This fourth trip to the
Big Bear Lake Trail Center (whether part of the
Fall Funduro,
Dirt Rag Dirt Fest, or
Big Bear Bike Bash), I was eager to share the experience with some friends.
Joining me this year were my friend Andrew (usually part of our moto camping crew), Joe (former neighbor) and Adam (current neighbor).
Joe and I had ridden Slatyfork earlier this summer, so he was relatively familiar with what to expect. Adam and Andrew, though, weren't quite sure what was in store for them!
Since Rebecca was attending her neice's wedding in Quebec, I was tasked with watching our three dogs for the weekend. In the past, I had good luck keeping them cool by periodically wetting their coats with water. This year, though, I found a
misting fan at the last-minute. The fan sat atop a 5 gallon bucket and ran off a powertool battery, floating a light mist a few feet. The contraption worked wonderfully and the dogs were treated to a comfortable "air conditioning" beneath the Crosstrek's awning.
The weekend consists of a plethora of group rides, skills clinics, food & gear vendors, and live entertainment. When we arrived on Friday we set up camp and began to study the calendar of events, each picking out some rides or clinics to add to the "must-do" list.
To start the weekend, we took a
quick warmup on the Demo Route, then Adam headed to a clinic while the other three of us joined a
group ride. It was a creative route, highlighting some great trails within the network.
A hot shower and personal pizza from
Doan's Bones had us in high spirits to cap off day one of the event.
Sunday started with a "
guided ride" (to be explained later in this post) at 8am. After that relatively high-intensity effort, I gorged on some food & drink before
taking Andrew to see The Crack trail. In my opinion, it's one of the coolest trails at Big Bear, and you have to experience it each visit. Joe and Adam had accidentally turned a short ride into a long epic, so they sat out the ride. Andrew was a little exhausted also, so he wisely chose to demo an E-bike from the Specialized tent.
We set off down
Little Canaan for some challenges within its rock gardens. Once through that section, we popped out to the country store for an ice cream break before taking the
Roadside Trail to the entrance gate. Across the street from there began the
Jump Trail which eventually led to the
Crack Trail.
When we reached the crack itself, I approached the end of the crack with confidence that my handlebars would fit [since I thought they had before], only to find out that they wouldn't! The bars wedged themselves between the immovable rocks and I came to an abrupt halt! After laughing about the situation for a moment, I yanked on the bar a few times and eventually freed it from the wedge.
By the time Andrew and I were out of the woods, it was time to put the E-bike to good use. I held onto Andrew's hip pack and told him to switch to
TURBO MODE! The E-bike towed us back into camp and Andrew returned it with still more than 50% of battery life left.
And now, back-to-the-beginning of the day...
This year I was set to lead the "Feat of Skill & Strength Championship of the World" after winning the event last time around. Not being all too familiar with the trails,
Chuck Morris agreed to take me on a tour of his route from the previous year as we crafted the circuit of challenges for 2023.
I'd also crafted a trophy/plaque for the winner to take home with our new plasma table at work:
With the new route and trophy prepared, I was all set to lead the ride on Sunday morning. The weather, however, had other plans.
On Saturday afternoon the rain rolled in as Joe, Adam, and I set off for a short ride. It pummeled us and we were saturated from head-to-toe in no time. After changing into dry clothes and rain gear, we hunkered down under my awning for a couple hours, monitoring our campsite as it gathered standing water under our feet.
Eventually the rain let up just long enough to enjoy that night's band, but once we returned to our tents the rain returned - continuing through the night and letting up eventually on Sunday morning. Although we weren't being rained ON anymore, our gear (and especially shoes!) were still soaking wet, so we packed up the soggy remains of camp and decided to forego the competition for the promise of a warm shower back at home.
I found Chuck on our way out and gave him the trophy. He agreed to lead the ride if anyone showed. With that, we were off - arriving in Richmond in the early afternoon with time enough to lay out soggy camping gear to dry (before rain in Richmond again soaked it that night!).
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