An attempt to do something no one has ever done. People call it impossible. That is just the kind of talk that makes me try to prove people wrong. A 140 plus mile bike ride in one go to try to achieve the lofty heights of Mount Everest in Henry Coe Park. I was nervous. Doubt tried to creep in constantly.

After last weeks ride where Patrick (ratpick) and I were stranded 26 miles out in the far regions of Henry Coe Park my bike had taken a serous toll. I needed a new derailleur, a new set of chain rings, chain, cluster, and decided on a new set of tires also, the Captain, Grid. I put all the parts on but when attempting to replace the rear derailleur cable, I mad the mistake of removing the screw in front. Couldn't get it back on and called Sorcerer for assistance. After struggling for hours, it was no good. He said he would take it to a friend to see if he could repair it. After a couple of anxious days it was un-fixable. Even more anxious days scrambling around looking for a replacement right SRAM 9 speed trigger shifter. Luckily I found on at Trail Head and was able to get the bike going.

The night before I went to bed at 8:20 pm hoping to get some sleep. I had shopped for all my food and was packed and ready to go. Took a while but I was able to sleep soon and soon it was 4am. Time to get ready to go. I packed the bike and the many, many items I would pack in my camel back making it around 20 lbs. Food, lights, batteries, gps unit, spare derailleur hangers (2), spare derailleur cables (2), spare tubes, half a hacksaw blade to cut a jammed hanger, and other various parts and necessary items. Soon I was driving down the road to Hunting Hollow Parking Lot and arriving at 6am, designated time. Lots of people there. There was a camp light illuminating part of the lot. People would be camping after the ride. All told there would be 9 riders to start the epic. I talked to Eric, one of the night riders. He was planning on a Jack Rabbit Lake ride. A talk was given about the ride by Dirk and soon we were on our way.

Up Lyman Willson Ridge Trail we went. Feeling pretty good at this point considering I was up way too early. On up to Willson Camp and we took a short break at Steer Ridge Road and Wagon Road. Then we continued on up the steep Steer Ridge Road. My climbing skills seemed good today. What I really needed was survival skills. Keep going in pain.

Down Spike Jones Trail then down Timm Trail. Fun descents as the sun had risen while riding the Bowl Trail. No lack of light issues insuring a great descent enjoyed by all. Up Coit Road and on to Coit Spring Trail. Some riders in the lead had to be corralled in as they didn't notice the turn. Then the ascent up Coit Spring Trail and soon the climb up Cross Canyon. I failed several times but soon cleaned the beginning section of loose steep grade. I failed later on botching a sure clean. At the top I arrived last. I commented to Dirk (el Hombre), "Its not about cleaning, its survival". He agreed. Jeff (Tahoe BC) wasn't going to do the course but just hang with us. He recently crashed and had shoulder issues. "My shoulder was talking to me on the Timm Trail descent", he remarked.

Then it was down Cross Canyon Trail. There was a tree down adding to the trail work necessary to get that trail going again. A lot of trees have fallen in late summer. One down also on Timm Trail. Patrick, Dirk and I held back and went last as we soon discovered the others were determined to keep breaks shorter than ours and ride faster. Me, I had my pace and I didn't care if I kept up. It was all about surviving. Get the 100 and think about the rest later. After a rest. That was far in the future at this point. Patrick was in the lead, I was second and Dirk sweep. Near the end of the descent, I hit a rut near a turn and almost lost it. I hung on though. I got to the bottom and explained my near catastrophe to Patrick who was waiting across the stream at the bottom. At this time Dirk was in the process of crashing. The result was not good. First thing we noticed was a bloody leg. First thing Dirk noticed was bruised ribs. And very early in the ride. We continued on but every bump, Dirk felt. Breathing was tougher also. Yet there was no question of continuing on. I lead on Cross Canyon and Dirk and Patrick were in back. Dirk adjusting to a day of pain, no doubt.

We rode up to the group that were waiting at Willow Ridge Road. On we went after a short food break. Willow Ridge Road then White Tank Road and the Landing Strip and down the Hoover Lake Trail. Out again on Willow Ridge Road. On to Willow Ridge Trail. We took a break at the Willow Ridge Trail head. Then down. A fun descent and soon we were at the bottom taking a break in the dry stream bed on the Narrows Trail. From there it was the Mahoney Wall and Lost Spring Trail. Even though it was about survival this day, I still wanted to clean both of these. Nobody cleaned the Mahoney Wall except for me. I also cleaned Lost Spring Trail. It felt good. I had that. I'm sure I would pay for it later.

A rest and soon we continued on to Manzanita Point. It was the Tarantula Festival and Patrick, Dirk and I all bought food tickets. We ended up hanging out there for 50 minutes. Too long. The food was good though and we talked to rangers and had fun hanging out.

Then back to Manzanita Point Road and Flat Frog to Middle Ridge Trail. As we were leaving a guy asked, "So 50 down and 50 to go?", and I said "No. 40 down and 110 miles to go". He commented that we were crazy but in a good way.

Middle Ridge was good as usual and soon we were breaking at the bottom. The others were ahead, leaving us while we were still eating. Dirk, Patrick, Jeff and I were all there, joking around and it was at that point, Jeff promised to make us all coffee cups of his favorite pictures of us. I knew mine would be of pushing my bike up Vasquez Trail. Nice of him.

We rode on, Jeff turning off on Creekside Trail and heading home on China Hole to Mahoney Meadows Road. Not sure if he did Middle Steer Ridge but ended up with an impressive ride after being off the mountain bike awhile.

Continuing on, we manged to almost clean Poverty Flat Road. The road has been graded and that has created a lot of "moon dust" or "cake mix". So thick in one section that it was impossible to find a line. We walked but cleaned the rest. Our legs were still in good shape.

Up Bear Mountain Road. Bear Mountain was our 1st serious climb. We walked a lot of it, hoping to save our legs. Along the way, we saw a solitary hiker and said hello. Later, while breaking at the top of Bear Mountain he caught up and we chatted a while. Good guy. I can appreciate a hardy hiker out there all alone. Takes guts.

We rode on soon hitting Mississippi Lake Trail and then we arrived at the shores of Mississippi Lake filling up with water. I decided to pack along some perpetuum and filled that. It seemed to help. Later, there was nothing that would help.

Then we were off to Heritage Trail and Pacheco Creek Trail. Heritage is in good shape except for the bottom. Pacheco Creek Trail needs work. All in all the slight downward slope of the trail was very welcomed by all.

Pacheco Camp and we caught up to the 2 riders that decided to attempt the rest of the ride. They left signs of Hard Coe 100 and 29K in the dirt and spelled in rocks on the sink. We'll see how long they stay there. They soon left and we took a while eating, drinking, putting on warmer clothes and setting our lights up. Soon we were on our way up Coit Road to Pacheco Ridge Road.

From there it was a short detour to the wondrous Phone Line Trail that Charlie cleared recently and Dirk put on the route as an homage. I arrived while Dirk and Patrick were looking for it. I pointed out the trail marked by a rock cairn. Soon were were descending. During a tricky turn Patrick goes down. He tries to ride on but soon finds that there was a reason he went down. His tubeless tire burped out all its air. Our 1st mechanical. We wait in an awkward part of the trail while Patrick and Dirk repair it. I eat and drink and wait. They have the situation controlled.

Down to Coit Road again and up to County Line Road. And to Turkey Pond Trail, a dicey descent at night. Still trees down on this trail. Big branches tough to cut with a 10" fiskars. Maybe soon. We got around them and ended up at the bottom of the trail near County Line Road. We loose the trail but soon find it and are on our way to Dutch's Trail.

At a lot of the climbs Dirk and I are walking. Patrick is still cleaning. I'd like to save myself. Soon Dirk's chain snaps off. Looks like a bent link. Luckily he finds the chain in the dust of the trail and puts it back on with a gold link and we are on our way again. 2nd mechanical. We get to the bottom, safely. I was worried since I'd never done Dutch's trail in the dark. And its steep. Scary. Not as bad as I thought since I kept it slow.

Hike a bike to the section wide open after the climb which Dirk calls the Bermuda Triangle of Cod. We see the other two. They got lost and decided to stick with us for the rest of the ride. Good idea. Hell to get lost at night in Coe. Onward.

Around Yellow Jacket Pond I nearly fall into a large hole averting catastrophe by inches. Soon we are walking the bikes up the steep "normally cleaned" hill to Tie Down Peak Trail. We descend I I almost lose it in a crevice and somehow manage to catch myself. Dirk commented earlier on his motor skills being curtailed at this point. A valid point I find out.

We regroup at the North Fork Trail and get past the treachery of that trail and soon are climbing up Kaiser Aetna Road. This is where it hits me. This climb beat me up. 2 miles at 20 per cent grade. Tough in any condition. I am a bit heartened to see the others taking a break. I am ambling up very slowly, but I don't stop. Soon we are at Dowdy Ranch. Tough. That one broke me. And Burra Burra and Center Flats Road are looming. How am I going to do that? The break is long and we fill with water and eat and prepare for the monster ahead.

I get through Burra Burra Trail, walking the hills and soon Center Flats Road is upon me. I walk most of the hills. When I try to ride, I am falling asleep. Delirious. I have no power. The breaks are plentiful and I am grateful. Grueling and painful. How can I continue on and stay on the bike. I catch myself from veering off the trail constantly. If I fall I won't get up. I will curl up and sleep forever. The lateness of the night is a huge factor. I'm normally home asleep and dreaming. I feel like a zombie. Sleep is forcing its way and taking over my body. I shake my head. When I stop, I put my head down and doze instantly, in another land but still there. I have to keep going. If not to finish the route at least to get back to the car. Soon that is all I am thinking about. I can't imagine doing 20 more miles at this point. How?

We get to Wagon Road finally. It has been an eternity of pain. I stretch my legs. Plans on what to do next were discussed briefly on Center Flats Road. There was talk of scuttle the ride and just getting back. Dirk says we decide at Wagon Road. And here we were, deciding. Two factions. The 2 riders decide to go back. They say I should go with them. Dirk and Patrick are going on to finish the 100. After Patrick says, "we have all night" this phrase convinces me to stay with the 100 group. We go on. With Center Flats out of the way the ride is easier. Down Live Oak Spring Trail and up Coit then down to Crest Trail. I am feeling slightly better. Up Crest Trail and down Kelly Lake Trail. I take it slow not trusting my reactions of skills. We get through it and soon take a brief break at Kelly Lake.

From there up Coit Road again. Another hard climb. Long but I get through it. Another long break. Onward. Wasno Road to Dexter Trail. This doesn't take that long and I am feeling a bit better. 2nd wind? I didn't think it was possible. Down the steep Dexter Trail, slow and careful. Then Grizzly Gulch Trail. This takes some time but relatively flat, only a few brief climbs. I catch up to Patrick and Dirk. I have been using my night rider light as I made the mistake of using my magic shine on high from Dutch's Trail to Dowdy Camp. It is orange at that point so I go with the night rider light. This lasted to the top of Kelly Lake Trail an shut off right as I lie down to rest. Perfect timing. At this point, every time we break Patrick has lie down. Dirk stays upright. I lie down a couple of times. Its tough to lie down. You get pulled into the oblivion of sleep and it can be dangerous. About this time my right knee has a sharp pain that won't go away even with the ibuprofen I get from Patrick. It is actually a good thing as it keeps me awake. Soon both knees are in pain, a couple of daggers. I love/hate the pain.

On Wagon Road. We ride. It takes a while but soon we are at the junction of Wagon and Vasquez Roads. I get there to Dirk sitting and Patrick lying down, slightly curled. God knows what their thoughts are. Maybe just about survival. Must finish.

Down Vasquez. It is rutted in sections so I take it careful even though I nearly crash anyway. A walk of the bike up a severe hill and then a slow grind up to Long Dam. I ride a lot of it surprising myself.

Then we descend down Long Dam Trail. Its a fire road that is a bit rutted and loose and we expect to be lost somewhere along the bottom. No incidents but we do get lost briefly. Soon we are on Wagon Road again. We know it goes down and the up. And up. And up. We ride down then all of us are determined to clean this last hill. I almost lose it several times as there are ruts and loose rock. We all clean it. We are at the top knowing there is only 1 short but steep hill again, then down and the 4 mile ride on Hunting Hollow Road. The ride down is filled with fog and a lot of times I can't see the fire road to my satisfaction, wondering if there is a big rock to take me out. I am very careful, sticking close to Dirk. Soon we are at the bottom.

We ride the fire road that seems to go on a bit. But soon we are in the lot and freezing, congratulating. I wonder how I did it last year, I'm really mystified on finishing this year. Collectively we shelf the last 10K. Its cold, we're beat and we retire. Disappointing after all that and being closer. I think the night riding at the end was a mistake. But how did we know? Seemed to make sense initially. I'm glad I was convinced to finish. Good ride.

Roy.

As usual, my post-ride ritual is to write as much detail down as I can so I can "free my mind" and move on! There are probably drugs that would do this more easily, but I like going back and reading these recaps months (or years) later. For the TL;DR types, there are pretty pictures you can scan instead ;).

Not even a week after we first successfully finished the 100 miles of Coe, I stupidly asked "what's next?" and ElHombre responded along the lines of, "How do you feel about 29,000' of Coe?". I laughed.. and then I realized he was serious!

A year later and we are unracking our bikes and getting ready to ride it!

Preparation/Training
Having been unemployed for most of the past year, I've been doing a lot of endurance riding, mostly roadie rides including three double centuries, which have given me some pretty good stamina for long rides. I landed a job starting three weeks ago which has soaked up all my time leaving only weekends for cycling. So, for the past month, I've been out at Coe nearly every weekend with Plymmer, going deep into Coe and trying to keep my strength up.

I have recently been having some mechanical issues on my bike but sorted most of them out. The most troubling was a chain-suck problem, documented in a previous thread here, where my chain would wedge between the granny and middle rings. Rather than replace it all, I decided to stay with the known and be careful with my shifting.

Since I'm no longer riding the big miles every week, I have to watch what I eat. I quickly gained 4 pounds when I started working but stablized there. The day before, I ate more but tried to stay with non-heavy foods (rice, beans). My wife and I had pre-ride dinner at Chevy's where the corn chips were unusually and ridiculously salty - I ate them all!

I had hoped to go to bed early and aim for 7 hours of sleep but a late work day, then dinner out, then getting my bike and all my gear ready, got me to bed after 11pm. Since I had to be up at 3:45am, I didn't get as much sleep as I had hoped. This resulted in my extreme tiredness late in the ride.

ElHombre had made an addition to the official route, adding a loop up Pacheco Ridge and down Phoneline Trail. This pleased me greatly as it lessened the need to run loops at the end of the ride to round off our Garmin numbers. I took his published GPX track, compressed it and converted it to TCX for my Garmin. It only had the first 100 miles - I figured we would ride the final 9,000'/40 miles without guidance. Or perhaps I already knew it was impossible?

The weather forecast said low 50s in the night and high 70s during the day. I figured I didn't need any more than shorts, jersey, arm warmers and a light wind jacket. Any later in the year and I might have spent hours thinking about whether knee warmers or a heavier jacket would be necessary!

I packed more food than the last ride, and a greater variety. I went into Sports Basement and grabbed one of every bar that looked decent. Variety can make a big difference in ability to eat on big rides, I've recently discovered. I boiled some small potatoes, had some dried fruit (particularly apricots), had two wraps (one ham, one roast beef) and about 8 bars. We also had bought tickets to the Tarantulafest BBQ at HQ so had a full lunch waiting for us there.

