As Chino's trails are predominantly fireroads, I took advantage of the opportunity and brought my Bontrager CX singlespeed cyclocrosser out for the first time. It was tough to leave the UtiliTiman at home, but there really isn't anything technical at Chino so the Ute wouldn't be missing much anyways. Chino is, if there's such a thing, a fireroad-bombing type of park. There are many stretches of long, rolling downhill sections of fireroad where it's very easy to exceed 40mph. Now - you might be thinking to yourself (or maybe not), "Hey, wouldn't it be scary to go bombing down fireroads on a rigid cyclocross bike?!!". Hmmm...

The morning temperature was near perfect. Although there was some overcast initially, it soon gave way to soothing sun (as opposed to the burning type of sun). When I arrived to the meeting area at Carbon Canyon Regional Park, there already were quite a few people there.

  Quite a crowd.

As usual, I unloaded my bike from the car - that's when it dawned on me that they complement each other nicely. Both are sorta sleek machines in their own ways. Notice the java on the spoiler. I always drink a full cup of coffee before rides. I used to also down some donuts as well, but that ritual didn't take too well.

  Two ways to get from A to B.

After about fifteen minutes of dilly-dallying introducing people with one-another and such, we were ready to go. Everyone else had gears, and I would be the oddman of the group. The guy in the back with his arms in the air is Ron, and he would prove to be the catalyst for the highligh event of the day. Also, on the far left is Diana. Not only does she kick arse as a rider, but she also happens to be an honest-to-goodness medical doctor. It's always a little more re-assuring knowing that you have a doctor on hand... especially if you're a metal-mettle type of rider. ;-)

  Buncha great folks...

We took off from the parking lot and shortly thereafter got to the trailhead, where we would begin a long ascent up North Ridge trail. The weather had warmed up a bit in the sun and we found that jackets were no longer necessary.

  Dressing down.

Ironically, I thought I'd try a different type of picturetaking and get a shot of what's behind me over my helmet. Little did I realize that this would be the last picture I'd get of my helmet intact.

  Always wear your helmet!

And we're off! The climb began, and as I proceeded forward with each pedal stroke I quickly became aware of the stunning speed of the bike. The cyclocrosser, with its light weight and small tires on 700c rims, can accelerate up hills like a bat out of hell! As I cranked on the pedals while standing I quickly pulled away from the group. This continued for a while, and I eventually caught up to another gearie about three-fourths of the way up the climb. It was at this point that "Stormin' Norman" from our group began to catch up to me. Norman's phenomenally fast on climbs, especially when you consider that he rides a full-suspension and has a bodyweight of about 130lbs. He eventually overtook me, and beat me to the first stopping area by about a hundred yards or so.

  First group at first rest stop.

People trickled up, and everyone rested a bit while taking in some of the scenery. In the center of the photo with his arms on his hips is Tim. He works for a company that fabricates fine bikes such as Ellsworth and such. Because of that, he has a custom, trick-looking Truth that is uniquely anodized with blue/purpleish patterns.

  The rest arriving.

  Scenery from North Ridge Trail.

Eventually, the final "peak" of North Ridge trail drops you into a singletrack that ends at Four Corners. This section of trail came up on me without me realizing it, and I didn't get to lower my seat as I would normally like to do for singletrack descents. Particularly nasty is that the trail is littered with chatter-bumps. These bumps jarred me quite a bit whenever I gained any real speed. I initially went into the singletrack with my hands on top of the bars, which was a mistake as I picked up speed really quickly - and the roughness of the trail made it impossible to switch to the lower position where the brake levers are. As I began to slightly panic, I went off-trail into the weeds due to going too fast and not being able to make a turn. That was a blessing in disguise... The weeds slowed me down (sorta like the emergency runouts that they have on hilly roads for trucks) enough where I could grab onto the drops of the bars. The picture below shows the singletrack winding down to Four Corners.

  Singletrack from North Ridge.

Four Corners is a very popular place to stop. We all hung out there for a while as we waited for everyone in the group to arrive. This is the halfway point of the ride, and after some contemplating we decided to take "Tarantula" trail out to South Ridge for the ride back. Tarantula is a nice singletrack named after the popular creatures that like to hang out on that trail. I personally haven't seen tarantulas, but did encounter a pretty big rattlesnake once.

  Where's the party?!!!

