After work ride

Nothing like a hard ride after work to blow out the office stress and b.o. We've been doing these rides for a few weeks now; there's a fantastic network of trails just 100m from our office door. Since we're on top of a mesa, there is a delicious drop-in to start, and a grinder, sweaty climb to finish. Perfect. Sometimes starting from the office, however, means you forget your gear, so today I was in work socks and borrowed shoes - hot.


The opening gambit - a fast but choppy little descent down to the canyon floor. Taylor's been riding this same exact bike since 1998 and he rides it like a bat out of hell, whatever that means. Anyway he's fast going down.



The ground here is so dry it's like concrete, the 5 days of rain a year in San Diego don't give it much respite. If nobody's coming up you can get some good speed, a couple tricky waterbars and rocks force you to keep an eye open...


The trails go up and down the canyon slopes, although they are slowly being eroded away by new home development. I guess that's what they call progress. Here's Taylor losing traction on the notoriously loose and steep last little climb. But sweet desserts were awaiting not long after.


Taylor rides bikes better than he takes pictures I'm afraid. I look a bit like bigfoot dodging trees as I round the bend here. Anyway, it was fun as hell. I'm glad to have such good riding, so close by.