Start (6:35am)
Up at 3:45am, I had a quick shower, bathed in sunscreen and got into my gear. Breakfast, made coffee for the road, packed all the cold food and I was on my way.

Arriving at Hunting Hollow, I was shocked by the number of cars there! ElHombre had suggested we might be joined by others, but there were 9-10 cars with folks actively getting ready. Wow!

The weather was nice - not too cold, so I didn't regret not packing a heavier jacket. I wore my wind jacket at the start, but quickly regretted it as it warmed nicely once the sun was up.

The first inkling of sunrise began just before we rode out, so I had decided to fit my handlebar light. In the end, it wasn't necessary as it took a while for ElHombre to round everyone up for a pre-ride briefing. The plan was to ride out promptly at 6am, but by the time everyone had gathered, been given warnings that you really ought to have a map out there, we were ready and rolled out at 6:35am.

Tom & TahoeBC had come to do part of the course with us and started out just ahead of us, expecting that we would eventually catch them. There were 4 Coe "newbies", well, one of them had ridden a small ride out of HQ just once, that had joined us. Ordinarily, I'd think they were crazy to attempt this but these guys looked seriously fit and ready to go.

From Henry Coe Everest Challenge - Oct 2011

ElHombre led the "neutralized" first climb up Lyman Willson. Well, it wasn't really neutralized and the group splintered as one-by-one we fell off the back, or stopped to take photos of the breathtaking dawn.

From Henry Coe Everest Challenge - Oct 2011

ElHombre kept the pace high, perhaps checking out the newbies to see how they would survive. We reach the small hill where we had our first skunk encounter last year and I wonder if he'll take the higher path with more climbing, or the easier bypass route and, of course, he goes straight up the high route. The tone for this ride is set!

I was looking forward to the Lyman Willson Wall, a good test to see if you are ready to dive deep into Coe. I heard ElHombre give warning that it was coming; one or two of them had to push while the rest of us cleaned it. Ok, so they are human.. good! We may have something of an edge over this long ride being used to the types of steeps Coe throws at us.

As the sun comes out, I warm up quickly so stop just before Bowl Trail and remove my wind jacket. We continued up to Willson Camp, arriving quite spread out.

Willson Camp (7:19am, 3.81 mi)
We take a break of 5 mins here to regroup. I begin to wonder if this is how it is going to be and whether a large group will slow us down. I had a chuckle when I overheard one of newbies speak of the "rocket pace" up the climb. Yeah, it wasn't slow! I decided that my light was safer in my bag than on my bars and removed it while we rested.

We began the climb up Steer Ridge Rd, the newbies taking off ahead of us and making fast work of it. We bid farewell to Eric, who took off up Wagon Rd on his own ride, and Tom. TahoeBC was up ahead of us somewhere, trying to be our rabbit!

We take off up Steer Ridge Rd and without trying, set a new Strava KOM (that won't last long now that Diesel has Strava!). Plymmer reminds us of our encounter with a skunk on this ridge last year but fortunately, none were seen or smelled today.

There was still some light fog up on the ridge, but it looks cloudless above and suggests a very nice day ahead of us! Up ahead, we see TahoeBC and slowly reel him in.

The climbs on Steer Ridge are much steeper than I remember (probably a daylight vs night thing) but soon we are the top of Serpentine Trail and then Willson Peak.

From Henry Coe Everest Challenge - Oct 2011

The newbies wait for us here, not entirely sure where to go next (or perhaps they just wanted to regroup at this point?). We descend Steer Ridge Rd then turn down Spike Jones Trail. We warn them that the Timm intersection is very hard to find now so they might want to stay close. They decide to follow and I lead the way down.

With a fast descender on my tail, pressure was on to perform so I let it fly. This was the first singletrack descent of the day so I was still getting my balance dialed in but must have done that fairly quickly as I scored a Strava KOM on the descent.. unexpected!

I paused at the Timm trailhead long enough for the followers behind me to see where we went, then started down. Timm, although it is not the fun playground it used to be, is still quite an enjoyable ride in a rollercoaster, flowy kind of a way. The newbie behind me let out several "oh yeah" exclamations of joy so it was clear he was really enjoying the new Timm!

I really wanted to take him down The Chute - I think he would have loved that - but that wasn't the course and the course is king today, so we took the traditional way down to the clearing at the bottom of Spike Jones. Everyone was high from that descent!

From Henry Coe Everest Challenge - Oct 2011

Grizzly & Spike Jones (7:58am, 9 mi)
We regrouped here and took a 5:30 min break, telling lots of lies about the descent down Timm! The newbies say they are really enjoying the trails and the route so far!

I'm a little worried that we are settling into a habit of taking frequent, long breaks so I suggested we start moving. We begin the climb up Coit Rd, everyone taking their time and chatty.

At Anza, I take the lead and am surprised to gap the strong newbie behind me. I slowed to stay in his sight until past the Cullen intersection. We regrouped at the Jackson intersection. I suggest that they might like to take the lead as there are no intersections ahead to get lost, but they are good with me continuing to lead this trail. I have a blast down Anza, wait at the Grapevine intersection so the newbies don't turn up there, then head down to Coit Rd where we all regroup again.

From Henry Coe Everest Challenge - Oct 2011

We take a 2 minute regroup break then begin the long climb up Coit Rd. TahoeBC is slightly ahead of us but stops when he finds a small snake. He, of course, picks it up and poses with it. He hands it off to ElHombre who recoils because of its nasty smell!

The newbies go off the front again but miss the Coit Springs turn. Actually, it snuck up on me too - I wasn't expecting it so soon. The newbies come back but TahoeBC continues to spare his shoulder any unnecessary pain from a lower-Cross Canyon climb.

I lead the group onto Cross Canyon but immediately dab - I'm not used to approaching it from this direction! I pull off to the side and let everyone pass, then go back down and clean it. That's better! Conditions are so good for cleaning on this steep wall that I didn't want to waste the opportunity. The newbies all walk it.. schadenfreude..

From Henry Coe Everest Challenge - Oct 2011

Plymmer starts the climb just after me and I worry when he doesn't appear at the top of Cross Canyon after me - it turns out he wanted that clean as well and made sure he got it!

Cross Canyon & Coit (9:05am, 14.4 mi)
Another long regroup here (9 minutes). TahoeBC arrives from Coit Rd about the same time as Plymmer appears up Cross Canyon.

From Henry Coe Everest Challenge - Oct 2011

We give the newbies a warning about the downed tree and they take off with TahoeBC on their tail. The trio stays a little longer, eats a bit, updates MTBR with tapatalk and begins the descent. ElHombre says he is going to take it easy as his bike's handling is affected by the weight of his food bags. I say I'm in no rush and will take it easy too, but once the trail starts downwards, gravity takes over and I go with the flow of the trail.

I thought the newbies might regroup at the bottom but they had decided to push on through Kelly Creek and we didn't see them again until Willow Ridge Rd. Hearing ElHombre and Plymmer approaching, I whipped out my camera and unfortunately caught this:

From Henry Coe Everest Challenge - Oct 2011

Just a moment of inattention and ElHombre's front wheel caught a rut or a rock and he goes OTB. If only I had switched to video!

Fortunately, there is no major damage to ElHombre or his bike. He sustains a cut on his leg and some very sore ribs which add an extra level of pain for the remainder of the ride, definitely earning him the Iron Man crown!

His remote fork lockout mount broke (easy zip-tie fix) and, although we didn't realize it until later, his backup bar light came off. Hopefully, he'll be able to recover that.

We had a quick stop while ElHombre cleaned up his wound and fixed his bike, then headed into the Kelly Creek section. Plymmer led the way picking the best route through and gapping ElHombre and me fairly quickly. Plymmer also cleaned the steep climb out of the creek easily which ElHombre & I were happy to push this time

We didn't catch Plymmer until the Cross Canyon Wall. I always want to give the Wall a solid effort, but for some reason the lower section seemed more slippery today. We all ended up walking the majority of it. I hope the coming rains clean it up, rather than make it worse.

From Henry Coe Everest Challenge - Oct 2011

We continued on our way up Cross Canyon to Willow Ridge at an easy pace

Willow Ridge & Cross Canyon (10:06am, 18.64 mi)
I was surprised to see the newbie group here waiting for us as I assumed they would ride on at this point. The route is easy to find for the next few miles.

We take a 6 minute break, update MTBR,send photos to Facebook and eat. We leave at about the same time, the newbies go off the front but stay in sight. I realize they may miss the Hoover Airstrip turn, so up my pace a little to get closer (shouting distance).

They wait at the intersection to be sure, and I direct them to Hoover Airstrip then stop to take some photos as it's looking quite nice covered in tarweed.

From Henry Coe Everest Challenge - Oct 2011

From Henry Coe Everest Challenge - Oct 2011

TahoeBC finds a tarantula on the airstrip and immediately bonds with it, giving it a ride down the strip for a little way, letting it roam about his neck and camelback.

From Henry Coe Everest Challenge - Oct 2011

We continued down the fun Hoover Lake trail and find the newbies regrouped at the lake, unsure where the trail went to!

From Henry Coe Everest Challenge - Oct 2011

We take the low-water shortcut on the lake bed back to the trail. Plymmer reminisces about the mylar balloon + Pliney shrine left here for us last year by pliebenberg! At Willow Ridge Rd, we continue riding its rollers to the top of the Willow Ridge Trail. The newbies had ridden past the trailhead but I think had slowed, unsure about the well-signed intersection. We let them go first, with a warning to wait at the bottom as it was tricky to navigate around to Los Cruzeros. We stopped to eat a little then bombed down.

From Henry Coe Everest Challenge - Oct 2011

Last year, we descended Willow Ridge Trail in the dark so I was looking forward to a descent in daylight. Perhaps a sense of caution dominated after ElHombre's crash, but I couldn't allow myself a full-speed descent. ElHombre, however, was descending with full confidence, setting a new Strava KOM!

At the bottom, I was sad to see the piece of trail that Skyline35 had spent most of the day clearing when we last did trailwork here was almost completely grown over again! I pointed out the Mahoney bypass trail to Los Cruzeros and the newbies took off.

At Los Cruzeros, I recalled last year's sub-freezing temperatures. It was nicely in the 70s today.

From Henry Coe Everest Challenge - Oct 2011

Los Cruzeros (11am, 24.5 mi)
We gave the newbies directions up the Mahoney Wall and to take the first right to Lost Spring Trail and they were off. It takes a special focus and the right conditions to clean a climb like the Mahoney Wall. I started up and saw everyone ahead of me start to push and that gave me license to not make the effort to clean it.

Plymmer, on the other hand, was in the zone and not only cleaned it, making it look easy, but also set a new Strava KOM. Unbelievable!

From Henry Coe Everest Challenge - Oct 2011

Plymmer led the way up Lost Spring Trail. I usually try to clean it - it takes some concentration but isn't ridiculously steep for long - the hardest part is staying out of the poison oak! I did fail to clear a sharp turn around a tree most of the way up.

The newbies were out of water (most had only 2 bottles) so filled up from the spring. We didn't realize until later, but none of them had a filter!

At the top of Lost Spring Trail, one of the newbies who hadn't refilled, decided to head off down China Hole Trail. The rest of us regrouped here with a 5 minute break. In the end, the flies convinced us it was time to move on.

I followed a newbie down to China Hole, having fun keeping up his pace. Another newbie was not far behind me, and when we reached the final descent to the water, he decided to ignore my dismount and ride, very nearly going OTB.

We skipped a few stones and messed around at China Hole, as usual. The newbies took off quickly, walking the first steep up the north China Hole trail. TahoeBC followed them up and a few minutes later ElHombre, me & Plymmer began the climb.

I like this climb, never steep and with a nice variety of landscape - sometimes hot, but often with a bit of a breeze. I attached myself to ElHombre's wheel and we climbed at a comfortable pace, way off our PRs, but slightly faster than last year's Hard COEre 100 pace

As we got to the manicured section of the trail, we laughed as usual about the "caution" signs and wondered what had become of the old guy who maintains this part of the trail.

Manzanita Point & China Hole (12:17pm, 30.3 mi)
Near the top of China Hole Trail, we caught up with TahoeBC and arrived at the picnic table together. I thought the newbies would regroup here (who can bypass the table after the long climb?), but it was very easy to navigate from here to HQ so they chose to go on.

7300' climbed, only one quarter of our goal!

After a few minutes, Plymmer rolled in and we rested, ate and updated MTBR. Even though we were close to HQ and lunch, I decided to eat one of the wraps I had brought at this point figuring it would be good to get extra food in me.

After an 11 min break, we continued up Manzanita Point Rd towards HQ. The road climbs steeply in sections, and while it's a grind, I enjoy the expansive views from this climb. Some dislike the road to HQ above Flat Frog but as long as the surface isn't moon-dust, I don't mind it too much after the previous steep sections.

Near the top, a couple of descending MTBers came racing by and I have to pay attention to keeping right! One of them is pliebenberg and he stops to chat and capture us on video, wishing us well for the rest of the ride.

We roll into HQ, a hive of activity with Tarantulafest in full swing.

Coe HQ (12:51pm, 32.6 mi)
We had hoped to arrive here around noon, so were already behind schedule. The newbies have a picnic table near the visitor center so we parked our bikes and checked in on them.

All the activity at HQ only slowed us down more and we didn't roll out until 1:42pm But it was a great break - we dropped into the visitor center and bought some Cokes. Snr Ranger John and Ranger Cameron were there so we chatted with them for a bit. Then we headed down to the Tarantulafest BBQ and got our meals: mine a hotdog with salad, beans and garlic bread, and a large piece of watermelon. Real food tastes so good on a big ride!

Eating back at the visitor center table, we helped the newbies map out the rest of the course. They were understandably eager to press on solo. Two of them, who didn't have lights, realized that they could go no further so returned back to Hunting Hollow. The other two newbies, with the route clearly marked on a Coe map, took off on their own. I didn't expect we would catch up to them again.

We refilled our camelbacks and I had left my Garmin charging while we were eating. We also took the time to oil our chains as the dry dust was drying them out. After a restful and pleasant 50 minute break, we were back on our bikes.

The groans started immediately as we climbed the paved road to the trailhead - lunch legs are no fun! We bomb down Manzanita Point Rd until we get to the Flat Frog intersection. Here a docent has a large group (20-30) on a tour and is blocking the trail entrance. They make room for us and Jeff leads us down the always fun Flat Frog trail. In keeping with the endurance pace, we don't hammer the trail - also there are many hikers out so we are cautious

Hobbs & Flat Frog (2:02pm, 35.9 mi)
We wait at Hobbs for Plymmer who somehow got held up on Flat Frog. Next the not-so-fun grind up Hobbs Rd, taking it very easy (my slowest recorded time for this segment!) TahoeBC leaves us and says he'll meet us up on Middle Ridge Trail.

I'm feeling really good with food in my system and a good break to refresh my legs. We all arrive at the Middle Ridge Trail together so start down it immediately. I take the lead and decide up-front that I want to clean the two climbs. I cleaned the big climb with no problem and collapsed in the grass at the top, seemingly made as a recovery spot for those trying to clean it!

I recalled that last year, my legs were cramping after this climb so I was pleased that this wasn't the case this time. I had been taking Endurolytes since the China Hole climb and there were no sign of cramps all day.

The Middle Ridge descent was fun, as always. The trail is in great shape. On the way down, I was reminiscing about the feeling of fear I used to get descending it and how I missed that, just a little bit, now that my descending skills are better. It's a fun descent, but no longer pushing the limits.

