Bonelli Park MTB ride

After the grueling ride at Schabarum Park it was Ryzzie's turn to pick a venue to go biking. Since we had Katie for the weekend, it was decided to go somewhere she has ridden before and therefore could easily keep up. This time around it was Bonelli Park in San Dimas.

The full crew consisted of me, Ryzzie, Katie, Gary, Stephen, my dad, Sean and his friend Curt. My dad was the first to arrive with Gary arriving shortly thereafter. We caught up with them just after 8:30 AM, our scheduled meeting time. While I was pulling the bikes out of the truck, Stephen, Sean and Curt magically appeared all at once! We spent a few minutes checking out everyone else's bikes while Katie got warmed up in the parking lot. Stephen had just picked up a new full suspension bike at Jax and was the envy of the group.

Rides

• Ryzzie - Red Monster
• Me - Gary Fisher Mamba
• Katie - Specialized Hotrock
• Gary - INTENSE Uzzi
• Stephen - Trek Fuel EX 5
• Jim - Diamondback Response
• Sean - Kona Lana'i
• Curt - We couldn't see his bike because it was camouflaged

We started off to complete a loop of the paved road that circled around the park. Right away Katie was having trouble with climbing anything uphill. She needs to build some leg muscle! After awhile the group ended up getting split up, with Lyz, Katie and my dad hanging back. The rest of us went to find some hills we could climb, which proved to be easy to find. We rode a few easy trails to get some dirt on the tires then went towards an arduous steep hill to test our mettle.

My climbing technique has improved since I first started, and I can tell because I'm not wheelie-ing up the hill nor spinning the rear tire excessively. Once we reassembled at the halfway point up the grade, we wanted to try some downhill. Right away Sean found a small steep singletrack that lead down to the paved road we just came from. It was unanimously decided he would get to go first. The first corner leading down the path was sharp and sandy (which is never good) and it tossed him off. He got up again and started down the steep path. The last thing we saw was Sean flying through the air! He got bucked hard by a bump in the middle of the hill. We yelled to see if he was alright, to which he yelled an affirmative. I chased after him down the hill (very slowly with my foot down half the time). Gary followed and finally Stephen walked his bike down half of the hill. Curt took the easy way out and went back the way we came!

After tending to our wounds and bruised egos, we headed back to find the rest of the group. Ryzzie and Katie were playing on the swing set in the park, but my dad was nowhere to be seen. I took off with Gary to go find him. After completing a full loop of the park I went back to the car to grab my phone in case he called. Eventually we found each other and talked about our respective trail rides. He had climbed up the entire hill and took a lot of pics with his phone. However that ride took all his energy and he was ready to head home.

I get back to the group to discover Sean has been plowing new trails again. Curt had caught the whole downhill Superman nut buster on video (but it was taken a bit far away). Sean took to the restroom to ensure he was still a man (spoiler: he was).

We packed up the bikes, bid farewell to Sean, Curt and my dad then headed for Red Robin and InCycle. Never before have I seen such an awesome bike shop! We spent a full hour there without getting bored. They even had a cat named Dog! Stephen bought a pair of really nice Sidi mountain biking shoes while the rest of us managed to hide our wallets and escaped without spending a dime! Good times :)