
I'll see about Mount Woodson, I remember it being exhausting but
great fun, and I did that on a trials uni.
Quoted message said:I don't know anything about the trails listed, but I did notice the
Saturday schedule looked a little strange. 4 hours for a ride, followed
in 45 minutes by a Trials comp? Doesn't seem to allow drive time. Also
doesn't seem to allow lunch, but that's okay, Group Dinner at 2:30?Sounds like there's more time to play with on Saturday. Maybe the same
activities, but spaced out better to fit the day. An early start is
best done on the Saturday of these events, when everyone's gotten there
and is generally prepared to go. Friday, as JP mentioned, will have
limited attendance, especially if you start early. Sunday is also
usually less-attended because some people have to leave early, others
have to leave in the afternoon, etc.So JP's idea of switching the Friday ride to Sunday sounds great, plus
starting later sounds like it would be a necessitiy. If that's the ride
that you're looking for shuttle drivers on, there's logistical time
that must be allowed. Maybe start at 8:00 at the everybody-parks place,
and go from there. But then some people might still consider 8 a little
early for a Sunday. If it's the only activity of the day it could start
a little later as well...I don't know enough about the various trails to make meaningful
suggestions, other than to leave more time than you think you'll need.
Don't base ride times on a bunch of fit, hardcore riders doing a local
(fast) ride. It'll be more like a big party, with people doing Trials
lines along the way (terrain permitting), taking pictures, hanging out,
and some riders who won't be very fast. Usually our overall pace turns
out to be something a hiker can keep up with, which you may have
noticed at Moab or previous MUni Weekends.With the existing schedule, it looks like Saturday has room at the end
of the day, though the morning ride plus Trials comp plus two meals
will take longer than it's currently scheduled. It might be possible to
put the beach ride on late Saturday afternoon. Again, I don't know if
this is a trail, or playing on cool terrain at the beach.What are the specifics of the rides you listed? Distance, side trail
options, amount of ups & downs, and technical difficulty? It will help
a lot to know all that.
I'm not sure about the logistics yet but I'll try to get that
information up soon. (sometime this week). The beach ride would be
riding around at the beach (cement sidewalk, obstacles to play around
on), and there are also some fun cliffs for those of us who like
downhill riding. The beach would be great for all sorts of riding, from
coker to freestyle to trials to muni.
Would people like to do the muni ride on saturday, go get pizza as a
group, and then head over to the trials competition/ dinner gathering?
Quoted message said:Perhaps have an easy, on-ambitious ride on Friday when most people won't
be there, go for Iron Mt. on Sat. and Noble to wrap it all up. Putting
much attention on trials comps at a Muni event is counterproductive.
It's an afterthought and the focus shold remain on trail riding, IMO.This could be a great event.
JL
by "on-ambitious" do you mean hard/ grueling, or is that a typo and do
you mean un-ambitious? I think it's the second one...
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'California Mountain Unicycle Weekend 2008'
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