One of my favorite mountain bike rides each year is the club rider over the Fort Ord trails to visit the Sea Otter Classic. This year Ann joined me for her first long mountain bike ride. She did great, and made it up every hill. We even did one single track section, which she handled with easy. We arrived at the Sea Otter Classic before most all the rest in the group.

It was sunny and the temperature was not too bad, around the high 50′s. But the wind was something else. It rarely blows that hard in California. We were all plenty warm while we were biking, but when we spent about 3 hours over at the event, visiting the vendor booths, it got on the cold side. Ann bought a new cycling jacket at the Voler booth (for only $20) and decided to put it over her other jacket, and vest and jersey for 4 layers. I love to try to find a bargain jersey at the Voler booth and did find one this time, something about Boulder Triathlon Coaching, for the wannabe in me. It is a medium race cut. I tried it on when I got home and realized I had better not gain a single pound more so I can wear it. The race cut is much tighter around the waist than the so called club cut that I usually wear.

At the Toyota booth they took our picture in front of one of their monster SUVs the FJ Cruiser (I think FJ is from my first and middle initials). For that we were each given a multi tool kit, quite nice. Some other freebies were some tire tools at the REI booth, a bandanna at the Volkswagen booth, and a whistle at the Gore bike clothing booth (they people of Gore-tex fame).

It was beautiful biking over the trails. We went on some of the paths that the cross country racers traverse this weekend. I asked Ann how she liked mountain biking and she said she really likes it and wants me to buy her a full suspension mountain bike so she can take on the really tough stuff!

Here are some photos taken by Bob Thompson. The Toyota photo takes 72 hours, or when you buy a FJ Cruizer, whichever comes first!

Categories: Cycling Group Rides
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