Candace’s Birthday Challenge

Candace turned 27 on Friday June 24th. She had decided that within 27 hours she would ride 27 miles on her mountain bike and run 27 miles. I was trying to convince her that she should also drink 2.7 liters of beer or at least 2.7 beers but she wasn’t going for it.

The plan was for her to do some running early in the morning on Saturday the 25th of June. Then her and Andy would hop in the truck and meet me and some other riders at the Gray’s Peak trailhead at 9:30am where we would do the Hanna Flats trail with the optional loop up to Gray’s Peak. That should give Candace about 15 miles of trail riding. Then she was going to switch back into running mode and run part of the way around Big Bear Lake. We would then head to Running Springs and ride to the top of Keller Peak and take the Exploration Trail back to the car. Then Candace and Andy would go home and she would run a bit more that night and then finish up in the morning.

While I was getting ready Saturday morning I got a text from Candace. She had just ran 10.25 miles and they were heading up the mountain. We all met at the Fire Station after we figured out that we were meeting there instead of the trailhead and got ready to go. The group was Andy and Candace, Jeff and Katie, Mike and Courtney, Wendy and myself. The first part of the ride is paved and then fire road to get out to the Hanna Flat Campground. There is about 400 feet of elevation gain here, but it feels like more. Somehow two of the girls took a wrong turn and went missing. Their husbands went back to find them. Eventually Jeff rode back to where we were waiting and said that the girls would be back soon. Suddenly we see Mike riding past the campground. We all yelled for him, but he was pretty far away and had his headphones on. Jeff took off after him to chase him down. But it’s pretty fast downhill there so it was about 2 miles before he caught up to him. While we were waiting for Jeff and Mike to return the ladies got back and Candace, Wendy and I started riding again and figured the others would catch up to us later.

As we got to the start of the trail we saw this on the side of the trail.

Neil was up at Snow Summit doing a demo but had ridding the trail first and had left some little surprises for Candace. Very Cool.

The trail is awesome and we made decent time with a few regroups. At one regroup I decided that I could make a log ride. I piled up some limbs that had fallend off another tree for a ramp and gave it a go. The first one I didnt’ commit and didn’t make it on the log. The second time I got up on the log, but was a little off balance. I endo’d off the log, trying to jump over the bike at the same time. I got a few scratches from the thorny bush I ended up in and hit my shin on some part of the bike. I also impaled my arm with a thorn and haven’t been able to get it out yet.

Then Katie and Courtney showed up and Courtney had some new scratches to show off. The trail was loose and sandy in places and she had slid out in one of the sandy spots.

 

We continued on to the turn off for Gray’s Peak. Here we found another one of Neil’s surprises.

 

Katie and Courtney headed back to the car instead of doing the climb. I started up with Candace and Wendy and quickly got dropped. Then I was passed by Jeff and Mike. Andy rode with me for a bit, but I was too slow and he quickly got bored and left me behind too. I struggled on the climb but eventually joined them at the top. Everyone was sitting on a rock outcrop enjoying the beers that Jeff had carried with him.

Soon we headed down. I think it was 4 miles to the trailhead from here and it was awesome riding. There was enough rocks to make it interesting without making it too hard. At the bottom we found that Mike had broken the carbon frame that Jeff was borrowing from a mutual friend. Mike already had a reputation for breaking stuff and this will add to it. Some more trail pictures.

 

We rested at the trailhead and enjoyed some cupcakes and beer while Candace got ready to run.

 

Candace started running and we all headed for burgers. Hey, it’s not our Birthday Challenge.

I think it was about 5 miles to the Burger Depot and we were just finishing when they arrived. We headed over to Running Springs to climb up Keller Peak.

This climb was about 6 miles long and climbed almost 2000 feet. I was having a bad day and was dropped about a mile in when it got steeper. As I got near the top I could see the tower on top and was checking out the sun in the pines.

I was almost to the summit when they started heading down. I was taking too long and they were getting tired of waiting. Can’t say I blame them. We regrouped at the start of the Exploration Trail.From he

From here it was lots of fun killer singletrack with some techy sections thrown in for good measure. Early on I was trying to follow Jeff too closely and ended up off the trail and in a bush. The bush saved me from a long slide, so “Thank you, Mr. Bush.”

After that it was lots of fun trail.

Near the bottom Andy stopped and picked up some stuff that had fallen out of Wendy’s seat bag and told me to go catch them. I raced ahead and when I caught them they were stopped. Candace was lying in a heap in the trail and it looked bad.

Candace said that she kept her eyes open the whole time. She endo’d over a rock and then handplanted off another to keep from augering into it. She landed on her camelback on a smooth section of trail. She was fine apart from a lot of dirt and some minor scratches. Very lucky.

Shortly we were in the parking lot celebrating some great riding. Candace’s hair was looking fantastic so Andy documented it for her.

I ended up with close to 4000 feet of climbing, with all of it above 6000 feet. I was wasted, but Candace had to go home and do some more running.

I got a text the next morning that she had finished and she was pretty excited. She completed her last run at 7:45 with 15 minutes to spare.

Then I got a text shortly after that: “2.7 beers before 27 hours was up…no longer sober haha” What a great way to finish a Birthday Challenge. Great Job Candace. I think next year you’ll have to make it harder.

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