I catch TahoeBC just as we reach the creek and we watch Plymmer & ElHombre make their final descents.

Poverty Flat (2:47pm, 40.2 mi)
We rest at the bottom of Middle Ridge for about 7 mins. Even though lunch is recent, I eat to try to keep the calories going in (it's too easy to stop eating after lunch). TahoeBC decides it's time to turn back so bids farewell at the Creekside trail. I love riding with TahoeBC, especially in Tarantula season, so it was sad to see him go. Amazing he could ride so far with his shoulder still healing!

From Henry Coe Everest Challenge - Oct 2011

The fire roads to this point have been a mix of sand/moon-dust and well-graded, hard-packed dirt, so it was hard to know what to expect on Poverty Flat Rd. It started well. We came to one small section of moon-dust but were able to keep riding over it.

From Henry Coe Everest Challenge - Oct 2011

At this point, I could easily pick out the tire tracks of the two newbies ahead of us so there was some pride at stake in making sure we rode more than they did! Further up, the moon-dust returned and eventually got too thick and on too steep a part of the trail to ride and we had to push.

From Henry Coe Everest Challenge - Oct 2011

Disappointing, but I was pleased that we got further up than the newbies ;)

The moon-dust section didn't last too long, and although the trail was still steep, I insisted that we ride rather than push to the top! It turned out to be my slowest climb of Poverty Flat on record, but that just means that we were properly pacing ourselves ;)

Probably the worst part of the climb was the lack of a breeze, so once we summitted and began the descent down the other side, the cooling of moving fast through the air was amazingly refreshing.

At the top of Shaffer Corral, we examined the tire tracks to make sure our newbie friends were on the trail. It appeared that they had almost missed the turnoff but had come back to find the correct trail. The descent down Shaffer Corral was fast and fun, as always.

At the bottom, the newbie tracks appeared to go straight to the creek, instead of making the sharp left to The Narrows Trail. We hoped that they realized their mistake and got back on track somewhere!

We bumped our way along The Narrows, me thankful that I had a FS bike and wondering how ElHombre could handle a ride like this on a hardtail! This being my 3rd ascent of Bear Mountain from this direction, it was no longer a surprise - actually, I was eagerly awaiting it to see how much I could ride this time!

Bear Mountain (3:56pm, 45 mi)
As we rounded the final turn in Bear Mountain Rd, the mountain was revealed to us. It's different every time, from the initial "no way", "urgh" and this time, "cool.. let's have at it!". I think the fact that it wasn't too hot and that ElHombre reported that the surface was much improved over last year, contributed to my eagerness.

From Henry Coe Everest Challenge - Oct 2011

We spotted the two newbies about 15 minutes up the road, pushing their bikes. "Welcome to Bear Mountain", I thought!

From Henry Coe Everest Challenge - Oct 2011

I always like to clean the first steep from the creek to the next really steep (35%) section and managed to do so this time. The next section is a mandatory walk for those of only human abilities!

From Henry Coe Everest Challenge - Oct 2011

The really steep stuff only lasts about half a mile, averaging 20.5% and much of it is rideable. Still we pushed the 30% sections, cleanable or not, to save something for the upper parts.

From Henry Coe Everest Challenge - Oct 2011

Over the first false summit and I thought we'd catch sight of the newbies but they were long gone. I later joked with them that I was tracking how much they rode vs pushed by their tire tracks, and they joked back that they only rode the sections where we could see them!

Past the first false summit, with an average of just 11% for the next 0.7 mi, and just a few really steep sections that had to be pushed. I tried to clean as many as I could.

Just past the Bear Springs Trail intersection, I passed a solo hiker - very unusual this far out! I wanted to stop and say hi but he was at the bottom of a valley in the trail and I needed the momentum to get to the top so just yelled "hi" and "thanks" as he moved to the side of the trail.

I rode all of the top section to the summit, which capped the climb well. I was pleased to set a new PR, knocking 6 minutes off my previous best.

Bear Mountain Summit (4:46pm, 47.6 mi)
As I had gone for a big clean of the last section, I reached the summit a few minutes before ElHombre and Plymmer. I jumped up on the survey marker and enjoyed the 360° panoramic view. I enjoyed it especially this time as I had been in much more of the park in view and could identify more of it from this height.

From Henry Coe Everest Challenge - Oct 2011

Soon ElHombre arrived, then Plymmer. We rested, ate and thought about the rest of the ride. I was so warm from the climb that I suggested that perhaps a swim in Mississippi Lake was in order!

From Henry Coe Everest Challenge - Oct 2011

At this point, we had accumulated about 11,000' and it was sobering to think that this wasn't even half of the full 29,000'. It was at this point that the incredible size of the goal we had set ourselves became obvious and I began to wonder if it was achievable! But I knew that if we could just keep going, we would get there eventually. As I said later to Plymmer, "we have all night" - as long as we could keep riding, anything was achievable!

The hiker we had passed arrived and was eager to chat with us. I suspect he was craving human company! It became obvious that he was a big lover of Coe as well, and we talked about many of the back-country trails and their history. It turns out he worked for the CA AG office, so we talked politics a little as well. Nice guy - it's great to come together with others who love and appreciate the park as much as we do!

I took a 17 min break up here, so was well rested when the time came to head down County Line Rd to Mississippi Lake. I had brought two wraps with me and although I wasn't hungry, I decided this was a good time to eat since we had some downhill before beginning any serious climbing, so I downed my second wrap. On a whim, I had bought some of the new Hammer Perpetuem chewables for this ride. I chewed one at the summit, just as we took off down County Line Rd. I'm sure the rest had a lot to do with it too, but I was feeling very energized down County Line Rd - even on the small climbs, I wanted to stand and hammer them. These pills may be magic!

I got to the lake turnoff a good 2 mins before ElHombre & Plymmer wondering if it was the Perpetuem that was giving me all this energy! Now out of water, ElHombre took off while I waited for Plymmer. Plymmer arrived not long afterwards, so we all rode around the lake trail to the picnic area.

I never used to like this section of trail, but now full of energy I was enjoying it thoroughly! ElHombre & Plymmer filtered some water at the lake. I felt I had enough to get me to Pacheco Camp and would prefer the cleaner-tasting water there (despite the recent postings about Pacheco's spring source!)

From Henry Coe Everest Challenge - Oct 2011

After the cooling descent from Bear Mountain, I no longer was so hot that I needed a swim! We still took a good 12 minute break here. When we were ready, we headed around the lake, then up our old friend, Willow Ridge Rd. The golden hour had begun and everything was starting to look golden!

From Henry Coe Everest Challenge - Oct 2011

We remembered the initial route which had us take the evil Willow Ridge rollers over to Rat Spring Trail, glad that the new route took us down the fun Heritage Trail straight to Pacheco Creek Trail. Of course, this year the tall grass has produced a bumper crop of "stickies" which cling to socks and leg hair.

The descent down Heritage was fun ...

From Henry Coe Everest Challenge - Oct 2011

... but Pacheco Creek Trail at the bottom was not. It is very overgrown and the upper part is particularly hard to ride in this direction. The stickies were attaching behind my knees causing me pain on every pedal stroke. By the end of the trail, it felt like I had a thousand cuts behind my knees!

The further we got down the trail, though, the more open it became. I recalled last year that ElHombre had gotten tired of the uncomfortable bumping of the rough surface on his hardtail so had sprinted the trail all the way to Pacheco Camp just to get it over. This year, I had such a burst of energy, I decided to leave Plymmer & ElHombre to their own devices and sprint it myself.

Pacheco Camp (6:48pm, 58 mi)
I was surprised when I rode into Pacheco Camp to find the two newbies there! They were refilling bottles. I found it incredible that I had caught them, despite my fast sprint along Pacheco Creek Trail, so they must have been waiting for us to catch up. If so, assuming they didn't wait more than 5 mins on Bear Mountain, they would have waited about half an hour!

Part of my rationale for sprinting was to try and catch Skyline35 who had said that he would try to meet up with us at the camp. Sadly, he wasn't there when I arrived but he had left us an awesome message!

From Henry Coe Everest Challenge - Oct 2011

The newbies were a little alarmed to see us filtering the water - we relayed the recent spring work and offered our filters but they didn't want to delay any longer. Sunset was falling as we arrived and they wanted to get on the trail before it was dark. We convinced them to mount their lights before heading out and gave a few directions, including a warning to be careful at the end of Dutch's - a section ElHombre has appropriately named, "The Coe Bermuda Triangle".

After they left, we lingered, busy for 45 minutes installing lights, filtering water and eating. I spent much time cleaning the stickies off my legs, socks and shoes, tired of the pain they were causing! I recalled that it was here that we had abandoned our first attempt at the Hard COEre 100 but there was no talk of that this time. Our minds were still on the big goal and whether we could keep going after completing the 100. Doubts were beginning to surface!

At 7:30pm, we rolled out in darkness on the climb up Coit Rd to Pacheco Ridge and the newly added Phoneline loop. On the previous week's Coe ride, my MagicShine with the original battery had gone to red a little faster than I had expected, so I was being very conservative with my light usage. On the climbs, I used just my bar light set to low, stealing illumination from ElHombre & Plymmer. On the fire road descents, I turned on my helmet light. On single-track descents, I bumped my bar lights up to high. This combination gives me an almost-daylight view and I was able to take the descents much faster.

The climb up to Pacheco Ridge went quite quickly and we turned up towards Phoneline Trail. Skyline35 (& locoyokel?) had worked this trail, brushing and marking the parts that were difficult to follow. On the last Hard COEre 100, we had to do some extra loops at the end to bring up the 100 miles, so this addition was planned to expand the course to exactly 100 miles.

I had the course in my Garmin, but still missed the Phoneline trailhead. ElHombre & I doubled back and found it marked by a rock cairn. Phoneline was to be quite an adventure. I have descended it only once before, and that was more of an expedition to find it than actually ride it! It is quite steep, much more than I remembered, and very loose in parts.

One of these loose corners was my undoing, as my front wheel slipped out and I went tumbling. I was going slowly at the time, so no scrapes. The front wheel had wedged under a tree, annoyingly. I pulled it out and got back on and started back down. The steering was extremely squirly and I knew something was wrong. I stopped and sure enough, I had a flat.

I run tubeless on both tires and I was hoping that the bead had somehow not been dislodged from the rim. I pumped some air in, but couldn't get enough pressure to reseat it. ElHombre had a CO2 cartridge but I didn't want to waste it without being sure it would reseal so decided to throw in a tube.

I was annoyed at myself for not being more cautious and costing us 15 more minutes of delay. It was difficult to do the repair as it was quite a steep section of trail, but with ElHombre's help I eventually got the tube mounted and we were on our way again.

Other than this mishap, Phoneline was fun, although I'd have much more fun on it during daylight hours. It's certainly much preferable to a descent of Coit Rd. The trail dumped us out on a bend on Coit Rd, and we continued the descent then began climbing up Coit Rd again.

Coit & County Line Rd (8:20pm, 61 mi)
For some reason, I thought we had another ridge to climb before reaching County Line Rd, so I was quite surprised, and pleased, when we reached the end of Coit Rd, at County Line Rd.

I forgot about the Turkey Pond loop and began down County Line Rd but ElHombre reminded us that we need to descend Turkey Pond first. The course is king! And so we headed north on County Line and dropped down Turkey Pond Trail.

Turkey Pond is more open than Phoneline, so faster and better for night riding. There are, however, always trees down in need of a chainsaw to clear. Last year there were three and this year there are still three blocking the trail. Plymmer has done some work to make them more easily passable, so we weren't held up too much.

Quite weirdly, we actually got a bit lost at the bottom of Turkey Pond Trail - somehow we made a left turn where we should have gone straight - one of those things you'd never do in daylight! We only lost a couple of minutes then were on our way up County Line Rd to Dutch's Trail.

The ascent of County Line is quite a pleasant climb, as fire road climbs go, and I enjoyed climbing it alongside ElHombre the whole way. It has a nice surface and at times, a cool breeze. We lingered 5 minutes before taking off down Dutch's... nobody seemed to want to lead it

I was still feeling strong so I tackled and cleaned all the ridge climbs on Dutch's. ElHombre & Plymmer were feeling a little more worn out and chose to walk a few of them. Having better lights made a big difference too.

At one point in the trail, I found a big rock right in the center of the trail hidden by grass. I almost ran into it which would have resulted in a nasty crash. Being in an open meadow, there's no way it could have got there naturally. But I can't believe some anti-cycling hiker would have dragged it out there maliciously either. Just weird. I moved it off the trail.

I was leading the way, and with my lights was pulling ahead of Plymmer & ElHombre, so I would often pause and wait for them to catch up. Then I noticed they weren't there and stopped and waited for some sign. Lights are usually easy to see from a distance but all I saw was darkness behind me. I turned my lights off and was immediately drawn to the sky - so much going on up there that you never see from the Bay Area!

After 4 mins, I thought I had better go and find out what happened and climbed back up. Eventually, I found them with ElHombre's bike inverted - he had broken his chain! Fortunately he had the pieces to fix it and was just about ready to go by the time I arrived.

From Henry Coe Everest Challenge - Oct 2011

We continued on down Dutch's. I was enjoying it immensely - in a much different way to a daylight descent. As we neared the bottom, we saw lights on the other side of the small valley - wow, we had caught up with the newbies! Given our lazy stop at Pacheco and mechanical on Dutch's, I wondered about this - they must have got lost somehow.

When we got to the bottom and began climbing up out of the creek, I realized that they were way off to the side, so were off trail. I wasn't sure whether we should attempt to contact them (they had definitely seen us coming), or get to the top of this valley and find them there.

We kept climbing and found them waiting for us. They had indeed got lost, had missed the trail on the other side of the creek and gone down the creek bed instead. They decided to wait for us and ride at a slower, guided pace for the rest of the route! You have to know Coe pretty well to ride out here at night!

So we all continued up over the small, but steep ridges to Yellowjacket Pond. I tried to clean them and I think got them all but one. At Yellowjacket Pond, we lost the trail for a moment before I remembered that it went off to the right - Plymmer & I had stopped here for a bite to eat on a previous ride so it was fresh in my memory.

Eventually, we descended Tie Down to North Fork and then Kaiser-Aetna Rd. I suggested to the newbies that it was fairly straightforward from here if they wanted to sprint ahead but they wanted no part of that and chose to hang with us! And so up the ugly Kaiser-Aetna Rd climb we went - actually, it wasn't as bad in the dark - I think half of its ugliness in daytime is that you can see it going up for quite a while ahead. Recognizing this, I made a point of turning off the light on my Garmin and just letting it roll by.

ElHombre & I climbed at a comfortable pace. I was surprised that the newbies hadn't overtaken us and instead fell back to a slow climbing pace. Were they at their limit?

Dowdy Ranch (10:52pm, 70.5 mi)
It's always a relief to pull into Dowdy after a Kaiser-Aetna climb and this day was no different. The temperature was dropping quickly and the sweat from the climb was chilling me. I put my wind jacket on and began wishing that I had something warmer!

From Henry Coe Everest Challenge - Oct 2011

We refilled water (no filtering needed), ate what food we had left and rested for about 23 mins. The newbies, who were originally going for the full 29K', but had revised to doing the 100 miles, were now asking for bailout routes. We gave some options although suggested that they should ride with us at least as far as Wagon Rd to avoid the turn down Dormida Trail - almost a guaranteed mistake that would end badly without clear directions and experience of that intersection. I described it as best I could but after their "Bermuda Triangle" experience, they decided to play it safe and stick with us as far as Wagon Rd.

