Deep Doo-Doo

What a 4 day weekend. Let me get on with the important stuff.

Adventure Racing Notes: My buddy Aaron and I hooked up with some SCARABs from L.A. to ride the San Juan trail, a pleasant surprise was to see Berniece Pierson there who originally gave me my first A.R. orientation not so long ago. For those that don't know STT is world class single track, and somewhat dangerous. Well anyways, the ride went well on the way up to Cocktail Rock and then up to Blue Jay. The way back down was hell. Aaron and I, and another a novice rider were trailing the group and pretty much got lost. We had to wait up for the novice guy (who really shouldn't have been at STT to begin with) . This was after we helped to fix a flat from another in the group, so instead of staying up with the faster riders, we were trailing and pretty much got left behind. Another note is that the damn downhill shuttle monkeys told us to take a wrong trail. Anyways we ended up on the Chiquita trail which was the wrong way, but we were hoping that it would lead us somewhere. The weather deteriorated and it started to rain. What should have been a dry 3 hour jaunt ended up being six hours and a bit of frustation set in with Aaron and I. He kept crashing because the novice kept stopping for every rock and technical part and Aaron was riding behind him. I was frustrated because he kept questioning everything. Make a long story short, we found Ortega Hwy from a peak and decended towards it. A couple of stream crossings and a lot of hike-a-bike in un-rideable sections through a valley and we're back on Ortega. The amazing part is how far we were from the beginning of the ride. about 6 miles back on pavement and we were back at the parking lot. I honestly thought Search and Rescue was going to be needed to find us, but Aaron and I held fast and stuck with our game plan. Stay on the Trail and Find the nearest road. Lessons to be learned is this: 1). Stay with your group 2). bring a damn trail map 3). Know who you're riding with. We were all in some serious sh!t and made some dumb-ass mistakes. We honestly think that if it weren't for Aaron and I, I think the novice rider would be dead or missing. Anyways, my meter read 18 miles from beyond cocktail rock so my guess is that we covered about 30 extremely hard miles. I never cramped up despite the rough conditions, so I'd have to say my conditioning is very good.

Arcade notes: Finally made arrangements to get a tech here on Wednesday to finish up some loose end projects that I don't have the aptitude or patience to fix. I think I've sold the Hook pin and the Maximum Force gun game, to make room for the LOTR pin I want, not cheap, but I think I have the right approach in trying to attain one of these (sell what I have to raise cash and make space ;) Hopefully on Wednesday, the deal to sell hook and max force will be finalized.

Family notes: Thanksgiving was at our house, a bit stressful being hosts, my wife pretty much spazzed out, but it's a woman thing I guess when it comes to housecleaning and appearances. My nephews enjoyed the game room, but they didn't stay in there too long, I guess they just don't understand pinballs and classic arcade games like I do.