The NorCal Blind Ride Project

I am in NorCal for 11 days including Sea Otter. I'm going to attend the Santa Cruz MTB Festival this weekend, but between job hunting and filming, I am going to ride my bike frequently... in places I've never ridden before, as quickly as I can.

Why?


To help improve quick thinking and practice intuitive survival skills whilst on the mountain bike. You all should really do this, forget shuttling the same trail 7 times a day, mountain biking is about exploring with your friends or going off into the woods to think about something or nothing.

There are many ways to get better but I believe the passion for a sport will take a person farther than anything. For me it's always been about finding new stuff. "Is that a trail?!" My roommates and I must say that a few times each ride and usually end up getting lost or going down a fox path.

So in my inspiration to get better I will post a blind ride hopefully every day this week and will let you all know how I do on Strava too!

Here goes, 1st Video near Palo Alto, Trail name: AOT DH (Ancient Oaks Trail). It was quite wet and the dirt was like brownies.



p.s. knock on wood for me

Day2, headed north from Palo Alto, out of respect for the trailbuilders I will not reveal the name or location of this trail, but it, along with the other few I rode, were absolutely dirty. For the first time on this bike I felt a little unprepared. (Missin the Glory)

Basically it was gnarly, rutted, and bumps for braking lol. -17% grade, puddles and chocolate cake mud, good ride.



Spent a sweeeet day at the Santa Cruz Bike festival demo-ing Specialized new 650b and doing some dirt jumps. We eventually signed up for the shuttle going to the top of the woods and rode a good while down.
It was extremely muddy but good stuff!

Here is:



Another day in the woods filled with puddles, mud, and deer!



Found a nice long ride trying to climb up everything in sight while keeping my eyes peeled for singletrack. I found a lot and thought this was the fastest one as I ended up flying into giant puddles:



Was lead into this gem by some crazy DH friends. Stoked I survived and have since been inspired to get a DH bike again. Enjoy:



Some dirty steep and rooty stuff, I saw Curtis Keene prior to this which was cool.
Anyway it was finally dry up here and I cleaned the bike so I could actually ride a little smoother!



Headed out to Morgan Hill (where specialized is) to see what kind of riding they get up to. Not many roots or rocks but beautiful green hills and a darn good place to eat a sandwich!



We went exploring around Sea Otter at 7 am when it was super beautiful and foggy. I believe this is the XC track:



So mountain biking is way cool and I cared very little about my slalom race, so I went exploring with friends and put down 25 miles and 3,500' gain the day before. I asked the officials of the Enduro where the coolest singletrack was on the compound and they told me Rt. 41. Well here it is:



Finally, not blind but this was the last day and I didn't record the XC ride, I bring you the Shlaloms:



Technically it started up in Norcal but here's a little blind piece from Pasadena from the day before I left with Bruce Klein:




So that makes 11 blind rides that I recorded and including the ride with Burce that's 12. It was extremely nerve-racking for the most part, I rarely fell (I'll put together a small crash reel soon), I surprisingly had good judgement, and I had soooo much fun I can't believe I'm sitting in class again...sighh.

One month til graduation, I'll try and ride as often as possible, cover some events, and truly enjoy some of my last days in SoCal (I think).

Cheers,
Ross