I thought Plymmer or ElHombre might lead up Burra Burra Trail, but neither felt that they could clean it so encouraged me to lead. I did clean it, stopping at one point to try and move another big rock in the middle of the trail (this one was mostly buried!).

I almost turned down Dormida Trail myself, until I saw the metal post that reminded me where I was! The newbies said they were sure they would have gone the wrong way if they were solo. This needs a good sign post!

Down onto Center Flats Rd for the hard miles back to Wagon Rd. I encouraged the newbies to take Center Flats at their own pace - it's easy to follow and we would be resting on the tops of the rollers quite frequently. The only trick is taking the correct fork to the final climb to Wagon Rd, but missing it is not so bad since it takes you to Wagon as well. But still they wanted to stay with us.

Center Flats went by much easier than I expected. I had no trouble with the rollers until we got to the big ones near the end when it took more focus to climb than I was able to muster! I forgot that there were long sections of downhill on Center Flats in this direction that actually make it quite fun.

On the other hand, I was beginning to get quite tired. It was around midnight and I had been up since 3:45am. I found myself nodding off on some of the roller climbs which was a completely new experience! I really needed a good dose of caffeine.

We pushed up the final climbs towards Wagon with the newbies taking the lead. Fortunately, they stayed within earshot so we were able to make sure they caught the turnoff to the correct climb to Wagon Rd. On our last ride, Plymmer had impressed me by cleaning this whole section; I felt good so decided to give it a try. Perhaps it was the tiredness but it didn't take long on the steepest part of the climb for me to bail out and push!

Wagon Rd & Center Flats Rd (12:54am, 75.7 mi)
This ended up being my slowest climb of Center Flats Rd recorded, a good 20 minutes slower than our pace last year. But this ride had long become about survival! The newbies had decided upon a bailout route and were going to descend Wagon Rd, probably all the way to Willson Camp then Lyman-Willson back to the cars. They thought that they might take Wasno and Tule Pond but weren't sure.

On Center Flats, Plymmer had been struggling about as much as I'd ever seen. Were were all tired, but he seemed to be suffering the most. I figured ElHombre was probably in quite a bit of pain still - I had seen him grabbing his ribs often - so I offered that I was ok with bailing out. Although none of us wanted to do quit, I felt we had good enough reasons to do so and we needed to at least consider the possibility.

ElHombre, however, was ok to go on. Once he was decided, I was fairly sure that Plymmer was going to continue no matter what but I wasn't sure if he was feeling pain or tiredness so we asked. He gave it some thought but decided to finish what we had started.

The 29K' goal was looking unachievable at this point, but we still didn't write it off. Once we got back to the car, we hoped that food and the chance to rest might be enough to spark us back to life. I ate a food bar but had a great deal of trouble getting it down - severe indigestion. That was the first health problem I'd suffered so far and fortunately it passed in a few minutes. I guess it was the hard work of Center Flats taking its toll. I was able to eat ok after this point.

And so we parted with the newbies and headed up Wagon Rd for the final 25 mile loop. Fortunately, ElHombre had planned the route to have this loop with relatively easy climbing towards the end. After Center Flats, it felt quite easy climbing Wagon and I quite enjoyed the descent of Live Oak Spring Trail. After the descent, the flat part seemed to go on forever but eventually we reached Coit Rd and after a 4 min break to regroup, we turned up Coit Rd.

I found my toes were starting to go numb from the cold, so I put some chemical warmers in my shoes; these little wonders kept my toes at a comfortable temperature the rest of the night - I completely forgot they were there!

The Coit Rd climb is steep enough to be hard work but I was welcoming all climbs at this point as I was finding myself getting quite cold on descents, or while waiting to regroup. A quick descent down Coit Rd was fun, followed by another climb up Coit then up Crest. We rested briefly at the Crest-Coit intersection, although I don't recall why!

My lights were doing really well - still showing green (full charge) several hours into the ride. So I pumped them up to full for the Kelly Lake Trail descent. I was ready for the tricky parts of the descent so enjoyed it. I was still a full 2 mins slower than last year (also in the dark) but for some reason it didn't feel slow!

Kelly Lake (2:51am, 82.7 mi)
We only rested here a few minutes, wanting to attack the Coit Rd climb to Wasno and get it over with. It is one of my least favorite climbs although much better in the dark. I checked off the landmarks that marked our progress: the first bend which marks the first steeper section, the switchback that marks the turn towards to the top and easier grades, then the tree cover which marks the approach to the top. And fairly quickly, we were at the top.

I had climbed the whole road with ElHombre, although at the top either he faded or I accelerated. This seemed to be happening on a few of the fire road climbs - perhaps it was my competitive subconscious taking over? Strava is in my subconscious.. help!

Plymmer was not far behind us at all, so he had clearly found a second (or third...) wind!

At Wasno and Coit, I knew there was cell reception so we updated MTBR (ElHombre & I sending independent updates accidentally) and rested for 13:30 mins. Neither he nor Plymmer were at all interested in taking the little singletrack that joins Coit & Wasno! So we went down to the road junction and headed off down Wasno Rd.

We got to Dexter and with little pause, began our descent. I put my lights on full and went as fast as I dared. A branch had hit my helmet light earlier on Live Oak Spring Trail and it was not as tight as it used to be so I found it unsteady on the trail causing me to have to slow to see properly.

Once we regrouped, we continued on down Grizzly Gulch towards Wagon Rd. A couple of times, I got the dreaded chain suck which, thus far, I had mostly been able to avoid. I had little tolerance for mechanicals at this point so was getting quite pissed off when the chain got itself wedged. Fortunately, they were all fixable without the use of tools, some just by backpedalling without even stopping. I think they got worse at this time because the grass was getting wet causing the chain to get wet as well.

The route along Grizzly Gulch was otherwise a lot of fun and I was still feeling physically great. I was still quite tired, though, and finding myself drifting off "at the wheel", so I hammered the last bits of Grizzly Gulch, hoping to ward off the tiredness with hard work, and create a gap so I could shut my eyes for a few minutes at Wagon Rd.

Some find the idea of actually napping on a ride a bad one, but I've used short naps before the instantly refresh myself. I'd never do it solo (who knows how long I'd be out!) but with our trio, I felt safe to lay my bike down, lay myself down in a semi-comfortable position and close my eyes. Sleep came almost instantly. I heard the others arrive and I saw Plymmer collapse on the ground as soon as he saw me down ElHombre, our leader, fortunately stayed conscious and after about 7 minutes he announced that we really needed to get going!

I felt much better after my nap, although the relief was only temporary. We had a little more climbing to do up Wagon Rd, then a descent down to Willson Camp. Again, on the descent, I found myself nodding off so I repeated my drop-and-snooze there, getting another 5 minutes of refreshing shut-eye. Plymmer, I think, did the same which must have left ElHombre wondering if we were ever going to get to the end!

Willson Camp (4:31am 89 mi)
- If we kept the same pace as last year, we should have finished around 4am so it was with some regret that we watched that mark fly past with about 15 miles still to go. But every year will be different - the goal is just to finish - quite hard enough without time pressure!

Last year I had a strong feeling of dread about heading down into Vasquez but this year, it didn't worry me at all. It turns out this was because I had completely forgotten about the steepness of the climbs, having in my memory a great photo of Plymmer climbing Vasquez Peak at sunset on what my memory had turned into a pleasant, mild ridge climb.

From Henry Coe - end of Hard COEre 100 - Nov 2010

We took the descent down Vasquez Rd very carefully, remembering that it is severely rutted and dangerous at speed. Then a turn and we are faced with a wall. My Garmin went ballistic and says it averages 37%.. 30-32% perhaps. Probably cleanable on the right day.

After that there are the steep rises up Vasquez Peak, averaging 12.5% over a third of a mile, with several 25% walls. I clean them but not without pain. It seems forever until the Long Dam Trail sign appears but I'm thrilled when it does!

Since ElHombre & Plymmer are pushing the climbs, I again drop to the dirt and close my eyes. 8 minutes later, I am awoken and ElHombre leads the way down Long Dam Trail.

Long Dam is difficult to follow in the best of conditions. We stop at one point seeing where the trail appears to go but having no memory of it crossing a creek and climbing steeply. Realizing our memories must be wrong, and my Garmin route seeming to confirm it, we take it and soon are on our way to Wagon Rd.

The Wagon Rd climb to Phegley Ridge is somewhat daunting but also somewhat exciting since it is the last big climb of the ride. ElHombre & I again rode together and I thought we were keeping a pretty good pace, although it turns out we were climbing 3:30 mins slower than last year! It seems tiredness trumps physical tiredness since last year I was physically exhausted while this year I am mentally tired but physically fine.

I resisted the urge to look at my Garmin and watch the summit approach, feeling it was better to just plod away and let the summit come to us when we get there. Eventually, I see the early turnoff to Phegley Ridge Trail and a minute later we hit the summit.

I'm extremely impressed to find that Plymmer is right there behind us! How many winds can this amazing climber summons?

Wagon Rd Summit (5:40am, 93.6 mi)
It's cold and foggy up here so we don't linger long. Both ElHombre & Plymmer remind me that there is actually one more "little climb" to come - I didn't recall it at all!

I was really hoping that with the Phoneline extension, we wouldn't have to add any extra loops to make up the miles. Checking my Garmin it looked like it matched up exactly giving us dead on 100 miles at Hunting Hollow.

I am last to begin the descent while I try to figure out my glasses which are fogging up with the thick fog in the air. Eventually I give up and take them off.

Strong bar lights help a lot in fog (lower to the ground) so I am able to descend much faster and pass by Plymmer and ElHombre on the way down. I manage only 25 mph, nothing like the 37 mph I got descending here in daylight last year, but it feels like flying in these conditions.

We regroup at Hunting Hollow Rd. Last year, ElHombre sprinted along here to the end, undoubtedly using his finish-line gravity that got us to the end of the Terrible Two double century!

So, feeling good, I up the pace but find Plymmer & ElHombre don't follow. I wasn't interested in winning this particular race so slowed and we all rode into Hunting Hollow together at 6:10am, just short of 24 hours of our starting time.

I was watching my Garmin's odometer the whole way wondering if I would make 100 miles and sure enough, as soon as I passed the portapotties, triple digits appeared and, for me at least, additional loops weren't required!

Hunting Hollow (6:10am, 100 mi)
ElHombre checked his Garmin and found it slightly short on distance and elevation, probably due to a Garmin crash earlier, but it was so close that he decided to do a quick loop to round it off.

The big question at this point was if anyone had anything left to tackle another 9,000' of climbing. Sunrise was just beginning but we put off seeking eachother's opinions until we had eaten and rested a few minutes.

I wanted out of my bike clothes so first priority was to change. I had brought a spare set for the extra loops. Plymmer brought around some deliciously salty chips. As we relaxed, it became pretty clear that we were done and it was a formality to agree.

ElHombre & Plymmer cleaned up and headed out straight away. I didn't trust myself to drive so far while so tired, so decided to sleep as long as I could in my car then head out. I snacked on chips, chocolate and all sorts of sugary, salty junk food, ran my engine for a few minutes for heat then switched on the seat warmer and dozed off.

I normally don't sleep well upright (plane trips to Australia are sleepless nightmares for me) but it was 2 hours before I woke up again. It wasn't my plan, but I checked myself to see if I felt up to going out on the Everest loops. My head felt woozy, my mouth raw and disgusting, but my legs felt good. It could be done. I was thinking it might be easier to ride more than to face a long drive while so tired.

I took a walk to the portapotties to make my decision. It was still cold, and really, that decided it for me: no more, I'm done. I suppose I was looking for any excuse but I think, really, I didn't want to do it without my compadres by my side!

The drive home was fortunately uneventful. I had to stop for gas which broke it up nicely and I had a packet of good crunchy chips (crunchy food is my secret for staying awake on sleepy drives). I was home around 10am, jumped out of the car, showered and went straight to bed. My wife came in from the San Jose Rock-n-roll half-marathon and woke me about 4 hours later. I never really felt human again until I had a beer later in the afternoon!

In hindsight, I think it was the change of start time that really did us in. I think we were all physically stronger and better prepared this year than last. We rested far too long again, most of the extra 2.5 hours going in rest time this year. Tarantulafest was the main culprit, but it was impossible to just pay a fleeting visit with so much activity up there!

In the past year, I've done three roadie double centuries and wanted to compare them to this while both are fresh in my mind - this is by far the hardest ride I've done, even harder than the Devil Mountain Double which I thought topped it all!

So, the Everest Challenge remains unclaimed. I think that we are going to do it one day. It may need a special course of its own to avoid the temptation of returning to Hunting Hollow prematurely, and the start time is clearly going to be critical. We may need to do some food stashing, or arrange for a trail angel to deliver us some mid-ride. But with coordination and determination (and stubbornness) I think we can do it!

Hunting Hollow, 2011/10/1, 6.35 am

The contrast with last year's edition (midnight, 3 vehicles on the entire parking lot, near freezing temperatures) is striking: the large lot is now buzzing with activity; the night has been relatively warm with only a few high clouds obscuring the skies. We exchange our hellos, greet new partners-in-crime and prepare to get started. About 10 riders are lining up: 7 of them going for at least the 100 miler, 5 for the full Everest Challenge, among them the 3 veterans of last year. Eric the Nightrider will be embarking on his own solo expedition, which he'll dub the "Four Corners of the Apocalypse"... we don't ask many questions, Coe park has a tendency to attract the adventurous and the eccentric. My buddy Tom is there, providing moral support and spare lights, and Jeff, aka TahoeBC, shares his brave intention to join us as long as his recently-dislocated shoulder would allow him. Some unknowing campers are a little startled by the early hustle and bustle, but take it with a smile.

I hold a short briefing, before we get started with the steep 2 mile/1200 foot climb up Lyman-Willson trail, a good introduction if anything to what lies ahead. On this first climb of the day, I push the pace a bit to see how the crowd responds and it becomes quickly clear that we have assembled a fine and fit group here - once on the ridge, we witness the day break in pretty spectacular fashion and a quick photo stop is in order.

(photo Patrick H.)

Camp Willson Three guys in the group are Coe-virgins and one is a second timer. While a bit concerned, I'm admiring their gutsy move of taking on this thing as their first (or second) ride in Coe. From our previous email correspondence and quick conversations in the morning I was convinced they knew what they were doing, so I quickly put my worries about their well-being to rest, and encourage them to go for it and hammer out the course if they would feel inclined to do so - their biggest obstacle would be navigating the often tricky maze of trails in this vast place. I send them off to Steer Ridge, and start the climb a bit later alongside Patrick, Roy and briefly Tom. We reel in Jeff, who took a bit of a head start and he reports back the sighting of some wild boar near and in the pig traps on the ridge. Coe's fauna has a special affinity to Jeff, as we find out repeatedly.

Coit Road

Everyone is loving the Spike Jones / Timm descent, a fast and furious singletrack combo, and the switchbacked Anza trail (fun going both up and down) generates additional grins. On the fireroad climb toward Cross Canyon the bunch regroups, while Jeff plays snakemaster with a small constrictor on the side of the road. Patrick and I lead the group to the steep climb on lower Cross Canyon trail, starting with a tricky left-hander that I was intent on not dabbing. I make it, only to drift slightly off-course and be forced to put a foot down fifty yards farther; a duh-moment, though today would not be about cleaning, but surviving, as Roy will remind me. Soon we reach the crest and are looking forward to a fine descent into the canyon.

