2009-10-04 - Gridley-Pratt Loop, Ojai
Gridley/Pratt was Intense Fun, as we'd expect from a ride by Intense Ron! Ron, Paul, Azimi, Otto, UPSEd, and Igor were all present, and a new OTB'er Justin who just moved to Santa Monica a week ago.
Justin passed the OTB oral test. “Did you like this ride?” His answer; “Yes.” Next comes the written test (sign on to the forums!). Followed by the practical (Showing up for the next ride). Welcome aboard Justin, it was great riding with you, and you did great. I'm looking forward to getting you out on some more of our so cal goodness.
What a fantastic day out there. It doesn't get better than that, except when you don't get lost. We won't mention which persian/hungarian duo the posse were following :).
For those unfamiliar with the loop (and until today I was one of them), Gridley starts with a sweet, steep single track climb that ends in a short HAB. Paul, Ron and I started a few minutes after the others, as I forgot to tighten my front axle after riding out in Paul's car. It's been a while since I've ridden the supershuttle, and i'm just used to the QR on the Edison. After the HAB, there was no sign of the crew, so we continued up at a good pace hoping to catch them soon. Little did we know that were on some fire road going the wrong way.
The climb mellows out for a while, get's steeper and throws in some switchbacks for good measure, then mellows out for the final mile to the top.
We passed another group climbing up, Paul got to the top, and I wasn't far behind, stopping to take photos. There was no radio contact from the top, so I rode back down to the end of the switchbacks, and from there got radio contact and found out what had happened.
We made it to the top, and headed up to Nordhoff Peak, at 4500' elevation, with a tower that offers a 360 degree view. Visibility was great looking north and west, but south towards the ocean it was pretty hazy.
Lunch was served at the picnic table, before suiting up for the downhill run to Pratt. The fire road was fast and loose. Unintentional drifting mandatory, a couple of wall rides, a couple of small rises from which to get a little air.
The group headed down the first section of Pratt which is fast, fairly straight, but has several sections, most of which are right after blind bends (where people have gone off the edge of the trail, causing the edge of the trail to slide) that are narrow, loose, and steeply off camber. It was a blast charging down that and trying to stay on the trail at speed. The next section was a short fire road, before we climbed a relentless little single track, that then turned downhill for a short way, before hitting us with a steep HAB that nobody attempted, and another series of rocky steps and waterbars that made for a challenging climb. Igor and I both cleaned the steep section, sessioning it a few times.
Justin was out of water, so I got him topped off enough to make it out. From there it was downhill again, and the trail took another change of character. It became much steeper with rocky step-down chutes, tight switchbacks. The features seemed to get progressively more difficult which was great.
I was riding ahead, taking photos, then we re-grouped and repeated. Thanks Ron for letting me lead out the bottom section. It was a blast seeing stuff so technical and riding it all without scouting lines. I sometimes think stopping to think about lines makes it more difficult than just going with instinct and hitting things without breaking momentum. It worked for me today.
Actually everyone did really well. Ron was his usual smooth and confident self, Ron Azimi and Otto both rode sections they probably would have walked had they been given a chance to think about it. Justin, the new blood in the group, did really well on a Blur XC with no armor. Fortunately he didn't leave any new blood on the trail, and handled his bike really well.
It was definitely a rush coming down and seeing several different styles of trail on the way down: smooth, flowing and fast; fire road; technical, but all rideable rock chutes and gardens. I'd have been fine on the Edison, but was happy to finally have the Supershuttle built back up (and to have a gravity dropper again!). It did well, though I still need to tweak a few more things on it to get it dialed after it's 10 month hiatus.
Thanks everyone for a really memorable day on the trails. Pizza was awesome, and even the traffic on the way back didn't seem so intolerable. I'm looking forward to doing more exploring out there. I know we've barely scratched the Ojai surface.
Read MoreJustin passed the OTB oral test. “Did you like this ride?” His answer; “Yes.” Next comes the written test (sign on to the forums!). Followed by the practical (Showing up for the next ride). Welcome aboard Justin, it was great riding with you, and you did great. I'm looking forward to getting you out on some more of our so cal goodness.
What a fantastic day out there. It doesn't get better than that, except when you don't get lost. We won't mention which persian/hungarian duo the posse were following :).
For those unfamiliar with the loop (and until today I was one of them), Gridley starts with a sweet, steep single track climb that ends in a short HAB. Paul, Ron and I started a few minutes after the others, as I forgot to tighten my front axle after riding out in Paul's car. It's been a while since I've ridden the supershuttle, and i'm just used to the QR on the Edison. After the HAB, there was no sign of the crew, so we continued up at a good pace hoping to catch them soon. Little did we know that were on some fire road going the wrong way.
The climb mellows out for a while, get's steeper and throws in some switchbacks for good measure, then mellows out for the final mile to the top.
We passed another group climbing up, Paul got to the top, and I wasn't far behind, stopping to take photos. There was no radio contact from the top, so I rode back down to the end of the switchbacks, and from there got radio contact and found out what had happened.
We made it to the top, and headed up to Nordhoff Peak, at 4500' elevation, with a tower that offers a 360 degree view. Visibility was great looking north and west, but south towards the ocean it was pretty hazy.
Lunch was served at the picnic table, before suiting up for the downhill run to Pratt. The fire road was fast and loose. Unintentional drifting mandatory, a couple of wall rides, a couple of small rises from which to get a little air.
The group headed down the first section of Pratt which is fast, fairly straight, but has several sections, most of which are right after blind bends (where people have gone off the edge of the trail, causing the edge of the trail to slide) that are narrow, loose, and steeply off camber. It was a blast charging down that and trying to stay on the trail at speed. The next section was a short fire road, before we climbed a relentless little single track, that then turned downhill for a short way, before hitting us with a steep HAB that nobody attempted, and another series of rocky steps and waterbars that made for a challenging climb. Igor and I both cleaned the steep section, sessioning it a few times.
Justin was out of water, so I got him topped off enough to make it out. From there it was downhill again, and the trail took another change of character. It became much steeper with rocky step-down chutes, tight switchbacks. The features seemed to get progressively more difficult which was great.
I was riding ahead, taking photos, then we re-grouped and repeated. Thanks Ron for letting me lead out the bottom section. It was a blast seeing stuff so technical and riding it all without scouting lines. I sometimes think stopping to think about lines makes it more difficult than just going with instinct and hitting things without breaking momentum. It worked for me today.
Actually everyone did really well. Ron was his usual smooth and confident self, Ron Azimi and Otto both rode sections they probably would have walked had they been given a chance to think about it. Justin, the new blood in the group, did really well on a Blur XC with no armor. Fortunately he didn't leave any new blood on the trail, and handled his bike really well.
It was definitely a rush coming down and seeing several different styles of trail on the way down: smooth, flowing and fast; fire road; technical, but all rideable rock chutes and gardens. I'd have been fine on the Edison, but was happy to finally have the Supershuttle built back up (and to have a gravity dropper again!). It did well, though I still need to tweak a few more things on it to get it dialed after it's 10 month hiatus.
Thanks everyone for a really memorable day on the trails. Pizza was awesome, and even the traffic on the way back didn't seem so intolerable. I'm looking forward to doing more exploring out there. I know we've barely scratched the Ojai surface.
