Dubious Devious Double Coe Epic

Great Coe epic with Paul Nam and friends.

The plan was to start at 6am – I couldn’t avoid sleeping in and so I ended up ready to leave Hunting Hollow at 7am, on the cold, foggy, drizzling morning of the Longest Day (or at least one of the longest ones) of 2009. I did know the route so my intention was to hammer up and join the group at some point. Well, rather than hammering I ended up doing a lot of hiking, since the route indicated Middle Steer Ridge was to be climbed. A good warm-up you’d say, but the fog banks and sweeping winds near Wilson peak did their best to cool me off quickly again.

Next climb was Tule Pond – not as bad as one may fear, if you don’t consider the tricky loose section near the top. On Wagon Road I met up with Paul and Roy’s group (another group had split off already and was ahead), which ment I got to join in on Paul’s devious route variations. Fun! But some watching out for poison oak was in place.

Many climbs and descents later (down to Kelly Lake, up Coit, down Cattle Duster, up Coit / Mahoney Meadows, down Lost Spring, up the Diabolic Duo Mahoney Meadows / Poverty Flat, up Jackass and Blue Ridge) I found myself in new territory: Black Oak Springs trail and Rock House Ridge. The latter was a fantastic downhill, though I needed all my focus to steer my hardtail (aka the Red Rocket) clear of the many rocks and boulders hidden in the tall grass all over the place – my arms and back did some complaining indeed.

At Willow Ridge trail we met up with the other group (which included Charlie and Paul’s wife Chris). I still felt pretty good so I launched an attempt to clean Willow Ridge – which failed miserably on the wall 2/3 on the way up. Oh well. Roy made it a bit further but said wall got him too. Some break and nap time and a few dubious deviations later we found ourselves in Cross Canyon… which ment we had to climb out again! And not once, but twice, on each side of the canyon, as the Route dicated. Further dicates of the Route (climbing up White Tank e.g.) were ignored, since we pretty much had 10k under the belt, most of us were beat up and we still had a way to go.

After the final climb out of Cross Canyon we could look forward to a great downhill to end a fine day: down Grapevine and Anza… ok, that last one required some climbing too but the flowy section at the bottom never felt better.

Thanks to Paul and Chris for organizing this true epic and it was great chatting with old and new friends/fellow mtb aficionados.

Some housekeeping info: my GPS battery died in Cross Canyon and my charging gadget refused to work, so I ended up combining and stitching my track with Roy’s. Also, I managed to forget charging my camera’s battery, so I have only few shots.