Cross Canyon

I'm picking myself up from the steep patch of loose gravel right before the first creek crossing; the crash left me gasping for breath and I feel some dull pain on my right side. During the dreaded fraction-of-a-second of enhanced consciousness right before impact I saw my front wheel jerk to the left after giving apparently too much front brake, anticipating the dried out creek crossing. My bike is set up with two small handlebar bags as well as a stem bag (all loaded with food), so I decide to blame the incident on my unfamiliarity with its altered handling, rather than dismal descending skills. The bike is suffering some minor damage as well: a broken fork remote lockout lever. And my bar mounted LED is whacked off, but I will only notice after I will have climbed out of the canyon.

(photo Patrick H. - yes, he actually captured the crash)

Willow Ridge road & trail

A little shaky and sore, I'm moving cautiously during our passage through the canyon; after the long climb out - the Cross Canyon Wall looking as daunting as ever - we run into the rest of the group again on the ridge and head to Hoover Lake. At the airstrip, Jeff takes a tarantula along for the ride. On Willow Ridge trail, as fine a downhill as they come, I regain my confidence, just in time to dodge the plentiful bushes of poison oak sprouting along its thread near the bottom part.

Coe Headquarters

Some amazing contrasts on this ride: from the dark solitude of our pre-dawn climb to the Tarantulafest party & barbecue at headquarters; this is a benefit event of its own for Coe park, and going on in full force when we arrive. The long climb up here - over the mighty Mahoney Wall (Roy cleaning it as if it was a speed bump), Lost Spring trail (additional quality time with poison oak), China Hole (nice, gradual), and the reviled Manzanita fire road, has been troublesome for me - with sore ribs acting up, and the impending dread of the many more hard miles coming up I start to fantasize about joining the party then calling it a day. We run into the always cheerful Paul L., who's doing some impromptu GoPro video interviews, and he inspires me to put my game face back on. Some caffeine-laden drinks at HQ, the food on the grill, the buzzing activity and the party chatter put me back in business, and after a long break during which the entire bunch has regrouped, we take off again. Scott and his buddy Dane, who were traveling light and fast, decide to peel off at this point. They probably could have gone faster if they'd known their way around here, but weren't prepared for the deep dive into the backcountry at night. Aaron and Sean, the other two relative Coe-newbies, radiate fortitude, are good with the map and stay on course, taking off toward Flat Frog trail - I wonder if we'll see them again.

Middle Ridge

The thrills and adrenaline this trail dishes out never get old; Poverty Flat road and Bear Mountain don't seem that insurmountable anymore... or will the delirium wear off quickly, once confronted with the hard facts? We'll see. Jeff splits off now and heads toward the Creekside trail. He's been going pretty strong, for not having ridden in a few weeks, with a semi-functioning shoulder.

(photo Patrick H.)

Bear Mountain

After we dragged ourselves over Poverty Flat, sporting an odious dusting of cake mix in spots, there would be time for recovery on a few flat miles, before we'd tackle the toughest climb of the day. At least, if the Narrows trail wouldn't be such a bumpy mess. The final stretch of flat fireroad afterwards is easy enough though, an ominous counterpoint to what lies behind the bend. When the first, ludicrously steep pitches of Bear Mountain become visible, we immediately spot Aaron and Sean struggling high up the hill, probably about 20 minutes ahead of us. Until now, Roy, Patrick and I mostly rode together, but during the ascent it becomes clear that Patrick has the most fuel left in the tank, and is most eager to crank out the power. He'll be dropping us on most of the climbs during the remainder of our journey. Roy and I retreat in our respective pain caves and while hiking the steepest pitches of Bear Mountain, I find a receptive audience for my complaints in a rare horned lizard, taking in some sun on this hottest part of the day.

(photo Patrick H.)

Pacheco Camp

The five remaining 100+ mile riders are briefly reunited at Pacheco Camp. Patrick has laid down a fast pace on these past few miles. Heritage trail was a beautifully primitive and fine descent but I didn't quite enjoy the subsequent passage of Pacheco Creek trail. The upper parts were overgrown and rough, and took a toll on me. I remember feeling very strong here last year whereas now, all I can think of is the possibility of some trail angels making an appearance at the camp, handing us out various goodies. Alas, it would turn out Charlie and crew indeed came by here, but missed us by about 45 minutes. The golden hour has almost passed and doubt creeps in again... this place is an easy bailout point. But no, that would make for a sad, depressing and lonely ride home, after having come so far. And thus without further ado I join the others, install lights, filter water and prepare for a long night.

(photo Patrick H.)

(photo Patrick H.)

Dutch's trail

I'm a bit dismayed to see that many snagging branches I had trimmed down on this fine trail months ago seemed to have grown back together. On one of the short steep uphill pitches I feel my chain break and curse. The drivetrain had been acting up for a while, probably a link was bent earlier on. After Patrick's flat on Phoneline trail (quite a trip in the dark), this is our second night-time mechanical. Luckily the fix is quick and we carry on. Approaching the lower section of this fantastic ridgeline trail - a genuine 'Blair Witch project' experience by night, with heaps of weirdly shaped chamise lighting up in our headlights - we see what must be Aaron's and Sean's lights, moving apparently slightly off course.

(photo Patrick H.)

Dowdy Ranch

After we had swept them up, Aaron and Sean decided to stick around with us, probably not a bad idea in this confusing and remote section of the park. I feel somewhat revived on the usually brutal Kaiser-Aetna climb toward Dowdy Ranch and am surprised that Patrick and I seem to be dropping the rest. It must be the absence of heat that makes this thing easier. My helmet light had come off its mount and I thought the mount had broken, so I zip tied it together, making for a slightly more wobbly light spot than I cared for (I found out later that it was just a screw that had worked itself loose - Magicshine owners, beware). A break at the deserted facilities is welcomed by all, but it is getting colder, so we layer up and quickly start to get moving again, onward to Burra Burra trail.

(photo Patrick H.)

Center Flats road

This is the section of the course that can really break a rider. The relentless grades of Center-non-Flats show no mercy. Patrick is still going insanely strong and cleaning an impressive amount of the steep rollers thrown at us; Aaron, Sean and I are limping along, but I'm getting a bit concerned about Roy. He's often falling behind, seems to reside in a catatonic state and hardly utters a grunt when I talk to him. I hand him some chocolate covered coffee beans, my late-night secret weapon. There is talk about bailing. I don't want to hear about it and suggest we'll decide once we hit Wagon, and are back on trails with civilized grades.

Wagon road

The call is made. Roy, who somehow came back to life, Patrick and I continue and take on the final 20 miles of the 100 mile course; Aaron and Sean are running low on lights and batteries and will take a shortcut home. They are a pair of impressive riders, having taken on this challenge in style, on pretty much their first real ride in Coe. I'm convinced they have the capability to pull this off in a strong time, with their newfound experience and some preparation; when we say our goodbyes I urge them to come back and get it done next time.

Hunting Hollow, 2011/10/2, 6.17am

These last 20 miles go by in a dreamlike daze. Slow fireroad grinds alternate with frigid singletrack descents, while sleep deprivation and an immense fatigue take a hold of us. The eerily moonless sky is lit up by an unfathomable amount of stars. When Patrick and Roy, who has made an incredible resurrection, take short naps, I joke with them that lethal hypothermia may set in anytime and urge them to get going again. Not sure why I stay awake; the coffee beans, perhaps. We survive the rutted Vasquez-Long Dam debacle, and climb the tough final 500 vertical feet on Wagon road, ridden clean by all three of us, as a matter of honor. Our final descent home is obscured by a dense fog bank, making for dicey conditions, but we all make it safely to Hunting Hollow road. Patrick hammers out the last three miles, but I don't have the energy to keep up with him and ride my own pace, Roy not being too far behind.

Once we regroup on the parking lot, few words are exchanged and we start to clean up; I'm feeling elation and satisfaction, because of the successful finish in difficult conditions, but mixed in is a slight sense of disappointment, as I knew I was in no shape to even attempt the Everest 'bonus route'. I think the others are sensing the same. Patrick may have come closest to giving it an honest shot, but he seems overwhelmed by sleep, and soon retreats in his car. I look at the time and can't believe it's past 6am; the sky is slowly lighting up. Taking on the long night ride after a full day on the bike had slowly drained our energy and worn us out, more than expected. Last year - with a midnight start - we were able to maintain our pace and finished about three hours faster. I dig out some caffeine, and like Roy, prepare to drive home. The Everest Challenge may have been unmet, but with some new lessons learnt we think it can be done. Some time.

I would finally like to take the opportunity to sincerely thank everyone who donated to the Coe Everest Challenge and CPPF; it's people like you who make the difference, and real results can be achieved, as proven by the successful effort in keeping Coe park open.

Wow… that was nuts, just a crazy day. I must admit, I underestimated this ride – I’ve done some hundred milers before easily under 12 hours, so I thought we’d be able to get it done in 15 or 16 hours max. I remember saying to Sean in all seriousness before we got started: “dude, I bet we can finish before dark, and then we’ll have plenty of time to knock out Everest.” HAHAHA! Little did I know what awaited us…

Here’s my recap: The start was HARD! I was not ready for the pace that was set up the first climb, and dangled off the back up until the first downhill singletrack. What have I gotten myself into?? It took about 2 hours for my legs to warm up, and I didn’t start feeling good until that rocky, technical climb along the creek (sorry, I can’t remember trail names). This was where the four of us newbies took off ahead of the main pack, we were riding strong. Dain on his Blur XC was especially hard to keep up with. The morning is pretty much a blur of constant climbing and descending, but I loved the long singletrack climb up to the final fireroad to headquarters, which Sean and I did together. We were both getting super hungry so just decided to push it to HQ and wait for everyone there.

Over 6 hours to do 34 miles! I was getting worried we were way behind schedule, so Sean and I took off a bit before everyone else after lunch at HQ. We felt AWFUL traversing along Flat Frog Trail because we stuffed our faces with sausage, cheese, and brownies from the Tarantula Festival, but I knew those calories would come in handy later. Middle Ridge descent was crazy fun! Coe has some damn fine trails it turns out! We slogged our way up the moon dust fireroad feeling strong, got kind of lost going up Narrows (ended up in the creek for a few miles instead of on the trail beside it!), and couldn’t believe our freaking eyes when we saw the Bear Mountain climb looming ahead. Are you kidding me! Let the hiking begin. About half way up, we turned around and could see the rest of the group about a half hour behind us.

Finally made it to the top, hauled ass to Mississippi lake, decided not to stop for water and try to make it to Pacheco. Heritage was yet again another bad-ass descent, but Pacheco Creek trail was simply annoying – I’m still picking those damn pricklies out of my leg hair. We chilled at the campground for probably too long, and were surprised to see the rest of the group catch us! They were obviously riding really well, and I was glad they were close by, as I feared we’d need their help in the dark.

It was getting dark by the time we left camp (at mile 60 something……Sean and I were laughing at my proclamation that we’d finish before dark). We got a bit lost trying to find the new Phoneline trail, but finally found the entrance….fun little descent. We got lost again at the end of Turkey Pond singletrack, but quickly got back on route. We were flying, both of us surprised at how good our legs felt, and made it to the top of Dutch’s in no time, even stopping to poke at a tarantula for a bit. Dutch’s was great fun, I can’t wait to come back and do it in the daytime. At the bottom of Dutch’s is where our trouble began. We were trying to find Yellowjacket trail, and came upon a sign pointing to Yellowjacket lake. Somehow we lost that trail, did pretty much a complete 180 without meaning to, and ended up on some random goat trail that we thought was Yellowjacket. We descended/bush-whacked our way down through the dark, looking desperately for the lake, but ended up in a dry creekbed instead. Crap! We consulted the map, Sean did some stargazing to orient us, and we realized we went down the wrong valley. ARGH!! Time to climb back up! On the way back, we could see lights descending down Dutch’s, and realized happily that the rest of the group was near and could show us the way. We sheepishly waited for them and allowed the Coe masters to show us the correct way. Patrick was charging! Riding super fast, and Roy and Dirk, although looking a little tired, were riding strong as well.

Patrick and Dirk took off on that horrible long fireroad climb to Dowdy. I hung back a bit with Sean, who I realized was literally falling asleep on the bike! We stopped for a quick Coke and caffeinated gu recharge as Roy passed us. We were beginning to be concerned about battery life, and rode this climb on our emergency LEDs. Stopping at Dowdy was not fun….Sean was asleep, I was cold, and not looking forward to 30 more miles. Did I mention it was midnight!! This is insanity!!

Burra Burra and Center Flats were pure misery. Sean and I DEFINITELY would have missed a critical turn there without the rest of the group, so thank you guides!! We couldn’t fathom how Patrick was cleaning all those climbs on Center Flats…we could barely walk up them. Unfortunately, when we got to Wagon, we had to pull the plug – not enough battery for another 4 hours in the dark. We bid adieu to our fellow racers/guides, and told them we’d be back to finish some day! The ride back to Hunting Hollow was quick and relatively painless…..although I was shocked at the steepness of Lyman-Willson and couldn’t believe we had ridden up that so fast earlier in the day!

2:30am….20 hours on the bike….Footlong spicy Italian subs were devoured immediately….too tired for beer….set up the tent in a daze and passed out hard. I was woken up at 6am when the three strongmen finally finished their journey and cheered them on a bit before passing out again until 9am.

All I can say is – ABSOLUTELY AMAZING RIDE. Patrick, Dirk, and Roy deserve much applause for pioneering this route and so far being the only people strong enough to finish it. The course was both beautiful and brutal, and was a great intro to Henry Coe. Sean and I had a great day - no mechanicals whatsoever, no crashes, ate and hydrated well, but we weren’t prepared enough to survive an entire night on the bike! We will definitely both be back to crush this ride, now that we know what to expect!

Cheers!

-Aaron

2010/11/15   For posterity, here is my recap, as much as my scrambled memory will recall! Really long, lots of photos.. for Hard COEre readers only!

After our "failed" attempt at this ride a month ago, we were all eager to give it one final attempt. We had an email thread of 55 messages going figuring out the changes we wanted to make and trying to find a date to reattempt this ride. With days so much shorter and colder, and wet weather approaching (filling the creeks), we knew this weekend would be our last window to get it done this year.

What did we do differently?

We all took lessons learned from our first attempt and applied them to this ride: we stayed off our bikes for at least a few days prior to the ride, and ate plentifully during those days. We all upgraded our light systems in one way or another to be sure we had plenty of capacity to not be held hostage by sunset! And we had nagging technical issues with our bikes dealt with to reduce the possibility of time-zapping mechanicals; Roy had changed his fork, tires and complete drive-chain. I had dispensed with my tubed rear tire and installed the rock-solid UST Nevegal and had conjured up a new way to secure my bike to the bike rack to avoid spoke breakages that have been an issue of late. I'm not sure Dirk had changed anything, being a veteran of 100 mile rides.

Dirk & I had upgraded our lights; last time I had ridden with just a single helmet MagicShine. I was concerned about redundancy and longevity so bought the MagicShine triple light as my second light. The battery on Dirk's well-traveled light died on our last ride, so he bought himself a MagicShine as well. Light would not be an issue at all on this ride!

To give ourselves more time, we decided to start at midnight instead of 2am. Of course, with daylight savings having cruelly ended, we actually only got one extra hour before sunset, and most of that was soaked up by the shorter days. So, we would still have to keep up a good pace and keep rest stops quick to get it done.

Rolling off

The challenge started before we even unloaded our bikes. Arriving at Hunting Hollow just before midnight, it was around 37F. This began the "what are we getting into here?" conversations. But there was no denying the resolve of this trio and we were quickly suited and and on our way.

