Wilder Ranch

Several conversations have taken place while riding in the past couple weeks regarding bad bike injuries that occur at low speeds. Despite the fact that these crashes leave you out of commission while you heal, they don't leave you with any good war-stories. Unfortunately a crash at 3 mph doesn't have the same dramatic story appeal as a crash at 38 mph! That said, it is the 3 mph crash and not the 38 mph crash that has lead me to wear body armor on my legs. I find this ironic.

Unfortunately Eric suffered one such injury late Friday night which left me and Russ on our own Saturday morning. A last minute shuffle of plans and a 6:00 AM phone call left us with a decision to head south to Wilder Ranch. We met at Best Buy, loaded my bike onto the Prius and headed out (Thanks for driving Russ).

The ride: We parked along highway 1 parallel to the Wilder ranch parking lot. We rode around to the farmhouse and started on our journey. I made a navigation error that took us 4 miles right back to where we started on Engelsman Loop. We chalked this up as a good warm up :). After the "warm up" we rode a loop that connected Wilder Ridge loop - Dairy Trail - Zane Gray and back to Wilder Ridge loop.

It was in this loop that we had our first wildlife encouters. A fox crossed our trail about 15 feet ahead of us. It elegantly ignored us and moved on it's way. Towards the end of this loop there was a steep rocky single track climb with an amazing view of the Pacific Ocean. To the right you can see Russ powering his way to a finish on this section. The picture does not do justice to the grade of the trail. We took a quick break at the top where Russ had a Darwinian encounter with a tick crawling on his leg. The sound of the hard shell cracking between Russ's finger tips was the sounding bell of the defeat of the tick.

At this point the true fun began. We completed Wilder Ridge loop and hit the Old Cabin Trail. It is amazing how quickly the terrain can change. In the passing of a few trees you are transported from a warm prarie grassland with an ocean view to a myserious forest where the temperature and floor drop and the light vanishes. I really love the feel of this trail. I think King Kong would find it a cozy home.

We were short on time so we pounded through Old Cabin and finished up at the farm house. Before packing we took a quick ride to the cliffs above Wilder Beach. This is truly a breathtaking view. Russ and I agreed that it is probably a bit of an aggressive goal to land a drop over the 50 foot cliff with a beach landing. Maybe not this summer anyway. If anybody is excited by this prospect take a look at how the pros do it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zu2Qqi9bzkc

On our way from the cliffs to the car we had our 3rd wildlife encounter with a bobcat which was slowly walking down the trail! We slowed our speed and discussed whether or not we knew the proper bobcat encouter protocol. We agreed that we needed to move slow as not to look like running prey and to look big (this was pretty easy for some burly guys like us).

The cat moved on, we packed up the car and were on our way to our lunch dates, where Russ had the 4th and final wildlife encounter...

Upon arriving at Chevy's for lunch, he felt an intense pain in the left leg. He looked down and saw a tiny deer tick chomping on his quad. Russ yanked him out by his head and ended up with a pretty nasty-looking bite mark. Fortunately, he was only engaged for a matter of hours, which reduces the likelihood of Lyme Disease. Of course, Russ will be on the lookout for the symptoms, but the probability of contracting the disease is low.

Stats:
Moving time: 1:57:31
Total distance: 14.54 miles
Maximum speed: 34.5 mph
Elevation Gain: 2,068 ft
Average speed: 7.4 mph