Bigfoot Bicycle Club

If you have heard about this, you’ve probably been wondering when things were going to get moving, if at all. If you have not, this is big. In either case, this is exciting news. In short, there is a plan for the county to purchase a portion of Green Diamond property to the south and east of Eureka and develop a community forest. The attached flyer will give you more details…

Happily,

Tim

Greetings Fellow Cyclists,

In response to several requests, one of which came from John Mello, Bigfoot Bicycle Club will begin hosting socially paced, no-drop group rides once a month on Sundays. In Honor of John Mello, we’re calling these rides Mello Sunday rides.

The first Mello Sunday ride will be held this coming Sunday. We’ll keep it simple to start. The ride will leave the Arcata Plaza at 10:00 a.m. as did the memorial ride for John, and we’ll follow a similar route up to Trinidad. We’ll return on Westhaven Drive, and Dow’s Prairie Road, through Fieldbrook, Blue Lake, and back to Arcata via West End Road.

Feel free to jump in or drop out of the ride at any point along the route. I’ll be starting early here in Blue Lake and finishing at the Mad River Brewery Tasting Room.

See you all on the Arcata Plaza at 10:00 a.m. Sunday morning.

Tim

P.S. All suggestions for future ride routes are encouraged. MTB rides ARE an option.

P.P.S. I’ll leave the trailer at home so I won’t be lagging too badly.

It has been brought to my attention that Mountain View Road, leaving Kneeland Airport was recently graded, and has become an unridable muddy mess. In light of this information, The Showers Pass Banana Slug is cancelled indefinitely. We will reschedule, and likely integrate it with our summer/fall Harvest Series rides.

My sincere apologies.

Tim

I never counted heads, but I would estimate we had between twenty five and thirty riders with us as we left the plaza last Sunday morning shortly after ten. I was confident another beautiful warm sunny winter day was in store. The ride didn’t go exactly as planned. We stopped at the foot of the Hammond Trail bridge to regroup for the first time, then again in Hiller Park instead of at Roger’s Market. Some riders caught up or dropped in later, and others dropped out along the way. Traffic was very light, and I don’t recall any surly motorist, just a couple Surly riders. When we got to the memorial, the mood was somber and hardly anybody spoke for the first few minutes as we stood there taking it all in. The significance felt overwhelming. We broke into separate groups as we departed, and as usual, I brought up the rear.

Rest in peace John, we’ll miss you.

Another glorious day on the north coast greeted us at the parking lot (which we almost completely filled) of the Humboldt Redwoods State Park visitor center. It was a bit chilly in the Eel River Valley as the riders readied themselves, but that there wasn’t any frost in the morning, and the skies were clear, were good indications that it would be plenty toasty up on the ridge where Dyerville Loop Road traverses.

Seventeen riders joined the ride as it left almost promptly at 10:00 a.m. It’s hard for some of us to escape the Humboldt Time mindset, even when an epic ride awaits. Though I didn’t ride the loop (I was keeping time for the riders and would have been bringing up the rear of the pack) I heard from several riders that it was indeed very warm up on the ridge and made for an excellent ride. Even more important, all riders who started the ride finished it, and there were no reports of rude motorists. To the contrary, I heard reports of most motorists being cautious, patient, and courteous. How amazing is that?

The riders finished in the following order:

3:37 Rob Van Kirk (by a wheel)

3:37 Seth Knight

4:06 Jeff Aguiar

4:11 Andrea Achilli

4:15 Brett Rinehart

4:16 Robert East

4:16 Chris Carroll

4:26 Michael Chapman

4:28 Tom Phillips

4:28 JJ Katri

4:28 Tim Wykle

4:28 Rick Beale

4:49 Brandon Schmoele

4:49 Scott Riley

4:52 Jesse Palmer

5:14 Grant Lay

5:49 André Guimaraes

5:51 Sandra Roets

There were no major mechanicals, though Tim Wykle opened up the sidewall of one of his tires, and Rick Beale had two flat tires, they both had assistance from other riders. Notably, Tom Phillips and JJ Katri stayed with them to help them get back on the road. I love the spirit of camaraderie here on the north coast and among cyclists in general. Though they knew we wouldn’t leave anybody out there without going back to look for them, they still offered assistance to the detriment of their finishing time. Some things are more important than winning no? In my book, they’re all winners, as are all those who show up for Bigfoot Bicycle Club Banana Slug rides.

