Saturday MUni ride on the Stevens Trail

Hello MUni fans,

On Saturday us guys in Northern CA got together for our monthly group ride. We
try to alternate these rides between the Sacramento/Sierra foothills area and
the Bay/Santa Cruz area. This month was the famous Stevens Trail in Colfax,
about 15 miles up I-80 from Auburn. Read about the trail on Brett Bymaster's
Trail Page: http://shay.ecn.purdue.edu/~bymaster/muni/steven.html

We managed six riders this time, including new guy Andriko Zavadell. Andriko
grew up in Montreal, and now lives in Oakland. The others were Terrell Williams,
Nathan Hoover, David Poznanter, Bruce Bundy and me.

Stevens is "only" a nine mile ride (4.5 each way), with "only" a 1200' descent
on the way down, which must be repeated on the way back. But somehow it seems
like a lot more. Maybe that's because you're riding along the edge of a
not-quite cliff much of the way. In spots, the trail gets very narrow and it's a
long way down!

There were three casualties on the ride:
1. Andriko's frame
2. David's crank arm
3. Terrell's knees

About halfway down, Andriko reported to us, across 100 yards of emptiness from a
place behind us on the trail, that his frame had broken. Aargh! It was a brand
new Emory frame, which he'd bought to replace his previous one. Looks on the
surface like Emory's aren't the best for extreme MUni, which this trail is. Plus
Andriko is about 200 pounds and strong. So he turned around and walked back up.
Bummer. Least it didn't happen at the bottom!

David found himself having to do what we call a "cliffside retrieval". This is
where you have to climb down to get your stranded unicycle! He wasn't even
riding it; just stopped to wait for us in the wrong spot. The unicycle slipped
away, then put on a little show as it took quite a while to make its way down
about 150' or so. Oops. But his custom MUni with Hunter frame (not the new
prototype yet) survived with only a bent crank. Anything could happen in a fall
like that though, including major frame damage, seat breakage, or uni in river.

Terrell wasn't much worse off than the rest of us. We were all walking at some
point. That ride back up the canyon wall is just a killer! Though once upon a
time Brett Bymaster did it twice in a day, believe it or not. Our hats are off
to you, Brett!

In the morning we did some riding in a swimming pool around the block from my
house. The pool is empty and odd-shaped, with sloping sides and a flat bottom.
Not round like your typical skateboard pool. I'll have to get some pictures of
that up...

Anyway, that Stevens Trail is such an intense, technical, and dangerous ride, I
think we'll use it at the next MUni Weekend (September 2000) as the Friday
Experts-only ride!

Stay on top, John Foss, the Uni-Cyclone (reply to jfoss@unicycling.com)
http://www.unicycling.com

"I have more scar tissue on my knees than skin." - Brett "Bloodman" Bymaster in
a TV interview

John Foss, the Uni-Cyclone (reply to jfoss@unicycling.com)
http://www.unicycling.com

"I have more scar tissue on my knees than skin." - Brett "Bloodman" Bymaster in
a TV interview