Riding Tarantula is awesome with a singlespeed. It has twisting, rolling singletrack that's very doable whenever there's a climb. The following shots are from various points along the trail.

  Riders approaching.

  Through the valley.

  Small cliff-edge.

  Winding through.

After a while, Tarantula meets up with South Ridge trail. The following photo shows the change in scenery to a more desolate look.

  End of Tarantula trail.

Here's David coming through. I think the expression on his face must reflect his anger in how Marcie's having no trouble keeping up with him as he struggles up the mild grade. ;-) Just kiddin', David!

  David, followed by Marcie.

At the intersection of South Ridge and Tarantula I noticed that two plane's paths had crossed in the sky. Naturally I snapped a picture.

  Our start on South Ridge.

From South Ridge, you can get some nice valley views. Although most of Chino is somewhat uncolorful at this time of the year, there are occasional glimpses of greenery.

  One of many valleys.

  Distant singletrack.

As we began our ride down on the fast fireroads of South Ridge, I became increasingly aware of the fact that the Bonty feels very "light" under me at speed. That's basically not a good thing, since it translates to the tires not staying on the ground all that well.

Anyways, let the fireroad bombing begin!

  A nice straight rolling section.

I started off nicely and quickly got in front of the pack. We were all gaining speed... rolling down, pedalling up a short distance, sprinting/rolling down, pedalling up a short distance, make some slight turns at high speed, repeat...

That's the typical fireroad action you'll get on South Ridge, and it can be enormous fun. The fast guys in our group were all playfully racing each other in a macho-endorphine kind of way. We were probably hitting well over 30mph a lot of the time. I lead the group for a while, but then Ron gained on me and finally passed at one of the downhill to uphill transitions. When I saw that, I sprinted and spinned like mad to overtake him about twenty yards from the peak, where it would transition again to a fast downhill. Once I spun to max RPM, I leaned well back behind my seat and tucked to try and cheat the wind as I was descending. I was going pretty fast, but the fireroad was rough and I could tell that the front end of the bike didn't like it. Any bump I happened to ride on felt really harsh... the skinny cyclocross tires didn't do anything to help absorb the impacts.

Well, it should have become obvious that I wouldn't be able to keep up with Ron's full-suspension GT on the downhills. In the heat of the moment though, my judgement was clouded and I would pay. Ron overtook me again on the downhill and started to leave me behind. In trying to catch up, I didn't scrub off enough speed as I approached one of the subtle curves in the trail... the next thing I knew was that I was lying on the ground doing that familiar self-check scan of my body. Ouch!!!

Lying there, I could feel there was pain on my rightside forehead and that was my immediate concern. Two of the guys who were right behind me (and almost ran over me) immediately stopped and came back to check on me. They waited till I gathered my senses, then helped me up. Examining my head revealed a nice bruise, but more importantly, my helmet was toasted from protecting my head!

  Helmet of life.

Yes, the helmet had taken a huge blow and was cracked and smashed in. Here's a closeup shot of the helmet. If you ever ride without a helmet, all I can say is that you probably don't have anything in your head worth protecting.

  Smashin'!

The crash must have been pretty violent all around, as even my metal shoe buckle got bent.

  Tweaked buckle.

From what we gathered, my front end apparently dropped into a small, sandy rut and washed out as I was steering to make the curve in the trail. I had gone through some of the sandy sections before without any problems, but must have had too much speed this time. Combined with the slight rut, I was exceeding the traction limits of the tires.

To be honest, I think I lost a few seconds of memory from my impact to the head as I don't recall the experience at all. Norman, who was right behind me, said that I didn't go over the bars - I only went down to the side, along with the bike. I think the crash was at a speed as high as 35mph or so... it probably would have been pretty nasty if I got launched. Urgh... As it was, I ended up brusing a rib on the front side of my chest, grinding my shoulder pretty good; and my head has somewhat of a bump - presumably from the lower edge of the helmet bumping against it as I hit the ground. The rest of the way out proved uneventful. Since I was in pain, I didn't feel like taking anymore pictures...

  Massively sore shoulder.

Right now, my whole body again aches. The shoulder is stiff with pain so I'm not really able to ride. Hopefully, I'll be recovered enough by next weekend for another tale to be told. Remember, with the terminaut guy "every ride's an adventure!". ;-)