Bootleg Canyon with the Crew
The Denmother planned a weekend of DH shuttle riding on the weekend of my birthday. That made my choices the Push-a-Kona ride (which was unfortunately relocated to a county park from the national forest/mountains due to the fires last month) and football on Sunday, or a weekend of fun with around 30 friends.
Naturally, I chose Bootleg, after some cajolling. We drove out Saturday morning with two friends, and arrived around 8:15. Off we went in the shuttle just after 9 am.
If you've never done any DH riding at Bootleg, you probably don't understand how horrid the hike-a-bike up to the trails is. I thought the HABage at Southridge was bad, but it doesn't compare. Definitely not knocking the shuttle ride at all, but damn if that isn't a long hike up to the start.
Snakeback starts out technical right away. Whether you ride over and down the rock garden, or go straight down the easier section, once you get to choose straight or down to the right it's not easy. I walked quite a bit of the top portion a few of the runs, but did eventually ride everything, including all of it in one run probably 2-3 times, which is nice.
The entirety of Snakeback is a great run. I also liked coming down Diva and Reaper. My rear wheel hit on one of the middle drops on Reaper a few times... good thing it's pretty strong! Luckily no flats for me, but quite a few others sustained more than one over the weekend.
Saturday evening we rode the pump track (which really you can't pump very much). I never made the table top. The Demo just soaks up the bumps quite a bit. It's not an air bike, for sure.
Saturday we went to a Mexican joint in town right down the street where we enjoyed some Patron, and lots of food.
Sunday we were back out there at 9 am ready to start shuttling again. We hit Snakeback - Ona Lee - lower Ginger. Not my favorite route. I'm not really good with rock gardens and lots of exposure yet. Maybe some day.
I quit a bit early to start packing up and chill with Clinky, Danny, and Jeff. We enjoyed draining the coolers.
All in all, great weekend.