Henry Coe Hard COEre 100 attempt - 2010/10/16

Dirk came up with this crazy idea of riding 100 miles/20,000’ in Henry Coe State Park, all dirt, no trail repeats, one big loop, in one day; even made a website!. We wondered if it could be done! He calculated a minimum 16 hours to do it, so this morning, at 2am, Dirk, Roy & I donned our warm riding gear (about 50F start, dropping to 45F before sunrise), our lights and a lot of food and set out to give it a go!

It was in all ways an epic ride; easily the hardest I’ve done. I felt strong because I had stayed off the bikes and ate and ate and ate all week to prepare.

Sadly, we couldn’t keep up the required pace to make the 100 miles before sunset, so we dropped one 20 mile loop near the end and reduced it to 80 miles and 15,000’ climbed. But we now know that with some tweaks to the schedule, it can be done and plan a repeat attempt sometime.

Several new trails for me on this ride (part of the irresistible attraction!) highlighted by the fear-enducing Bear Mountain – just arriving at the bottom makes your eyes cry involuntarily! We pushed a fair amount of it but did ride some of the steeps.

A ride like this is stressful for bikes and we had our share of mechanicals, nothing terminal fortunately. I had yet another broken spoke (why me?) and a flat on my non-tubeless tire. The most difficult was Dirk’s broken light; fortunately he had a bar light as well, although a bit too dim for use by itself. He only had to suffer for about 45 mins until sunrise made lights unnecessary. Of course, my Garmin turned itself off twice (what’s new?).

No mountain lion sighting but we did see skunks (never seen them in Coe before), tarantulas, big-antlered deer and the highlight was a young bobcat.

I’m going to dream about this ride for weeks!