He sms's back : " come my house 0645 and we will make one, coffee ready at 0630".
I text back a bunch of questions but he is not chatty at all. So I go unknowing but prepared. I take a thermos of milk tea, a water bottle of mango juice, a bottle of water, 2 pbj sandwiches , some dates and more tools and spares anyone would ever need and ride down the mountain.
I arrive at Thomas's house and find two bikes upside down outside his workshop and Thomas busy fixing something. That is a bad sign, more than likely there will be mechanicals.
Despite being five minutes late but I am offered coffee anyway. The coffee I am told is on Thomas's work bench. I find 10 empty cups and a big pot of coffee. Hmmm. "Thomas! how many people are coming? "
Thomas mumbles "Well maybe 7 or 8." and sheepishly continues to work on his bike.
Hmmm. The amount of time actually riding goes down exponentially with the number of riders on a ride due to mechanical failures. The curve gets steeper depending upon the experience of the riders. The names include a fair number of unknowns, and some knowns but not regulars.
But the list includes my buddy Wes Krause. I haven't seen him for half a year so I figure it "will be a good one" if he is along. If I could chose a mtn bike riding partner it would be him.
As expected there are mechanicals right away. See the loop on the map. We go 2 km, and then have to start over. It is issues with Thomas's bike all day that keep us from riding constantly. The stops turn into social times and so the day is a good one.
My phone runs out of charge so I miss mapping the last hour or so. Need to figure that out.
State of some of the trails.
In the middle we drop the bikes and hike up Oljoro Hill. Pretty steep but the views are pretty good over my shoulder.
Just about to reach the top.
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