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Troy Meadows - July 25-27, 2014


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Better late than never, right?  I wanted to post this only because we are going to schedule it again and I thought it would be nice for people to see what this was all about the first time.

 

I scheduled this ride thinking there may be 4-6 people tops, but the Franco Testa contacted me saying he'd volunteer his time and gourmet food preparation skills to use as a fundraising opportunity for Lost for a Reason charity.  I didn't immediately think of how good the food would be but then I'm not as smart as most people because we ended up with close to 30 people!

 

Count them yourself

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Troy Meadow campground (Troy overflow, to be specific) is a nice, cool place to escape in the summer when it's too hot to ride in the desert.  How hot was it getting there?  Let me show you...

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Yeah, it was that hot!  I used a cooling vest and it made a huge difference.  It got me from home to Kramer Junction before it was bone dry.  I re-wetted it there and then stopped again at the Shell station in Pearsonville.  I was going to re-wet it again but I was headed up the mountain right after that and didn't want to get too cold.  Temps up on the mountain were pretty nice; highs in the low 80's and lows in the high 40's.

 

This overflow campground isn't that bad.  It does not require a reservation, so it's first come/first served.  I got there Friday afternoon and found Franco and crew were already there, so we just kind of used that general area.

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Hopefully this first post gives you a feel for what the campground is like.

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Saturday was our day to ride and because I couldn't get anyone else to lead a group, we did the relatively easy jeep trail into Monache Meadow and then the more advanced riders split off on the way back to camp to do some more challenging single track.

 

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Such an amazing place

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Our advanced riders taking a break in the afternoon..

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A highlight was our "river" crossing at the Kern river.  The water was barely knee deep that day, which was probably a good thing but I've seen it higher.

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Like I said, the advanced riders took a different way back and it was a lot of fun.

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Basically it was a lot of soft single track with some rocky up and downs.  There are a few water crossings when the creeks run but not on that day.

 

I was glad the group wanted to go just a bit further because we found the single track became this really cool luge-like roller coaster ride along Albanita trail that I hadn't done before.

 

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So the ride turned out not to be that long in mileage, but had more joy/mile than most rides  :ride:

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I think the real star of this weekend had to be the food!  You have this man to thank:

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Franco is a super nice guy and runs a successful plumbing business out of the San Diego area called My Plumber.  He has done quite a bit for Lost for a Reason and just recently I got to go with him on a trip to the Navajo reservation to do some serious plumbing and general construction work on a womens' shelter there.  Franco got his Italian buddies to chip in as well.  Key was Stefano, who is a professional chef, who owns/runs Piazza 1909 in La Jolla.  Also, Paul Costello, Erik, Salvatore, etc...

 

Here's Paul.  Looking at this makes my mouth water even now.

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Look at that lamb!  LOOK AT IT!

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A total food-gasm

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Aside from the food, just watching a bunch of Italian guys bust on each other all day was thoroughly entertaining!

 

Stephanie was there and gave me wood  :)

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She was kind enough to haul it up there for us   :P

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Our shorter ride time left us some great time to socialize and relax around the fire.

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Happy campers at breakfast the next morning as well.

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