The first time we attempted this ride, there was a feeling of excitement of the unknown; could we make it? Could we keep our pace up and our breaks short to finish it? Did we have enough light? Would we be eaten by mountain lions, or crash descending too fast? What if one of us bonked; would we stay together or split up? How would our individual paces line up?

We got answers to all these questions on the first ride, so where the climb up Lyman-Willson on our first attempt was full of excited chatter, this time we were very much all business. And it took a long time to get warmed up this time; I didn't feel good until the Bowl Trail intersection. Perhaps it was starting at midnight instead of at 2am giving me less time to digest dinner but my stomach wasn't terribly happy on the first climb.

Worse, my Garmin 705 was not properly recording altitude and we were most of the way up Lyman-Willson before I noticed; this resulted in my ascent reading being significantly lower than Dirk & Roy's. I was quite pissed about this as I had carefully hand-constructed a course for the Garmin so it would use many fewer course points than an automatically-generated course (this is a bug I know causes the Garmin to freeze up). My work wasn't in vain, though, as this altitude bug was the only problem I had with the Garmin the whole ride - and that's unusual.

Aside from quick regroups, we didn't take our first rest stop until about 15 miles into the ride, at Cross Canyon and Coit. We had already climbed a bit under 6,000' at this point! From Willlson Camp, we turned straight up Steer Ridge, again lamenting that the moon had set before midnight, just as it had on the previous month. Now the chatter began as we were all feeling warmed up, strong and excited; I could sense the resolve in the group and barring accidents and serious mechanicals, I was sure at this point that we were going to do this!

Skunked!

On our last ride, we had come across a couple of skunks, one of which ran up the trail ahead of us on Lyman-Willson, stubbornly refusing to get out of our way. We had no option but to follow at a distance until the trail forked and we could overtake it safely. This night's skunk encounter didn't work out so well. We were riding along the top of Steer Ridge, and again, a skunk ran ahead of us, refusing to move off the trail. This was a more difficult situation as there was no way to bypass it. The trail was double-track at this point, so Dirk The Brave, put the hammer down and passed it on the other track getting easily clear. Unfortunately, it raised its tail at the indignity of being passed and let fly. It was then that I realized that I was directly downwind of it, although a good 10-15 feet away. But it got me good and I spent most of the rest of the ride trying to see if the smell had faded. Fortunately, I think my sweat washed it away.

With better lights and more confidence, we ripped down Spike Jones and rolled or jumped everything on Timm Trail. It was here I was really impressed with the triple MagicShine; I could see everything with a good sense of depth. It had been warmer up on the ridge, and although it was cold down at the bottom of Anza, I was feeling warmed enough to really enjoy the Anza climb and descent. Even the climb up Coit Rd to Coit Spring, which seemed to take an eternity last attempt, went very quickly on this night.

As with last time, we had decided that while we were free to acquire badges of "cleaning" honor at any time, there was no pressure to do so and, in fact, getting off and pushing up climbs that we would normally clean easily was a very good way to ensure longevity in our legs for the big climbs to come. So arrive at the Cross Canyon Wall (off Coit Springs), we all pushed this otherwise easily cleanable climb. I liked this as it added to the sense of a higher purpose on this ride; we always had the big goal in mind.

First break

We ate some food at Cross Canyon/Coit and then bombed down Cross Canyon into the freezing valley. On our last attempt I had been amazed to see Roy actually eat during the ride and this time he appeared to have adopted eating as a real survival mechanism; he took every moment available to eat. I was slightly saddened in the revelation that Roy is indeed human like the rest of us! I mean, who rides 50 miles at Coe on a single Cliff bar?

Witness Roy eating at Cross Canyon and Coit

From Henry Coe Hard COEre 100 - Nov 2010

Dew had made the lower valley quite damp and more slippery than normal. Dirk seemed to have no trouble, but I was slipping and having to unclip and restart constantly. At the Cross Canyon Wall, Dirk and I heard Roy's unique self-motivation technique as he tried to improve his focus on this trail; but the conditions just weren't good for a clean pass through. Having almost cleaned the wall the previous week, I made an attempt but it wasn't going to happen; perhaps too much weight, or being under lights. I'm disappointed as once the rains come, the wall is going to be rutted and impossible again - but there is always next year!

We continued up Cross Canyon to Willow Ridge, Dirk and I out front and Roy at his own pace. Roy had done a lot of riding in the past month to regain his former fitness and while still slower than Dirk and I (both of us have been doing big rides this year), he was much closer to our pace this time. Roy's ability to just keep riding through the pain is legendary and inspiring to watch!

We turned up Willow Ridge towards Hoover Airstrip. Last attempt, this was close to dawn so our eyes were always wondering east looking for signs of dawn. This time, we started earlier so would have to wait until much later for that welcome intrusion of light on the horizon.

Dirk attempts a takeoff on Hoover Airstrip

From Henry Coe Hard COEre 100 - Nov 2010

Trailwork

We had exempted ourselves from the monthly trailwork for this ride, with some guilt but knowing that this was the only weekend that was going to work for us until next year. So we pondered as we rode along Willow Ridge, planning to ride the Hoover Lake Trail, the subject of the later trailwork, how we might leave something amusing for the trailworkers to chuckle over when they arrived 6 or so hours later. Inspiration failed us, but as we rounded some of the new switchbacks, a pile of rocks near the trail gave us an idea, so we erected a rock monument on the trail in a safe location. Hopefully someone got a chuckle out of it!

From Henry Coe Hard COEre 100 - Nov 2010

Further down the trail, we came across a little display left for us with an empty (yes, I checked) bottle of Pliny The Elder artistically arranged. I got a huge chuckle out of this and very much appreciated that PaulL had gone to the effort!

From Henry Coe Hard COEre 100 - Nov 2010

Down Willow Ridge Trail, this time with fully functioning lights so at a fast pace. Los Cruzeros turned out to be the coldest location on our ride; I'm fairly sure it was sub-freezing. Dirk had a chainsuck incident near here although he resolved it extremely quickly (thankfully, or I'd be frozen there even now!).

The Mahoney Wall was in much, much better shape than the last attempt, with the few rain showers compacting the sand and smoothing out the surface. Dirk made a very good attempt at cleaning it, while Roy and I decided to watch in awe and save our legs for future climbs. Lost Spring was in great shape and I believe Dirk and Roy cleaned it; I dabbed on one spot and I surprised myself at not being annoyed in the slightest. Such a different mindset from a normal Coe ride!

Bring on the daylight!

I was quite looking forward to the China Hole descent under lights, and it really was a lot of fun. My bike seemed much more jumpy than usual, and it's a testament to what long night rides can do to your reasoning abilities; I never even thought to check the lockout (which was, of course, locked out!) Again, quite chilly down in China Hole so we didn't even stop long enough to eat. The climb up China Hole (north) was mellow, as usual, but particularly memorable on this occasion because it brought sunrise. We got to watch, as we climbed, the first hint of light to sunrise itself. I found it quite magical to watch the world start to appear out of the blackness around us as the sky grew brighter; the colors that appear are wonderful after nearly 7 hours of monochrome!

From Henry Coe Hard COEre 100 - Nov 2010

The sunrise gave us quite a show as we climbed up to HQ.

From Henry Coe Hard COEre 100 - Nov 2010

From Henry Coe Hard COEre 100 - Nov 2010

Smiles all around as morning breaks

From Henry Coe Hard COEre 100 - Nov 2010

We rested a little at Manzanita Point, where the main point of discussion was the small chance that HQ was going to be open to serve us coffee. This was quite deflating for me, as the coffee hit at HQ had been just wonderful on our previous attempt. While climbing up Manzanita Point Rd to HQ, we were thrilled to note that the previously sandy parts were now quite solid from the rain showers that have been through in the past month. This gave us hope that Poverty Flat wouldn't be the hill of sandy torment that it was last time!

It was at this point that I realized that I had lost my riding glasses. They had been fogging up on the climbs and since it was too cold to remove clothes to enable sweat to get out, I just took of the glasses and put them around my neck. That's normally not a problem, but this time the battery cable for my helmet light managed to dislodge them and they are now somewhere on China Hole Trail. A bit like "My Preciousss" in LOTR, these glasses seem to *want* to be part of Coe; this is the second time they've abandoned me here!

No coffee!

HQ was, indeed, closed but we since we had agreed to try and keep this break as short as possible, we planned to stay until 7am, just in case they opened then and might have coffee ready. In the meantime, we set about the various tasks we needed to get done: refilling Camelbacks, minor bike maintenance (chain oiling, etc), breakfast, charging up our Garmins and, of course, trying to update the MTBR thread. 30 minutes later, we bombed down the fireroad for an always fun ride along Flat Frog trail. Hobbs Rd seemed tougher than normal (perhaps just because it was the first climb after our break); I was extremely amused when Roy pointed out this funky tree right by the side of the trail; I must have never seen it before because I was so focused on the climb.

From Henry Coe Hard COEre 100 - Nov 2010

I also spotted a coyote running away from us on Hobbs.

Crashes on Middle Ridge

At the Middle Ridge trailhead, there was a "trail closed" sign, clearly meaning Hobbs Rd beyond Middle Ridge was closed for controlled burning. We took off down Middle Ridge. For some reason I had a great desire to clean the two climbs, even though doing so zaps so much energy that it is probably inadvisable on a long ride like this. Nevertheless, I cleaned the wall and was still panting at the top when Roy and Dirk arrived. I paid for it pretty quickly when my legs began cramp signals when climbing the second Middle Ridge climb. The descent was fun, as always, marked by two crashes. Mine was fortunately in an open area, caused by a stick jamming in my rear wheel with the ensuing loss of control sending me tumbling over the grass. Dirk's was caused by a branch snagging his handlebars throwing him way off the trail. We both escaped injury or serious bike damage.

Taking photos on Middle Ridge Trail

From Henry Coe Hard COEre 100 - Nov 2010

At the bottom of Middle Ridge, we were somewhat surprised to see water in the creek, given all previous creek crossings had been dry. One of the Poverty Flat Rd crossings had quite a deep pool over it which, with the cold temperatures, we did our best to walk around rather than ride through guaranteeing cold, wet feet.

From Henry Coe Hard COEre 100 - Nov 2010

The dreaded Poverty Flat Rd

The Poverty Flat Rd climb turned out to be in great shape - perhaps the best I've seen it. The recent rains had "concreted" the moon dust into a very smooth, solid, rideable surface and we all cleaned it with no problem. There were signs of the recent controlled burns all over with a bit of smoke at the bottom of the Poverty Flat climb - fortunately, it didn't get too thick.

From Henry Coe Hard COEre 100 - Nov 2010

The descent down Shaffer Corral was fast and fun and gave us back the spring in our legs. The Narrows is an unpleasant trail, for the most part, being a bit of a horse track. I was following Dirk and watching him bounce around on his hardtail wondering how he could deal with it (it was killing me with full suspension!).

The start of The Narrows Trail is airstrip quality!

From Henry Coe Hard COEre 100 - Nov 2010

Bear Mountain - of death!

It wasn't until we reached the start of the Bear Mountain Rd that my thoughts began to wonder to Bear Mountain. It is such a huge climb, and I began to wonder how I would attack it. Last time, I was feeling so strong that I gave a big effort on each segment to try and climb it, sometimes successfully. Dirk took the lead this time, so I decided to let him be my climbability measure; if Dirk tried to climb it, then I'd give it a go too. To say this was being competitive isn't exactly right, but it did provide the motivation to give big efforts when I saw Dirk cleaning the steeps.

Bear Mountain takes no prisoners

From Henry Coe Hard COEre 100 - Nov 2010

The moment we hit the first climb of Bear Mountain, the temperature went up 10-15F°; as if the steep climbs weren't enough!

From Henry Coe Hard COEre 100 - Nov 2010

I think we actually managed to ride much more of the mountain than last time. Even so, I don't see cleaning the whole climb in my future, although Roy knows of someone who has done it.

From Henry Coe Hard COEre 100 - Nov 2010

So, some 43 minutes of riding and pushing and we were at the top. It really feels so good to finish this one. I jumped up on the mountain's survey marker, at the high point, and almost jumped for joy, especially since we had nearly all downhill for the next few miles.

This rock is the summit of Bear Mountain!

From Henry Coe Hard COEre 100 - Nov 2010

We had some early lunch at the top of Bear Mountain, at around 10:30am, and did well to keep our stop to only the planned 20 minutes. Nevertheless, we had soaked up 2 hours of the 2:45 hours we had budgeted for breaks already which meant that we had little hope of being done by sunset. But that wasn't a problem at all as we were well prepared with lights and all there of us had the resolve that we were going to get it done, no matter how hard.

All downhill from here!

The descent down County Line Rd to Mississippi Lake was fast; it was great to feel the cool breeze after a hot climb. Mississippi Lake seems like an oasis after the dry desert-like territory of Bear Mountain and it was nice to ride around it cooling down. Dirk set a nice fast pace around the lake getting us to Willow Ridge Rd.

From Henry Coe Hard COEre 100 - Nov 2010

Willow Ridge Rd was one of the most painful parts of our first attempt; so much so, that we dropped it from the route since there was an alternative, mostly downhill without losing that many miles. But there was still the climb up from the lake, and after quite a bit of downhill, it was a chore. We had a little difficulty locating the Heritage Trail but once found descended it carefully.

At the bottom, we came to Pacheco Creek Trail; towards Pacheco Camp, this trail is mostly a good double-track but out here it was a rarely used horse trail. We bumped our way over it until the double-track appeared then took off with haste to Pacheco Camp. At Pacheco Camp, Dirk was stretched out on a picnic table making the most of the extra rest time a sprint to the finish affords.

From Henry Coe Hard COEre 100 - Nov 2010

Pacheco Camp - decision point

We filtered water, ate, rested a little and were back on the road. It was at this point, on the previous attempt, that we had decided we needed to cut the ride short. We were in a similar situation this time, in that we had rested longer than planned and definitely would not be finishing in daylight. Nevertheless, resolve was strong in the group that we would soldier on and finish.

The climb up Coit Rd was easy enough and we headed up to the Turkey Pond trail. Roy and I had descended it the previous weekend and I remember it being fun but forgot about the three downed trees. All were fairly easy to walk around, though.

From Henry Coe Hard COEre 100 - Nov 2010

Back on County Line Rd, we climbed up to Dutch's Trail. Dutch's is a challenging trail with some short but steep climbs, great views and really fun downhills as it follows the ridge downwards. These climbs were a little more painful than normal with about half the ride done. But it was still great fun. At the bottom of Dutch's, there is a creek crossing then the trail goes sharply up with some steep climbs around the sides of Tie Down Peak. I cleaned the first few but then ended up pushing the later ones. I did feel some frustration about not cleaning this; on any ordinary ride, it would not be that difficult.

Expansive views from Dutch's Trail

From Henry Coe Hard COEre 100 - Nov 2010

Kaiser-Aetna - the Coe Superhighway - of death!

Once on Kaiser-Aetna Rd, we prepared ourselves for the mental challenge of this superhighway. "2 miles of climbing, 1 mile of hell", Roy said. I'd say the 1 mile of "non-hell" is overstated! Well, at least it wasn't hot - climbing this road in 100° temperatures, as often occurs in summer in Coe, is a special torture for those who venture out this way. But the relief at the end is Dowdy Ranch with fresh, potable water, benches to sit on and (although closed now due to budget cuts) real, flushing toilets! We refilled our water, ate what we could, recharged our Garmins then hit the road. We had stopped at Dowdy for 30 minutes, longer than planned but the big push to save time was lessened now that we had decided to ride into the night.

