Mountain Biking White Mountain Peak CA

It’s been more than 6 months since I went for a mountain bike ride.  So I decided to break the hiatus with a proper ride.  Of the peaks higher than 14,000 (4,200 m) in California only one has a 4x4 track to the summit.  I have never thought to hike up White Mountain Peak.  Who wants to hike up a sketchy dirt road?  Yeah it’s a fourteener, but hiking a 4x4 road just doesn’t seem very much fun.  Now, mountain biking that same road does seem like a really good idea.  So on Friday I drove up to the Bristlecone Pine forest.  I love that place.  The vegetation is minimal, the colors subtle, it’s a very special place full of trees that predate the time of Abraham - by more than 1,000 years.  Think about that for a moment.    The trailhead is above timberline, at 11,600 ft.  I spent the night sleeping on the ground without a tent.  The moon set early, about 23:30.  Being at elevation and waking frequently I was treated to a sky alight with stars.  It’s easy to forget just how bright a cloudless night can be when you live in the city. 

Saturday morning I woke and heated up some lentil soup and made a mug of espresso.  There were a dozen or so hikers that began before I got on the trail.  The ride uphill was as much walking my bike as it was riding.  Pushing a bike is much slower than hiking.  But I didn’t mind.  I was looking forward to the descent.  The White Mountains are a beautiful place so it is a beautiful hike, despite the 4x4 track.  I finally locked up my bike when I had to leave the dirt road close to the summit.  There are still a few large snow drifts blocking the path.  When I reached the weather station at the top there was only one other person there and he departed before I did.  It is always a bit magical to be alone on the summit of a mountain.  That is probably one of my happiest places to be, alone on a mountain top. 

Making my way back to my bike I was looking at a 7 mile ride dropping 4,400 ft.  The path is rocky, some of it loose, some patches of sand, some serious exposure in spots.  As I mentioned it has been a while since I was on a bike.  What is more I have not ridden hard since I broke my clavicle two years ago on a ride.  So this was a chance to relearn a rusty skill set.  Riding down steep rocky terrain can be a bit unnerving.  If you only ride on roads of rolling terrain then you probably don’t think too much about how you use the brakes on a bike.  But when you are riding down a steep, fast section, of rocky, loose 4x4 trail how you use your brakes is suddenly at the forefront of your thoughts.  The front brake scrubs speed much faster but apply it in on a soft section and you can end up in the air in front of the bike.  Too much rear brake and the back end begins sliding about.  Flying through a rock garden or over drops and it’s best to let go of braking and concentrate on picking the best line.  This takes faith because it is not what your mind wants.  You look ahead and see a challenging section and your mind is telling you: slow down!  But when you come up on it quick all you can do is let go of the brakes and aim until you get past the bumps.  It’s fun but also nerve racking. 

Needless to say the return to the truck much faster than the ascent.  What a wonderful way to begin a Saturday.  On my way out of the Whites I stopped at the Patriarch Grove.  This is the home to the oldest known living Bristlecone Pine.  You can’t drive all the way to the normal parking lot due to snow drifts so I struck out on foot to snap a few pictures.  The slope was steep and rocky as I moved about snapping pics.  At one point I sat down to change lenses.  As I was removing the telephoto from my Nikon my wide angle zoom rolled out of my camera bag and I watched it roll slowly down the rocks until it stopped about 10 feet below me.  There was nothing I could to but watch.  Retrieving it, I found it wouldn’t auto focus any longer, but while it does manually focus it won’t talk to the camera.  Oh, then there is the little rattling sound that now comes from it.  Oops.  So it goes.

Mountain Biking the Margallas

I haven’t gone shopping for rugs yet.  This morning I got off to a late start.  Last night I went to play dominos and some silly card game at one of the other houses.  I was cajoled into staying later than I’d planned.  Not a bad thing though as this morning was a bit of a nasty thunder storm… not nasty as in ugly, rude or in a sexual way, just a serious downpour with lightening and stuff.  So the ride began a bit late.  I rode to Chilla Gah Imam Bari, a Muslim shrine where a local Sufi used to dwell back in the 17^th century.  I had to leave my bike near the bottom of the path up the mountain.  An old gentleman that didn’t speak English told me I couldn’t take my bike.  He also conveyed that it would be safe to leave it, so I did.  It was a nice walk up.  Many nice people, some make jokes in Urdu, usually kids.  I don’t mind as many people were happy to shake my hand and a few took photos with me.  By and large these are very nice people, much like people everywhere.  After visiting the top I collected the bike and went for another ride.  I went way up trail 5 to the top of Pir Sohawa road at Monal.  OK to be honest most of way I was carrying or pushing the bike, lots of big rocks, stair steps and it’s steep.  I made it to the top and took the road back down. I’d been wanting to ride down this road since I first saw it, steep curvy, looks like a blast for a bike.  There are several steep switch backs and I was hoping to take a nice fast run… oops, cheap tires, slippery road like an LA freeway after the 1^st rain, I spilled it on the 1^st switchback.  Luckily the slippery road surface doesn’t just cause rubber to slide, skin does as well, so the road rash is not as bad as I’d feared.  It is a strange and surreal moment, shoes clipped into pedals, knowing the bike is going over and then sliding across the lane; the realization that your skin is being rubbed off as you slide toward the guard rail.  Luckily there were no cars near the turn and I stopped short of the guard rail.  As I was putting my chain back on the chain ring a car stopped to see if I was OK.  Funny, I can rub soap on it to clean it up but water stings like a son of a bitch.  Anyway I rode more carefully the rest of the way down.  Though I did pass a couple of motor scooters on the way.  At the bottom, near 7^th Ave. a kid (boy in his 20’s I’d guess) on a motor scooter, began riding along with me.  He saw my right arm and was concerned.  I told him I was fine.  But he kept pace until we were at Atta Turk road where he was headed to the parking lot for trail 3.  Again some random kid, was genuinely concerned and quite nice.  These are good people, most of them.