is my new signature on MTBR, after G and i had a fantastic time yesterday at Silent Sunday. about once a month they close the road into Somo at Central Ave to all cars. this Sunday fortuitously coincided with the PF Chang’s marathon, which would give us a couple hours to kill downtown before meeting Beckie at 4 Peaks. I wanted to climb to the Towers, which is roughly an 8 mile, 1200 foot ascent. i’ve done it on the roadie and most of the climb on the mtb, and its tough but fun. but i wasn’t sure how it would be hauling the trailer. and more importantly, i was concerned i’d get G killed on the descent. so i swapped the trailer to the Blur from Beckie’s Superlight so I would be comfortable and have disc brakes. i figured worst case, i would just ride the brakes down the mountain and spend $30 for some new pads.

we got to the park about 8, still pretty cold, so time for a little breakfast and then G got to play driver while i got the gear together. she invented “The Horn Game” which while quite fun for the 2 of us, was annoying as shit to pretty much everyone else at the Park seeking to enjoy a day of vehicle-free outdoors.

i dressed us both pretty warm, and piled G high with fuzzy fleece blankets for the ride. the sun was coming up over fast over the mountain and i got warm quick, and felt G was probably ok. and i got a feel for both the climb and the descents in the 2 miles of road leading to the San Juan Road split, and decided that things would be ok. the trailer picks up speed quick, but as long as you are going straight and could see the next ascent, going over 15 for short stretches seemed ok — it wasn’t like i had to worry about cars. So off we went, me talking to G and pointing out all the sights and trails and places i’ve nearly broken my neck.

I got a lot of love from most of the other roadies climbing the hill. which was actually a little surprising. Sometimes Somo can be super-snobby with the roadies, and sometimes roadies are going too fast to be nice, and sometimes roadies just get grumpy with all the cars. but despite looking as much like a mountain biker as possible with many bulky clothes and tools and my enormous bike-a-zilla, anyone who saw me dragging us up that hill knew i was no overweight shuttler, and i wound up having a surprisingly good time bantering with people. that, and i was yapping baby talk to G the whole way up, which made for just a plain ole silly scene.

Some comments:

• Holy moly
• holy cow
• holy shit dude
• going all the way to the top (you crazy mutthafugga?)
• ¡uno pocito! bueno amigo!
• you are the parent of the year – NB: this is do not think is true, as a truly good parent would not drag their kid out of bed on a winter morning and pedal her up a twisty mountain road
• and my favorite:
  • Random Roadie: Did you ride that all the way up here?
  • Me: No, we came up National

the climb took 1:05, and other than a quick break at Telegraph to lose some layers and p, it was pretty steady. the mtb gearing and cockpit made for a reasonably comfortable but mellow grind.

actual proof that we actually made it to the top

that’s why the climb was so hard…hauling that damn monkey!

G and I walked around for awhile at the top, we sat methodically on each individual curb, and she had a PowerBar. what she did to be so damn hungry i am not sure, but she was being such a good passenger i let her have it. and it was covered with chocolate. she bitched about wearing her helmet, and after about 10 minutes on the descent, with her nearly strangling herself getting it off, i gave up and decided i simply better not crash.

the descent was surprisingly easy, and only for a few stretches did i really have to ride the breaks. It took about 25 minutes down, and then we rode out San Juan road and back a ways to end with a svelte 2 hrs and 20 miles. I can’t wait for next month, knowing now that Beckie, G and I can all do this together and get a pretty decent workout.