Be sure to join us for our final Banana Slug ride of 2013. We’re riding the Showers Pass Loop Saturday, April 13, 2013. This is a huge ride; be prepared for a full day of riding. More details will be posted shortly.

Greetings Fellow Cyclists,

Yeah! We had thirty four riders for our Butler Valley Banana Slug Ride today. The beautiful blue skies promised glorious riding weather, but I found myself wondering if the wind was going to kick up like it did yesterday. I knew it was going to be after noon by the time I got to Freshwater Road and wasn’t looking forward to pushing into a headwind.

We started promptly (sort of) after nine and headed up Union Street to ride the loop in a clockwise direction. As I predicted, I was already off the back before we got to L.K. Wood even though it was a neutral start pace until the bridge at Korbel.

By the end of the day, there were only two mechanicals among all riders; Roy Parvin lost the use of his rear tire before the bridge on Hatchery Road, and Robert East had a broken derailleur later into the ride. Janet Vail had accompanied Roy to the ride, and stayed with him. I’m not sure how they got back to Arcata, but eventually made it. That’s pretty impressive for such a large number of riders under punishing road ride conditions.

By the time I got out to Butler Valley the sun was shining brightly in the crystal clear blue skies. The warmth was coaxing wonderful aromas from the surrounding flora. I love it; some of my favorite summer days in Humboldt are during the winter. The climb out of Butler Valley seemed, as usual, longer than usual (does that make sense?). I passed Robert with his disabled derailleur shortly after I topped out at Kneeland Road; he assured me somebody was on the way to pick him up.

As I dropped back down to sea level, I was pleasantly surprised that the wind had not kicked up, the sun was still shining through, and it was almost as nice as up in the hills. Nicer than summer actually.

My goal was to complete the ride in under four hours. I knew it was going to be close when I hit Kneeland Road and looked at my clock. Oh well.

What an impressive list of finishing times. If your final minute was the same as another rider you may not be in the correct order. If they are not, feel free to contact me and we’ll fix it. Sorry ’bout that.

2:44            Rob Van Kirk

2:44            Seth Knight

2:51            Courtney Wood

2:52            Chris Carrol

2:52            Michael Davies-Hughes

2:52            Todd Flackus

2:59            Errin Odell

3:01            Jeff Aguiar

3:02            Rick Beale

3:02            Sky McKinley

3:04            Tim Wykle

3:06            Rik Rieder

3:06            Gary Rock

3:06            J J Katri

3:09            James Williams

3:09            Brett Reinhart

3:17            Sean Robetrson

3:22            Scott Gibson

3:24            Michael Chapman

3:24            Chris Dougherty

3:22            Tom Phillips

3:27            Charles Minton

3:28            Rocky Brashear

3:31            John Dostal

3:31            Jim Robbins

3:31            Alynn Zdawizynski

3:36            Grant Lay

3:40            Trevor Goff

3:41            Scott Riley

3:53            Margaret Lang

4:00            Tim “DFL” Daniels

DNF            Robert “broken derailleur” East

DNF            Roy “shredded tire” Parvin

DNF            Janet “stayed with Roy” Vail

Thank you everybody for joining us for one of Humboldt County’s most well loved local road loops. Be sure to join us for our Dyerville Loop Banana Slug on Saturday, March 9 2013. The riders will leave Humboldt Redwoods State Park Visitor’s Center, Avenue of the Giants, Weott, CA, promptly at 10:00 a.m.

As the ride schedule is designed, this ride will be a bit more demanding to body, mind, and bicycle than today’s; be prepared, and…

Ride On!

Tim