Wow. Last week it was dirt. This week it was snow. What about next week? I mean, where do you go from snow? I guess to observed trials on a road bike. Or not. Ever. But I have come to believe in the madness that is #epicthursdays. Follow @keithhillier on twitter to get the low down on the originator of epic thrusdays. Somehow the stars have aligned and I have found a solid set of people that will throw down in a big way on thursdays. The madness started when we bypassed a road closed sign to traverse a snow covered bridge into placerville. I was feeling pretty good about that. And then we got to a little road called Bayne. Of course this was after a lot of painful climbing. I decided it was better to ride slow and take pictures than actually try and found these guys chillin at the top.

waiting

And then we got to Bayne. This road drops down into Coloma and is a common climb for the more adventurous. At the top we had a warning.

Abandon all hope ye who enter

Then there was snow. And ice. And awesomeness. At one point I ended up in the ditch because I got scared and couldn’t hold my line and started panicking. Panic is always a recipe for disaster. It was a flat section with some car tracks and bigger lumps that had frozen on the side of the lines. I was going a bit to fast, but couldn’t brake because of the ice underneath. I was really panicked. That ground would have hurt going down. I ended up in some deep stuff and kinda went into the ditch to slow down so that I could unclip safely. No harm done. After this, we regrouped and Todd said, raise your hand if you’re not having fun. Just sayin’ my hand didn’t go up and my grin got huge. Awesome.

I eventually got the hang of the conditions and had a great time.

not that hard after all

I have to admit, I was thinking about all the hard core ‘cross racers up in Bend last weekend. While the temperature difference would have been terrible, I almost envied that chance to test my skills on the snow and ice. It was certainly fun on my road bike.

Then we dropped into beautiful Coloma and a neat historical place, the place that started the Gold Rush in California. Funny story about that park…I actually got locked inside the gates one night several years ago. I was visiting with a friend from Sweden and we were exploring until well after dark. We got back to the car and the gate had been padlocked. Yes, I panicked in that situation also. We started to dismantle the slat fence in the hope that my car could fit though. General mess. Luckily the park steward nearby saw the car lights and released us. I was not looking forward to spending the night in there.

Back to the ride…

Then I bonked. Grenaded. Generally exploded. But with the help of the guys, managed  Salmon Falls to make it back. Whew. What is going to happen next week?

hmmmmm