Hopper 3

I haven�t had this much fun on two wheels since�.last weekend!!!

Since this year I�m determined to race each and every one of these dang things, I was not deterred by the forecast of thunderstorms and 40 degree weather in Point Reyes. I have become so accustomed to suffering, that minor inconveniences such as these barely register anymore.

But hey! As I drove down the coast, the clouds parted and blue skies appeared! It turned out to be an absolutely gorgeous day, and the views from the top of every ridge we scaled were phenomenal! Congrats to P and G for settling down in such a gawd-awfully beautiful place, even though I miss the heck out of you guys.

This was much less of a race and more like a maze. No offense to Kim and her awesome maps. It took me a few years to know the Willow Creek trails well enough not to get lost, so I�m okay with this. Plus, the 2 wrong turns I took turned out to be shortcuts. I�m okay with this, too, since after it was said and done, I wouldn�t have wanted to be on my bike for another nano-second. Nearly 4 hours of riding my mt. bike HARD, is enough. Enough, I say!

I was fortunate enough to have company almost throughout the ride. Pauline and I suffered together on the ascent of Mt. Vision, and we laughed together like children down the single track descent. Shortly after that I took my first wrong turn, but had Pauline to work with and we rejoined the route shortly. I enjoyed a brief spell of riding with Fisher, and we also took a wrong turn together. We were faced with going up or down, so what would YOU do???

At the bottom of the Bolinas-Fairfax climb, I was caught by Krage Olrich, Matt Carpenter, and Jon Ardell and we suffered together up that climb on our knobby tires. They had taken something like an 11 mile and 10,000 vertical foot long-cut and I think they were at the end of their ropes. We had a chill ride up to the top. Then came the Ridge Trail, and there was snow along the trail! SNOW!!! Krage and Jon went off in search of the finish line with more spunk than Matt and I could muster, but we forged on at a decent pace. They views were excellent! The trail was ****ed up, but it was still pretty darn fun.

Thank you Allison for strongly advising me to ride my mountain bike! You were right! And I�m sorry that I cheated with those 2 shortcuts!

xxoo - Claire

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