From Henry Coe Hard COEre 100 - Nov 2010

Burra Burra is always deceptive, in that it seems like it should be all downhill, but there is actually a serious climb at the start to the sides of Burra Burra Peak. But when the downhill does come, it is fast and fun. We had earlier jokes about how you wouldn't want to accidentally turn down the Dormida Trail off Burra Burra Trail and sure enough, with Dirk way ahead, for some reason I turned left onto Dormida. It took only about 20 seconds before it hit me what I had done and was able to return with almost no consequence!

Up next was Center Flats Rd. Usually, of course, Center Flats Rd is bringing you home to the end of your ride so the steeps don't seem quite so bad. Today, with almost 70 miles in our legs and the prospect of 30 more to go, Center Flats was particularly draining. Many of the climbs that I had no problem cleaning on previous rides were too much this time and I had to push. The final climb, which is long and steep but normally manageable at a slow pace was too much and I pushed. But there was no shame in this today!

Rest stop and regroup on Center Flats Rd, with Burra Burra Peak in the background

From Henry Coe Hard COEre 100 - Nov 2010

Saying goodbye to daylight

By this time, it was getting chilly again but we had to climb to the top of Wagon Rd before descending so we put off getting our warm clothes until then. The sun was setting at this point and there was some glorious golden hour vistas. At the top, we got our warm clothes out and hooking up our lights ready to switch them on when needed. On the way down the other side, the sunset began and some breathtaking colors appeared in the clouds. It's a great feeling to have watched the whole day pass by from somewhere like Coe.

Sunset show begins as we reach Wagon Rd from Center Flats Rd

From Henry Coe Hard COEre 100 - Nov 2010

From Henry Coe Hard COEre 100 - Nov 2010

From Henry Coe Hard COEre 100 - Nov 2010

From Henry Coe Hard COEre 100 - Nov 2010

Getting very sleepy

I was starting to get very tired; I was fine while we were riding, although my tiredness sometimes messed up my motivation to dig deep on big climbs (especially on Center Flats Rd). But it became really difficult when we were stopped for regroups; I had to walk around and eat at these times because if I sat or lay down, I would have fallen asleep! Sometime around here, Roy pulled off a tick that had bitten in behind his ear. I had flicked off a few ticks I had found on me along the ride, but were kept away by my leg and arm warmers. I found it somewhat amusing that all the concern following the removal of the tick was whether Roy would be able to finish the ride or have to bail! We all knew were were doing something unique and kind of historic; it would take something serious to keep us from finishing!

We sprinted down Live Oak Spring, and everyone seemed to have an extra spring in our step climbing Coit then Crest. By the time we were on Crest, it was again dark, although we did now finally have a good moon out to light up the hillsides around us. We bombed down Kelly Lake Trail, another fun night descent. Passing beside the lake, we saw some newts on the trail and a spider on a fresh web and stopped to get photos.

From Henry Coe Hard COEre 100 - Nov 2010

From Henry Coe Hard COEre 100 - Nov 2010

On the climb up Coit Rd from Kelly Lake to Wasno Rd, Dirk and I fell into the now familiar rhythm which we had settled into on most of the fireroad climbs. Somehow the climb goes faster and easier when we climbed side-by-side; it felt like a kind of symbiotic support system giving us the encouragement to keep going through the pain. And so, I was surprised when we reached the top of Coit at how quickly it had seemed to pass.

This climb was also a great indicator of how much strength and fitness Roy had gained since our last attempt. Although we still beat Roy to the top, the gap was only a couple of minutes this time. Weirdly, though, every time I looked at Roy I see Mario eyes!

A well planned route

Our spirits were quite resurrected at this point because we had some fun downhills to come. We worked our way along Wasno Rd then bombed Dexter Trail, continuing along Grizzly Gutch Trail, not stopping until Tule Pond. Heading up the Grizzly Gulch climb from there, Dirk admonished Roy to not turn up Serpentine Trail as he might normally do on a big ride like this!

From Henry Coe Hard COEre 100 - Nov 2010

The final climbs!

At Willson Camp, our determination was put to the final test. We had worried that the route would not come out to 100 miles so Dirk had added a loop down Vasquez Trail from Willson Camp and down Long Dam Trail back to Wagon Rd. On paper, it looked easy enough but Roy and I had pre-ridden it the previous weekend and knew better. But at this point, we were riding to our plan and had no intention of trying to dream up an alternative to make up the miles if we were to skip this loop. So we carefully descended Vasquez then climbed it back up, almost to the top of Vasquez Peak. It actually wasn't as bad as I thought it would be with weary legs. Long Dam, however, was extremely difficult both because the surface was dented with horse tracks and it was hard to find the trail at times, in the dark. But we did find our way out eventually.

Our minds were on the final climb up Wagon Rd; It is a 500' fireroad climb steep enough to be painful. We had climbed it previously with no problem but this time we had about 95 miles in our legs. I fell into the now familiar pattern of climbing alongside Dirk, providing and receiving the motivation to keep pushing. My Garmin's battery was getting low at this point, so I kept the light off and was not able to track our progress up the hill. So it was with quite some elation that we reached the top of our final climb of the ride! Roy was not at all far behind us.

We rested there much longer than we needed to, soaking in the feeling of having done all the climbing and just a cruise downhill to go. We also compared our Garmins and frustratingly came up with three different measurements for distance and ascent. Dirk was fairly confident that his Garmin would click over 100 miles exactly as he rolled into Hunting Hollow while Roy and I were 1-2 miles short. We decided to reassess when we got to Hunting Hollow and figure out what extra loops we needed to do to make sure we all had our centuries.

The final miles

I was a little hesitant about going full speed down Wagon Rd as I didn't have my glasses and wasn't sure how the wind would effect my vision. So I was surprised that when I hit 37 mph, I was able to see fine, although I did shed a few tears! We rolled back along Hunting Hollow Rd at a good pace.

As soon as we crossed the last creek crossing, we heard the congratulations cheers from the parking lot. Given how cold it was and how long after the trailwork day had finished, I was so surprised. It added so much to the ride to have an appreciative welcome party.. Paul and Brian, you guys rock. If we had been just a few minutes earlier, "other Paul" and Charlie would have been there as well having braved the cold for several hours. Thanks so, so much guys!

Unfortunately, Roy and I were short of our century by 1.5 miles and Dirk and Roy were short of their 20K by less than 100 feet. So we headed off in different directions to ride to make up the differences. I did ride the 20K as well, but since my Garmin wasn't recording the first 1,000' or so of altitude at the start of the ride, it was well under.

I was thrilled to claim my Pliny The Elder prize from the Coe missing sign contest and share it with Dirk. Dirk, I saw you brought a special celebratory beer too - sorry we didn't get to drink it - next time! Paul had a camp stove going and warmed us with soup. After a while, we quickly packed our gear and got into the warmth of our cars. I was shivering from the cold just from getting changed out of my riding gear!

I had packed a Starbucks Doubleshot hoping that the caffeine jolt would be enough to get me home safely. Once on the freeway north, I found myself nodding off and none of the usual tricks were working. I had to pull over to a side street and close my eyes. I got a 15 minute "power nap" and had an easy and safe drive home after that.

The aches and pain will be with me for a few days as a great reminder of this feat! If I ever have to spend another 21 hours in agony, I wouldn't want to do it with anyone else!

2010/11/15   We made our 1st attempt at this ride a month ago and we were determined to finish this. It worked out and this was the last opportunity to do this. Things were happening that might have derailed the ride but we all came to our senses and realized that it was now or next year. Maybe one of those cooler days in summer might happen in 2011 to give us an chance. I may like the heat, but 100 miles in the Coe heat would not be possible. Our 1st attempt was a lot warmer, mid-80's as we were on Bear Mountain. This we were starting earlier and had to endure cold temperatures at night as we rode deep into Coe's crevices.

I wisely took the advice of my co-riders this time as I took 3 days off of any strenuous activity leading up to the ride. On one of the rides up to Sierra Azul I had even seen Ratpick on a ride as he had parked in the only other parking place at the entrance on Kennedy Road. What were the chances of that? He lives up on Redwood Shores. Blind faith should have told me right there that this ride would go on as scheduled. It was scary thinking about it. Doubts would creep into my mind. The fear of Dutch's Trail, Kaiser-Aetna Road, Burra Burra Trail and Center Flats Road after 70 miles of pain. Maybe my failure of not finishing the Solstice Ride this year put on by Sorcerer drove me to finish. Probably that, and the fact that we would be the 1st and go the longest distance in one single ride in the altitudinal confines of Coe Park.

I started the day with the intent to eat well. I went to the Southern Kitchen to eat what they call the "Breakfast Of Champions". It is 3 pancakes, 3 eggs, 3 sausages, hash browns, bacon. A lot of food and very good. I had a burger for dinner at the Firehouse Brewery in Sunnyvale and that was a mistake. That did not sit well. I should have ordered a plate of pasta. Took a while to digest.

I arrive at the Hunting Hollow Parking Lot at 11:38 am in pitch darkness and the cold of cold. Really tough weather and wondering how I would survive in that temperature. I wait in the car while listening to Australian Punk music from the late '70's. And I wait. I'm starting to get worried. I will not ride this alone, not 6 hours in the dark all by myself. I like to take solo rides often in Coe but this was no solo ride. That is really what one needs on something impossible like this. Camaraderie. People who are pull you through it. Dirk and Patrick were certainly golden in that respect. Finally (not long really, but it was cold) both Dirk and Patrick arrive at the same time. We greet each other and prepare, filling our packs with the necessary items for survival, prepare our lights. I had a mini-newt on the handle bars and a magic shine on the helmet with the battery strapped onto my camel back strap. Perfect set-up. The mini-newt battery on/off button fell off on our last attempt and night rider said they would send a new one but I haven't received it yet. I did call them to remind them, but they are behind. I mentioned I had a very important night ride but it was too late.

Pictures were taken and we were off. History in the making. Very cold riding down Hunting Hollow Road. We started the climb up Lyman Willson Road and it was tough. As we hit the wall, Dirk in front of me struggle and wavered at the same time as I did. That burger was really hurting and I was a bit nauseous. We all managed to clean it all the way to Steer Ridge Road, then cleaned Steer Ridge Road to Spike Jones Trail. As we were riding Steer Ridge Road we pick up a skunk in our lights. It was waddling down the trail and didn't scare off at all. Dirk rides fast by it to my surprise. What a chance! I'll probably have to do the same thing. As he rides by the tail goes up and spray is released. It misses Dirk. Patrick rides by but gets a bit of spray on him that we smell throughout the day. Not oppressive but it is there. I ride by as fast as I can muster and get lucky. Probably the same skunk we saw on our 1st attempt of the Hard CoeRe 100 as it waddled on a trail junction and we went the other way. No such luck this time.

From there it is the arrival of Spike Jones Trail. A fun night ride on this swervy, downhill single track. I take my time while the others go ahead. Great riding with the recent rains. Very sticky. We hit Timm Trail and descend. It takes me longer and I get to experience being all alone with just a headlight in the bowels of Coe. That can be very creepy on the slow bits. I get to Coit Road and the others are waiting there. Off again as we take off on Coit Road.

Up Coit Spring Trail/Road and soon we are climbing up Cross Canyon Trail. It is hike-a-bike since our feeble attempts to clean the 1st part but after that all is well. Up at the top we take a break, then it is down Cross Canyon Trail. More fun downhill single track. At the bottom, another regroup and technical riding in the dark after that. Not easy and frustrating. Finally it is the climb up and it is a real struggle for me. My legs seem beat already. Plus I nearly crash a couple of times as I don't see as well as I should. Frustrating and I cry out in a profane manner several times. Perhaps this release is what I needed to keep me going. I get to Coit Road and another regroup. I was the slower rider the whole time and I thank Dirk and Patrick for waiting as the regrouping is really necessary for this sort of ride. We stick together and mentally encourage each other.

Then it is onward up Willow Road. Downhills at fast speeds are not that welcome since the air is so cold. We sweat on the climb and that is cooled by the cold air flying down Willow Ridge Road. We fly down White Tank Spring Road past and up Hoover Lake Trail. Dirk rides no hands on the air strip portion and acts like he is taking off like an airplane. Patrick snaps a photo. We get to the trail work site (trail work on Hoover Lake Trail is hours away from commencing). At the switch back portion we leave a message. Further down we see that Plienberg left us a Pliny the Elder/Hello Kitty message that was well appreciated.

Willow Ridge Road again and we take rollers to Willow Ridge Trail. Another fun downhill single track. A food break (I am committed to eating on this ride since I know I would die if I didn't). We fly down Willow Ridge Trail. It is a lot of fun although my night time down hill riding is a bit off. I manage to get to the bottom and we a small portion of the Narrows Trail and on the brief uphill bit Dirk's chain jams into the rear fork stays. Dirk has to pull off the gold link (stupid not to have one of these on the chain and something that would have really slowed us down if we had to break out the chain tool) and pull the chain through. No damage and we are able to continue.

On the Mahoney Wall we all make an attempt at cleaning it but realize, even though conditions are much better after the rains, it was not in the cards. We hike the bikes to Lost Spring Trail. I manage to clean it as the 1st time I've done that in a while. We take another break at the China Hole Trail head. Then we go. Fun single track yet again. Super conditions out there as we tool along. On the way down I smell smoke and imagine some campfire in China Hole. We arrive in China Hole and no sign of people at all. Smart since it is pretty cold. Not as cold as Cross Canyon though.

Up China Hole Trail. I'm still hurting a bit but feel a bit better. Big day planned, must continue forward. Dawn is imminent. Light is beginning in the sky and soon the arrival of the sun is a sure thing. A long time in the dark it is very welcome. We break at the top of China Hole Trail, Manzanita Point, for food and rest. I am dipping into my dried mango, banana and apricot sesame sticks assortment. The dried banana seems to be woven together with the strongest hemp available as my teeth get a work out.

Then we ride on and up to headquarters dispensing with the steep hills and hoping for hot liquid. No luck as the visitor center is not open yet. Pictures are taken of the amazing sunrise. Really an uplifting moment.

We eat, use the bathroom and rest some more. We limit our break here to 20 minutes. Interesting to think about a ride this long. Night time and all day. Not your usual schedule as you are replacing standard meals like breakfast lunch and dinner with eating breaks. Having enough food for rides over 60 miles is necessary. I've gotten away with no food for an 8K ride or a cliff bar or two for longer but on something as difficult as this you need all the help you can get. We see no one at all. We consider hitting up Ranger John Verhoeven up for some coffee but we figure he wouldn't appreciate the wake up call. The hot liquid break never materializes. Pity.

We fly onward down Manzanita Point Road and down the enjoyable Flat Frog Trail. We regroup again at Hobbs Road. Eat a bit more and ride to Middle Ridge Trail. Down Middle Ridge Trail. I come upon an incident. Dirk has crashed. His handlebar has hit a small tree and whipped his wheel violently to the left and he went down. Patrick and Dirk pull the bike out of a mess of tree branches and we are soon on our way again and to the bottom of the trail after the creek. Another break and some more food. I snack.

Poverty Flat. Poverty Flat Road is in great shape and we all manage to clean it. We see a tree down on Poverty Flat Road. It is destroyed an frankly looks burned. As we go on we realize the controlled burn of recent days was responsible. Several locations of still smoking trees as Dirk takes a picture of one. So that is the smoke I smelled on China Hole Trail. Soon we are taking a break at the Jack Ass Trail trail head. It is burned all around at this point making me wonder if it is still possible to follow the trail. It is pretty barren.

