Nevada City Endurance Ride

Saturday, as you know, I did a 50 mile mountain bike ride to raise money for Big Brothers Big Sisters of Nevada County. I completed the ride on my singlespeed.

When I first heard of this ride a few years ago I thought that 50 miles on a mountain bike was insanity and that there is no way I could do something like that. I heard that people had done it on a singlespeed too, and was convinced they were not human. Well, here I am, doing this very ride on my singlespeed. Perception has changed for me and I am very pleased with my performance. You may, or may not, know that I am training for the Cascade Creampuff, a 100 mile mountain bike race with 18,000 feet of climbing. This race takes place in July and though I’m not ready for it yet, I really feel like I’m getting there. I couldn’t be training this well with out the support of my wife Erin! She’s been very helpful and supportive and I am indebted to her. Erin I love you!

The ride:

It turns out that the title sweeper really means, you ride as slow as the slowest rider. Not too bad if you have gears, but when the option is to pedal really slowly or walk, it makes things a little more challenging.

The ride was split into two groups, those completing 45 miles and those doing 50 miles. Our (myself and Xtreme Outfitters team mate Troy Groves) responsibility was to make sure the 50 mile riders made the correct turns and made it back to Nevada City safely.

We were some of the last riders to leave Pioneer Park in Nevada City about 7:30 am.

HIGHWAY 20 HEADING EAST

We rode through town and up Highway 20 to the Snow Mountain Ditch,

A 45 MILE RIDER ON THE SNOW MOUNTAIN DITCH

where we caught our first 50 mile riders. One was a woman that we have ridden with up in the high country, a very skilled rider. With her was a man who was setting a slow pace. We continued up Harmony Ridge on the Pioneer trail through rock gardens lined with flowers and some short steep sections.

A YELLOW MIMULUS ALONG THE PIONEER TRAIL

The Pioneer Trail is pretty fast and climbs gradually. I had been expecting to feel relatively good on this section as I am very familiar with it and it is well suited to the singlespeed.

TROY AND OUR 50 MILERS ON THE PIONEER TRAIL

We reached the Omega Road at about 10:15 am, had a few oranges and bombed down the fast road to the remote and toothless town of Washington, California. A few miles up the gravel road we reached our lunch stop.

I ate the tofu I had brought with me and had some Vitamin Water provided by BBBS. (Good thing I had brought the tofu, their vegetarian sandwiches were covered with cheese.) We sat around waiting for our two 50 mile riders to get ready to continue when someone asked the crowd of lunch eaters if we had a spare derailleur cable. A rider had sheared his off rear derailleur cable on the descent. I had a spare cable! The crowd remarked how funny it was that the singlespeed guy was carrying a spare derailleur cable. A few minutes more and I was informed that our riders had decided to do the 45 mile ride. This was a good thing as the gentleman was clearly showing signs exhaustion and I was concerned about his ability to finish the ride ahead.

We got on our bikes and headed downstream on the South Yuba Trail. 17 remote miles of singletrack and 12 miles of road awaited us. The singletrack was quite narrow in places and climbed away from the river and descended back to it time and time again. At about mile 30 I was starting to get hot and tired. Having to walk section after section due to the steepness of the trail I was starting to worry about my ability to finish the ride…

THIS IS ME WALKING AND GETTING WORRIED

A bit further down the trail came a section of trail that snakes up and down over 11 or so switchbacks. This was a good thing as I know knew where I was and had ridden the section ahead on my singlespeed before. Things were starting to look up again.

THIS IS ME WALKING AND STARTING TO FEEL BETTER

Within a few minutes we caught our next riders. Three fellas who had driven all the way up from Lompoc, CA to complete this ride. These guys were in their 40’s or 50’s, on good bikes and showing signs of exhaustion. We came to our next feed zone, a remote section of trail that BBBS volunteers had hiked into. They had brought food and bottled water with them. Troy and I checked our bikes, relaxed for a few minutes and I tried to wash off some of the poison oak in the cold stream nearby.

I’ll take this time to say that BBBS had a few volunteers that spent days clearing the poison oak from the trail. They did an amazing job and the trail was almost completely poison oak free!

A FEW SCENIC SECTIONS OF THE SOUTH YUBA TRAIL INCLUDING A WATERFALL ON ONE OF THE CREEKS FLOWING INTO THE YUBA

We caught back up with our riders quickly, they were slowing down and walking some of the climbs, fine with me, I walked them too. The rest of the section of single track was relatively uneventful except for the rattlesnake. As I was making my way out of a technical creek crossing Troy starting yelling at me “Snake! Snake! Snake! Snake!” To which I replied “huh?” I then saw and heard the little bugger about a foot in front of my wheel, quickly hit the brakes and rolled back on my rear wheel away from him. He then turned around and slithered off the trail down the hill. That was pretty exciting. Unfortunately he was moving too fast for me to get a picture.

Our next food break was at the end of the singletrack. We refueled and headed down the gravel road to Edwards Crossing, a location I had been cautious about since I had first contemplated this ride. The paved road climb out of Edwards is quite steep and usually takes about 20 minutes, it’s about 3.5 miles and 1000 feet of climbing and up to a 20% grade.

At the bottom I told my fellow riders I’d see them at the top as I couldn’t gear down, (as they could) and had to go at my own pace. About ¼ mile into the ride a pickup drove by with two young ladies in it, the driver, as if thinking I was a piece of meat, said to me “oh, yeah!” That gave me a little momentum J A bit further up the road someone driving down in a green Subaru yelled out the window “Go Hyland!” Being cross eyed with sweat in my face at the time, I couldn’t tell who it was. I rode up past the next switchback and the road pitched up again. This is where I got off and walked for about 100 yards. I heard a car coming again and as the road had leveled off a bit, I got back on the bike and pedaled the rest of the way up. It wasn’t easy, but I made it all the way. I was quite pleased with myself.

THIS IS ME TOWARDS THE TOP OF THE CLIMB OUT OF EDWARDS CROSSING

The five of us regrouped at the top of the climb and rode out North Bloomfield back to Nevada City.

This was a fun ride for a very good cause. I really appreciate your support and I probably wouldn’t have ridden my singlspeed if it weren’t for a few of you sadistic people offering me more money to do so.

I thank you.

Big Brothers and Big Sisters of Nevada County thank you.