As I mentioned in the lounge last week, I had to cover a surgery in Philadelphia on Monday morning. Typically this means that I lose my Sunday to travel, and end up tired as hell (west coast to east coast and back in under 36 hours).:redhot:
So I figured I’d make a trip out of it and see if any of my buddies back east wanted to go to Diablo… well they already had a trip planned! So I got 1 day of DH fun in before heading down to Philly.:love:
My Buddy, who now lives in Hoboken, picked me up at Newark on Friday and we went to a party - but we took it easy since we were heading out early the next day.
I rented an Iron Horse Sunday… that was quite the different bike than my beloved Soul Cycle Titan (hardtail), but with all the new stuff that Diablo has built – I was happy to have it. Although now I want to return with my hardtail!
Anyway – enough blabbering… picture time!
First of all, I hear they have had a bit of wet season so far… and although the trails were pretty good, you could still tell:
One of the things I really LOVE about Diablo – the rocks!!! So much fun, although the IH Sunday seemed to soak them almost too easily... DVrider on the rocks:
As I mentioned Diablo has really stepped it up with building stunts. There are many spots all across the mountain that challenge and thrill. I didn’t do so well on some of the skinny stuff – hence no pictures. However our group sessioned the “progressive” for a while. It’s a set of 3 ramps that help those who want to step it up do so…
The Small:
Medium (Turnergrl):
The large:
There are a LOT more pictures from this section, but my favorite is below. It’s my favorite b/c Turnergrl was nervous about the middle drop (even though I know she’s done bigger
) early in the day. But once she got the feel down for the trails she just kept ripping it up. At one point DVrider and I stopped to grab a quick bit to eat while the rest of the group (who had already stopped to eat) kept going. We are on the lift heading back up and who do I see coming down the trail but Turnergrl, so I grab my camera out of my bag just in time to catch a birds-eye shot of her taking off the middle without hesitation!:trophy_br
The save of the day went to DVrider off of his first attempt on the middle bridge. His take off looked good, but he was just a bit too slow and landed awkward. However he managed to keep control… to the surprise of all of us:
Although the day was generally a great day there were a few minor crashes; DVrider took a nasty spill on Exodus, but escaped relatively unscathed. Then we came upon the creek crossing with a log to ride over the creek:
uch:
He was OK (although he did a great impression of the Silver Turtle) and took a more conservative route after that:
As I mentioned earlier the Iron Horse Sunday I rented was great. I felt completely comfortable on it the entire time and never had a doubt that the bike could handle what I was throwing at it… and I threw some stuff at it like the Porch drop and “Dom’s Denial”:
View from above Dom’s (random riders):
And how better to end a long day of hard riding:
View from DVRider’s condo:
And then it was time to head home under a bright full moon, which I did not capture on film, but this ended up kinda cool anyway:
I definitely have to go back, still need to hit “road to no where” and the “flume” drop… plus re-learn those damn Skinies!!!
In the mean time I am back in the land of no lift access...:bomb:
So I figured I’d make a trip out of it and see if any of my buddies back east wanted to go to Diablo… well they already had a trip planned! So I got 1 day of DH fun in before heading down to Philly.:love:
My Buddy, who now lives in Hoboken, picked me up at Newark on Friday and we went to a party - but we took it easy since we were heading out early the next day.
I rented an Iron Horse Sunday… that was quite the different bike than my beloved Soul Cycle Titan (hardtail), but with all the new stuff that Diablo has built – I was happy to have it. Although now I want to return with my hardtail!
Anyway – enough blabbering… picture time!
First of all, I hear they have had a bit of wet season so far… and although the trails were pretty good, you could still tell:
One of the things I really LOVE about Diablo – the rocks!!! So much fun, although the IH Sunday seemed to soak them almost too easily... DVrider on the rocks:
As I mentioned Diablo has really stepped it up with building stunts. There are many spots all across the mountain that challenge and thrill. I didn’t do so well on some of the skinny stuff – hence no pictures. However our group sessioned the “progressive” for a while. It’s a set of 3 ramps that help those who want to step it up do so…
The Small:
Medium (Turnergrl):
The large:
There are a LOT more pictures from this section, but my favorite is below. It’s my favorite b/c Turnergrl was nervous about the middle drop (even though I know she’s done bigger
) early in the day. But once she got the feel down for the trails she just kept ripping it up. At one point DVrider and I stopped to grab a quick bit to eat while the rest of the group (who had already stopped to eat) kept going. We are on the lift heading back up and who do I see coming down the trail but Turnergrl, so I grab my camera out of my bag just in time to catch a birds-eye shot of her taking off the middle without hesitation!:trophy_br
The save of the day went to DVrider off of his first attempt on the middle bridge. His take off looked good, but he was just a bit too slow and landed awkward. However he managed to keep control… to the surprise of all of us:
Although the day was generally a great day there were a few minor crashes; DVrider took a nasty spill on Exodus, but escaped relatively unscathed. Then we came upon the creek crossing with a log to ride over the creek:
uch: He was OK (although he did a great impression of the Silver Turtle) and took a more conservative route after that:
As I mentioned earlier the Iron Horse Sunday I rented was great. I felt completely comfortable on it the entire time and never had a doubt that the bike could handle what I was throwing at it… and I threw some stuff at it like the Porch drop and “Dom’s Denial”:
View from above Dom’s (random riders):
And how better to end a long day of hard riding:
View from DVRider’s condo:
And then it was time to head home under a bright full moon, which I did not capture on film, but this ended up kinda cool anyway:
I definitely have to go back, still need to hit “road to no where” and the “flume” drop… plus re-learn those damn Skinies!!!
In the mean time I am back in the land of no lift access...:bomb:
But I can be influenced otherwise with the right offer. 
