Sheetiron blah blah blah

This post is totally late. Paul and I did the Sheetiron May 19th and 20th. I won't write anything nearly as entertaining as previous entries (see 2003 and 2004) because we took it fairly easy. I actually get worse at this every year, and without James to keep pushing me to hard splits, and with the real problem: heavy traffic, I have just opted for slow and steady. there seemed to be about 500 riders, which is too goddam many for me to want to try the hard splits. Most of those guys want to blow through as fast as they can (indeed, many seem to be regular enduro riders who forget and anre not accustomed to riding with two-way car traffic) and that leaves no time and space for me to "try" harder stuff.

Or something.




Anyway. We took Friday off, and Lional and Jason came to Berkeley to pick us up with our bikes. Nice! No riding 4 hours north on knobbies after work! I was good and beer-y by the time we got to Stonyford, and we set up tents and checked in while I drank more beer and got loud.

Saturday was a lovely day, which just meant that Paul was suffering miserably from allergies. Like, really miserable. So we cut out after Ukiah and took the street to Fort Bragg to get Paul into a shower and bed for a while.















































sunday we left early, arrived late, and I crashed once in between. Once is still really not enough for a good Sheetiron experience, so meh. I did break a lever and because something similar had happened to me before, I was carrying spares. Paul fixed it in no time, and we were backon the road. Phil Douglas was not on the ride, so I decided against getting a flat tire. Maybe next time!
The Tank Trapper didn't materialize (never again?) but it was less flat than last year. A few puddles, a few ruts, a lot of pretty vistas.


There was snow at Mendocino pass, but a little less than usual (and a lot less than last year) The weather was beautiful, unlike last year. Dust made it hard to see after someone passed, but was temporary, unlike last year's constant zero-visibility.






















After arriving back in Stonyford, we watched folks fart around a while before finally getting loaded up (and then getting loaded?) and back on our way. Lionel dropped us off in Berkeley around 10:30. It was sooooo nice having a ride up and back, and getting to spend time chatting with Lionel who is one of the nicest people I know. (but, as he noted, not quite as nice as Clay) Lionel is teh cool. Thanks for the ride, Lionel! And the beer!



"Road not Maintained During Winter Months" We missed you James.