I'm a little worried that after being highlighted in the media the Kennedy T-giving ride is gonna get squashed by open space....
I talked with Ranger Ranger here. He looks pretty relaxed about the whole thing. (see pic)
I mentioned to him that last year I rode up the day after Thanksgiving (coming the other way over El Sombroso) and didn't find so much as a millimeter scrap of trash to photograph. (Search for last year's pictures for my discussion of that.) The ranger said that's what they like to see and he thought the event was a blast.
Aussie Bob was already at the top when I arrived. Unfortunately my lens got some of the party on it, smudging some of the latter pictures at one spot in the middle.
Portola Vince, who kept on riding over El Sombroso to get back home in mid-San Jose.
I was a little apprehensive about riding an SS up Kennedy. Answer/Manitou has been slow with the SPV for my shock on my geared bike. So I called Trailhead Wednesday night. They gave me a Specialized Epic Pro with a Reba shock and disc brakes to take up the hill yesterday at no charge. So thanks Trailhead and sorry about bringing you a bike to sit in your shop for so long.
I never had ridden a full suspended bike before yesterday. It was a couple minutes slower up the hill (or I was). It was really nice to take down the long downhill to Hicks Road and then the Quicksilver Mine Hill downhill to the junction and the Mockingbird entrance (thanks for the directions Larry). All in all a very smooth downhill experience. Maybe it was just the extraordinary traction yesterday but I was able to clean more of the bumps on the way to El Sombroso than I ever have before as well. Of course I missed the road bike after hitting the road at Mockingbird for the 12 or so miles back to my house.
But at least this guy picked a good place to endo, right on the beer.
Sweet, Curtis. I haven't seen a keg stand since... hell...since long time! Oh, Curtis, I made it down the mountain finally. Lost ya there right before hitting town, but made it, stupid drunk as I was ... Thanks for the hairy, scary lead out man.
Party at the top. Gotta love the gas powered blender. Now, that's the way to start Thanksgiving.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone.
What a rush! My first Turkey Ride and won't be my last! Damn do my legs hurt today. Head too. Maybe Jager, beer and wine was just a bit... much Can't believe I made it down with only one minor mishap. Shizzle, can't hardly remember making it down period... I know I followed Curtis for a bit. Him and his empty keg
Hey Francois, nice meeting you again (didn't even realize I already knew you!).
And Kyle, love your Liza glasses! See you Saturday in Santa Cruz .
See some of you other dogs up at Demo this morning...
Doug
Last edited by Velodromed; 11-24-2006 at 06:16 AM.
So what are these guys saying that's so intersting?
Well, Elise from the Mercury News wrote down every word from Francois and Kyle. Read it there. It was amazing she could shorthand as fast as they could spew.
But at least this guy picked a good place to endo, right on the beer.
Yep, that was the only successful keg endo of the day. I recruited sean and curtis to lift me, but only got half a pull off of it before the keg officially met it's end. That was a great ride/event. Nice to meet new friends and hang out with some old ones. Thanks to all who hauled the goods up the hill I offered to help a few, but for most it kind of turned into a test of strength to see if they could pull their load all the way to the top
This is the great Pro Downhiller Curtis Beavers re-creating his college days. Curtis climbed from downtown to the summit in 1:20 on his downhill bike... towing a keg.
This is Gabe Palacios with his future olympians Kylie and Yvonne. They made it up the climb smiling. Near the end of the downhill, Kylie's (the little one) hands got numb and she couldn't brake any more. So like a pro, she laid the bike down. She took a breather, dusted her hands off and jumped back on.
fc
Last edited by francois; 11-24-2006 at 10:56 AM.
People don't care how much you know. But they want to know how much you care.
K-Max in the house w/ his Lindsay Lohan sunglasses! Nice!
Rensho and Francois with the dangling turkey teaser.
Curtis Beavers and K-Max...
with the Beer and the Bird.
The sun started to burst through the fog
Blue skies came upon us.
It's on!
K-Max rollin'.
One of the sweetest rides of the day. A Klein Attitude! circa late 80s?
Finally, the Bird brought to you by K-Max.
Let's not forget the Gravy, complements of K-Zero.
The Beer is unleashed.
Sac Brew makes an appearance.
Let's not forget the desserts! Thanks to everyone who brought them up. I know it wasn't easy to carry the extra pounds on that horrendous climb.
Then it started getting nutty...
This is getting big.
The riders are getting younger and younger. Or are we getting older and older? Good work girls!
We ate, we drank before you know it... it was time to head back down. Note to self, take more pictures during the party!
The descent.
We packed our garbage out.
These guys were hauling ass. The trailers were going sideways at times...
The 3 trailers at the bottom.
And their load.
Ride back to the car. All safe, no incidents... thank goodness!
Trying to shoot this was almost an incident!
Thanks for the food guys. I counted 3 turkeys up there. The original group(1) that started it all, the mtbr group(2) and a new Filipino crew(3) brought up a 3rd turkey this year! What's next? I heard roast pig was on the menu for next year. That was a nice kick off to a great Thanksgiving day.
Don't know but she might ride for the LG HS team...or a Jr. Syndicate member? She passed me to the top though.
Thats my buddy Elizabeth. She's a bit older than her looks. her fiance, John was the team manager for the jr. syndicate, but now he rides for comencal.
Hey there, to everyone that I asked to post photos to Flickr, the Mercury News Web team is not linking to Flickr photos because of copyright issues. They're asking people to post photos on our site, www.mercurynews.com, directly. If you'd like to do this, I'll see if they can pull them alongside the story. Thanks for the fun and encouragement yesterday!
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Originally Posted by MtnBikerDan
... Thanks for the hairy, scary lead out man.
Can't believe I made it down with only one minor mishap. 
Shizzle, can't hardly remember making it down period...
I know I followed Curtis for a bit. Him and his empty keg
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