We ride on, down Poverty Flat Road and down Shafer Corral Trail to the Narrows once again. A short break and it is onward up the Narrows. Technical riding at some portions, we don't worry about dabbing and soon we are Bear Mountain Road. Riding Bear Mountain Road and enjoying the flat portion and it is surprisingly pools of water after being very dry weeks ago. Bear Mountain. It looks intimidating and it delivers. Especially with our "not-so-fresh" legs. Cleaning is not in the books as I hiked the bike a lot of the way. Saving. Important. It is going to be a long day. Patrick points out the temperature has gone up 10 or 15 degrees as we hit the 1st portion of Bear Mountain. My legs are pretty well spent as any attempt to ride steep portions hurt a lot. Knives in the muscles.

We get to the top and break. Food and rest. Patrick and Dirk notice that they are able to get signals with their cell phones.

Soon we are flying down Bear Mountain Road, then County Line Road. Uneventful and soon we are riding Mississippi Lake Trail and we get back onto Willow Ridge Road. From there it is up towards Pacheco Ridge Road and down Heritage Trail. The downhill of Heritage Trail is very welcome and soon we are on level ground and riding up Pacheco Creek Trail. Much anticipation of Pacheco Camp. It seems to drag on a bit but riding on level ground is very, very welcome. The hills hurt and will only hurt more as the days go on. We get to Pacheco Camp at noon! Good timing. An extended break as we filter water and rest and eat. There is lying down on the benches there as the backs tend to hurt with a lot of weight on them. Taking my camel back off I realize why my back has been hurting. Boy that feels good. Patrick asks if everyone is up for going to Dutch's Trail and we are all in. There is nothing worse than the feeling of quitting such an important ride and as much as I was tempted to avoid doing the difficult task of the hills ahead, bailing at that point would be suicidal mentally. We simply must finish this whatever it takes.

So we ride on. Up Coit Road then up County Line Road and over to Turkey Pond Trail. We ride down Turkey Pond Trail and it is yet another fun downhill single track. And very steep in portions. Soon we come across several trees down. Turkey Pond Trail is still suffering the effects of the fire and trees go down just as you get them out of the trail. I had this trail clear no to long ago and sawing branches on several occasions. Trail work is a never ending task.

We briefly break at County Line Road and Kaiser-Aetna Road. Dirk jokes that we should cheat and take Kaiser-Aetna Road to Dowdy. Then we all agree that the chance of making 100 miles would be greatly diminished. Up County Line Road. Then up Dutch's Trail. I am able to clean some of the climbs on the trail but hike the bike up most. As Dirk pointed out earlier, there is no shame in hiking your bike up steep hills on this ride. We do what we have to to get this done. Dutch's gets real fun as it goes down.

We get to the bottom and soon we are hiking up the other side. Up, then down to Yellow Jacket Pond. Quite scummy. We all hike up Tie Down Peak Trail (Patrick and I cleaned this a mere week before but a different situation this week).

Soon we are at Kaiser-Aetna Road. The climb was very, very difficult. At one point I yell at the top of my lungs, "Ahhhh, when will it end?!?!!!!". It did end finally and we take an extended break at Dowdy Ranch. Rest. Needed.

After rest we ride up Kaiser-Aetna Road and then Burra Burra Trail. Lots of hills there. Then, the monster that is Center Flats Road. It really hurts to climb. Hiking the bike is necessary but I am able to climb some hills. The big ones, no. Dirk and Patrick wait for me on the biggest of these after the Vasquez Trail junction. We continue on and suffer the rest of the road.

We arrive at Wagon Road and it is like a weight is lifted. This feeling translates to a 2nd wind (or maybe 10th wind, who knows?). The sunset looks to be a good one as it is still light. We break and then continue on to Live Oak Spring Trail. We pause on the way to take some photos of the simply amazing sunset, the best in a month or two! We also prepare our lights. At the convenient push of a button, lights on. We ride as long as we can lightless. Going down Live Oak Spring Trail is another welcome downhill. We come out on Coit Road and climb up to take a right on Coit Road again and down and take a left on Crest Road. This portion is not so bad. Moderate climbs don't really hurt and the fact that we are on the last leg excites me.

Down Kelly Lake Trail it is super fast and steep. We get to Kelly Lake and take a much needed bathroom break. Food is consumed and rest is had. Up the grind of Coit Road. Soon I arrive last at the top, Sierra View and we break again.

We take the spur trail to Wasno Road and soon we are flying down Dexter Trail and then riding Grizzly Gulch Trail. A lot of it is not too difficult but I soon lose it again as the steep sections hurt and anger me. Doubts creep into my head as I fear climbs of Vasquez Road and Wagon Road. We go on.

I meet up with Dirk and Patrick at Wagon Road and Vasquez Road. We break and chat and Dirk announces that we have to eat, its our last supper. Soon we are going down Vasquez Road. It is a bit difficult as there are ruts and we are super careful. We climb to Long Dam Trail. Another brief break and soon we are off again.

Long Dam Trail starts out pretty easy, downhill but at the bottom the trail is pretty choppy. And Dirk and Patrick are stopped as I arrive, not seeing where the trail goes. I pick it up and lead them onward through a gate and soon we are stopped again. It seems the trail is waaaay longer than it should be and soon I ride up to Patrick and Dirk again (they had passed me) not able to see where to continue. Dirk notices a pig trap and we ride over to it and pick up the trail again. Scary being out there not knowing where we are. This is the reason you ride in the dark with at least one other person.

We are at Wagon Road once again. It is downhill at first but soon we reach the bottom and it is the hill I have been fearing. I calmly ride a bit uphill then I soon am hiking the bike. As I am looking at the southern sky I see a meteorite, quite large dropping straight down! What a thrill! I saw one on the last attempt of this Hard CoeRe 100. A while but seems not too long before I come out to the open and notice a ridge that seems like Phegley Ridge. And soon I see the helmet lights of Patrick and Dirk. I yell out, "Mercey". Soon we are on our last break. Apparently Patrick saw the meteorite also.

We break and soon we are riding downhill and with the exception of one last hill we bolt fast to Hunting Hollow Road. Dirk informs us that we will have to ride a bit more after we arrive in Hunting Hollow Parking Lot.

We ride on. Hunting Hollow Road is flat and it does take a while. But soon we are in spitting distance to the lot. We wondered earlier if anyone would still be in the lot. As we ride past the gate we hear cheering. Man did that feel good. They had been waiting 3 hours in cold, cold temperatures. I hear Skyline35 and Pliebenberg left not long before we got there. Understandable and well appreciated that everyone waited for us. Having the cheering as we arrived in the lot really made us feel good. I was 80 feet short of 20,000 and 1 and a half short of 100. Dirk was short about 80 feet and .3 miles short of 100. Dirk took off up Steer Ridge Road and Patrick and I headed up the road. We knew there was a rise in the road and rode about a little over a mile to where it was. I checked my altimeter. Man, 19,999 feet. I rode down and up again. Not yet. Its stuck on 19,999 Feet! A couple of more times and I finally cracked 20,000. The mileage would be there when we got back. I ended up with 101 miles. Patrick made it mile-wise also. His Garmin had a problem reading on the initial climb of the ride a lot of hours ago. A lot of hours ago.

We had done something that had never been done before in Coe. 100 miles and 20,000 feet. We are the 1st. I feel honored to be there 1st. Thanks Dirk for coming up with the idea and setting it up and thanks Patrick. You guys were gold on a ride so impossible as this. Amazing.

2010/11/15   It's now more than 24 hours ago since we finished but I'm still in some state of delirium... where to start? After last month's attempt we had learned a few things, about batteries, nutrition, gear. But we would also lose almost an hour worth of daylight. The day that presented itself was promising to be an ideal opportunity though: the forecast said sunny with high temperatures in the 70's, with trails turned uber-tacky by previous rains and now dried out to perfection. So I put my excuses aside and lined up with Patrick and Roy on Friday just before midnight on a frighteningly frigid Hunting Hollow parking lot... I had no idea how we would fare, but was trusting on our collective bull-headedness to pull us through.

On such cold and dark night (the moon had set a few hours before), climbing Lyman-Willson was a great way to get the blood flowing and we slowly started to warm up. The ridges were again much warmer than the canyon floors, with their pockets of seemingly arctic air stuck to the surface. On Steer Ridge we had our first noteworthy wildlife encounter: a skunk was running along in front of us, sticking to the trail rather than just moving to the side (the same, not-too-bright skunk of last time?). I lost my patience, launched into a sprint and successfully completed a 'safe' pass. This must have ticked it off a bit and poor Patrick was to pay the price, as he got sprayed by the cantankerous creature. Luckily for us, he managed to avoid most of it, though the unsavory aroma would accompany him for a while.

Descending Spike Jones and Timm in the dark was loads of fun again, I can highly recommend it. No trace of mountain kitties, though Patrick did spot a bobcat. We slowly made our way up to the top of Cross Canyon, then more fun ensued with the high speed descent and traverse through the canyon floor. The bottom was frosty and humid, and the slippery mess of vegetation and wet rocks made it a precarious and slow ride. We all failed miserably on the Cross Canyon Wall but didn't really do an honest effort - saving our breath and legs would be the motto today. During the climb out, Roy got held up a bit, and Patrick and myself were to witness Roy's extraordinary self-motivational skills again - the ungodly screams rising out of the depths of the canyon must have sounded terrifying to the untrained ear, but we knew better.

Willow Ridge road was next, then Hoover Lake trail. By means of contribution to the trail work day, we left rock cairns indicating where rework was needed (more seriously: Paul and co would end up doing a great amount of work, thanks!). Last time around I was rather miserable on the Willow Ridge singletrack descent, with my dead battery and wimpy bar LED - not so today, all was well in the battery department and the plunge into the Narrows was a blast. After the climb on Lost Spring trail, the descent then ascent of China Hole we started to tire a bit of the nightriding, and were looking forward to dawn, which we were able to witness in all its glory on our way to Headquarters. We arrived there pretty much on schedule, but unfortunately the schedule didn't involve waiting around for HQ to open up so that we could storm the coffee machine inside. No coffee for us today, but that was fine, we had Flat Frog and Middle Ridge to look forward to, not a bad way to start the day.

Everything looked glorious in the early morning light and I was flying down Middle Ridge - on one occasion, a bit all too literally, as my handlebar clipped a tree and bike and pilot got launched off trail. Fortunately, no real harm was done (except to the mount of my bar LED). I guess this was the first time I was having some second thoughts on having installed a wider bar and bar ends. Patrick also had a minor stumble, but we were fortunate that in terms of incidents this was all we would encounter today - no other crashes or bad mechanicals (my main fear for the day) were to be reported.

Crossing the creek at Poverty Flat Camp we started to feel the impending doom of Bear Mountain, but we first we needed to deal with its little cousin: Poverty Flat road. The recent rain has been a godsend - it turned the unclimbable mess of moondust into a nice firm tacky surface and I think I haven't seen it in any better conditions yet. On our left, we saw some smoldering remains of the controlled burn that recently took place in the Blue Ridge zone. At this point, we'd done over 40 miles and were close to having climbed 10k feet, but we still felt in decent shape - I tried to ignore the fact that we'd just done a six hour night ride and imagined we were instead just starting out our ride on this bright sunny morning. More mind games were going to be needed to pull this off, I figured. As we knew from past experience, our paces were pretty well matched, and it certainly helped to have someone to complain to when needed close to you.

The big one was up next: Bear Mountain. I felt better than last time and attacked the lower section with some amount of success. Of course, all resistance was futile once we got to that ludicrous 40% section. Patrick was a beast again and cleaned more than I thought possible or advisable. After the seemingly endless sequence of false summits, we finally made it to the top; meanwhile things had been nicely warming up and we could finally strip some layers and bask in the sun a bit. We had a few 'easy' miles to look forward to then, the descent to and circumnavigation of Mississippi Lake. A bit of climbing on Willow Ridge road got us to the top of Heritage: a bumpy descent leading to the even bumpier, pothole-ridden upper Pacheco Creek trail. I was not in a happy place on my hardtail here, and upped the pace, looking forward to get it over with quickly and to some rest and repose at Pacheco Camp. We rolled into camp almost exactly at noon.

I considered beforehand the third part of the course, which was up next, to be the make-it-or-break-it part. It's a deep excursion into the backcountry, and even on a 'normal' ride not for the faint of heart. But by now the miles had started to weigh real heavy, and we entered deep into our respective pain caves. To describe the horrors Kaiser-Aetna ('a mile and a half of hell'?) or Center Flats road inflicted on us at this stage of the ride is difficult, it's something to experience rather than explain. But the payoff is we got to ride incredible and unique gems of singletrack (Dutch's trail: undiluted awesomeness! That superfast downhill stretch of Burra Burra!), in the middle of nowhere, the trails all for ourselves. On Dutch's I even retrieved a water bottle (one with an integrated filter) that I lost there some time last August.

Not surprisingly, our pace had been dropping a lot, and on this short November day we were soon going to embark on part two of our night ride. We had planned for this and made sure we had plenty of battery juice. After we had dragged ourselves off of Center Flats road, we witnessed a spectacular sunset on Wagon road, and hooked up our lights (and warm gear) again. The last 20 mile leg of the route had been designed to be a bit faster and easier, though that was all highly relative at this point. The Kelly Lake trail descent in the dark was certainly fast and fun, just as Dexter/Grizzly Gulch trail, a wonderful combination. Then there were a bunch of slow fireroad grinds (Crest road, Coit road from Kelly Lake, Grizzly Gulch road/Wagon towards Camp Willson) that certainly felt easier than the earlier butchery on Center Flats and its likes.

To add mileage to the route (and ensure a clean 100 as per the official Coe map), I had included a slight detour off of Camp Willson in the end, featuring sections of Vasquez and Long Dam trails, and I hadn't bothered to preride them. Roy and Patrick gave me a disparaging look once we had regrouped at Camp Willson, and I was unsure why. As soon as they sent me ahead down Vasquez I understood. The downhill part is horribly rutted, the short climb out vicious, and the descent down Long Dam most possibly the worst trail I have ever laid wheels on (basketball sized potholes, ruts and ditches are literally all over the place). But in a way, I guess it's not unfitting for a 'hard' Coe ride.

Even though we were plodding around like zombies now, I was getting quite excited, knowing that we had it almost in the bag. The last-but-not-least hurdle however was the 500ft climb on Wagon road. A smooth fireroad, but the bottom part sports a sustained 18% section and I had to use all my willpower to refrain from dabbing and ditching the bike - having Patrick climb next to me helped to ease the pain and at last we made it to the top. I must have fallen half asleep, as I missed the spectacular meteorite that Patrick and Roy were gazing at (I did see a smaller one earlier on). The fast and furious final descent down Wagon road upped the adrenaline level again, and we stormed back home through a frosty Hunting Hollow road to claim our 100 miler, which had taken us a grand total of 21 hours and 12 minutes. We were pleasantly surprised to see a welcome committee on the parking lot, which we highly appreciated, thanks Paul and Bryan! Some numbers needed rounding up (damn GPS receivers), so after a bit of bonus riding we were finally able to enjoy the festivities while staving off onset of hypothermia. Best - and hardest - ride ever! Thanks Patrick and Roy for sharing in the madness. Next year, I'd love to see some strong riders show up and shatter our time; after all, if we can do it, why not you?