2012 Hard COEre 100

Wow, that was hard....

First off, thanks to Dirk and the rest of the crew that helped to put on such a epic event. I was amazed at the amount of work it must have taken to connect the network of roads, trails, game trails, rodent trails, insect trails....(I think you get my point) It was obviously a labor of love to put this on and it showed!

Anyone who completed this is a complete badass, I don't care how long it took you.

Congrats to Brian as well, super nice guy and I can think of no one more deserving of the title. There is time to shave from that, and I am sure he is the man to do it.

Some thoughts on the way to HQ:

Great trails and roads, steep, but very fun.

Spike Jones and Anza trails were great as was the pretty stretch up the streambed where my GPS failed.

The view of in the distance to Coit Lake(?) from Willow Ridge(?) was beautiful as well.

China Hole Trail, up and down was really nice.



I certainly suffered in not knowing the course and upon further self reflection, not respecting the terrain. When I first started looking at the cue sheets I figured it would be no problem to make it to HQ in 4 hours. I haven't averaged less than 8-9 miles an hour in a ride or race in years so that seemed completely appropriate. Had I known that the 34 miles to HQ would involve nearly 8,500' of climbing I would have adjusted my lofty expectations.

I also had a bit of a GPS issue that conspired against me when my gps died and upon restarting it added an undetermined amount of miles to my total. Great, now my cue sheets and map are useless Completely my fault for using the wrong batteries, nonetheless it made life difficult for a newbie.

I ran out of water at 11:06 and finally made it to HQ at 12:36. That one hour and twenty minutes without water made the next 10 hours completely miserable at times. Had I known where I was and how to get back to the car, I likely would have bailed. I'm glad I didn't, but it certainly crossed my mind.

Some thoughts out past HQ:

Middle Ridge Trail is a screamer, but who the hell built that thing, wow...

Poverty Flats Rd is a *****.

I walked all of Bear Mountain hoping to save some matches for later lighting. My matches were sweat soaked by the time I got to the top and would never relight again:eekster:

Beautiful country out around Mississippi Lake and Pacheco Camp.



Brian appeared out of nowhere at the top of Bear Mountain and besides my two visits with Charlie, I saw no one else out on the trails away from HQ. It was nice to ride with Brian. As we chatted I finally made the connection as to who he was since our introduction at HH was pretty basic. Although he is quite a bit younger than me and I don't think we ever raced each other personally, we had raced tandems against each other at Sea Otter and Downieville. We both made some wrong turns and had a couple of mechanicals, but generally waited for each other on the way out to Dowdy.

We rode together till Dowdy Ranch where he disappeared into the evening sunset on Burra Burra Trail. I would see his lights every so often, but other than that it was pretty solitary out there. It was a spectacular evening though. I stopped more than a few times and turned my lights off to enjoy the stars and what I assume were the lights of Gilroy.

I had been suffering from cramps on and off since Pacheco Camp, but out past Dowdy they became more of an issue and forced me off the bike. No matter how much I screamed and cursed at them, my legs just wouldn't go and the debilitating type of cramps were getting more common. Walking was the order of the night and I became resigned to it.

Some thoughts out past Dowdy Ranch:

There are no flats on Center Flats Rd.

I got a hoot and a wave from a camper at Kelly Lake(?)

I got turned around at the intersection of Vasquez Rd and the outgoing GPS track and almost bailed out, glad I didn't.

Got completely lost in the Long Dam Trail area and walked around for what seemed like eternity until I just plunged off the side of the mountain following my GPS track and found the trail.

Not knowing where I was made every climb seem like the "last climb" on the cue sheets.

Wagon Rd sucked and I walked every inch of it.

Froze my ass off on the descent back into Hunting Hollow, next year I bring a nice jacket for that sucker.

Cheering from Mei, Brian, Janet and Charlie as I returned to HH was awesome.

Mei, after killing the 100k, being so very cheery and offering me soup, classic!

Full body shivers and the occasional full leg cramp as I sat in the truck trying to get warm. Ouch...

I took a bunch of pictures, but since I don't know where any of them are I'll just be content that Patrick and Charlie knew where the hell they were and look at their wonderful shots.



All in all an excellent adventure. I am certainly glad I did it. I am also grateful that there are people of like minds who search out these adventures and allow others to experience it with them. There are certainly a number of people who could do this as a supported race, but very few who have the ability to route find, carry your own gear and posses the adventurous spirit required to not only attempt this kind of feat, but to revel in it's accomplishment.

I am glad to have shared that with you all.

Edit. My GPS track is completely screwed up. I believe we left at 7:17 or 18 and Mei said 11:18 when I rolled in I think. I took a picture of my GPS but the glare is too much to see the numbers. 16 hours flat?

Mega-super thanks to everyone involved with this apparently-semi-supported-yet-slated-as-unsupported ride, especially to Dirk “El Hombre” for organising it. Thanks to all who supported and cheered on my tired slow newbie slacker ass on such an epic (I rarely use that term, it’s generally reserved for those skinny-legged DH boys who use shuttles) ride, it helped fuel my momentum into the wee hours of darkness.

Going in to the ride, I had my doubts of completing the whole thing; much further into the ride—around the 15,000 footie mark or thereabouts—it became apparent that there weren’t really any bailout options since I was unfamiliar with the trail layout and general lack of visible trail markers at Coe. Super special thanks to Roy “Plymmer” for the entertainment, as it surely numbed the pain and made the journey easier on the mind—this ride was afterall, a mental endurance exercise more than physical—and also for hanging back with me for an endurance pace. Also a great thanks to MudnCrud for staying with me near Kelly Lake (I think this was the place—???) when I had to put a tube in my otherwise-tubeless front tire while the other guys got antsy and headed back up the steep stuff.

When I finally crossed the virtual finish line (through the trail connector gate at the Hunting Hollow parking lot), I just wanted to go to sleep… but I was shivering something fierce. Dashboard temperature indicator in my car read a chilly 41°F, so before even putting my bike on the rack I started up the puny 1.6 liter engine and kicked the heater on. About 20 minutes later I started to feel a little bit better. The morning of the start of the ride I purposely left about 1/2 of my Thermos full of strong coffee in the hopes it would still be warm 22 hours later… it was!!! The coffee hit the spot. I didn’t stay for the chicken noodle soup, as my brain was clouded with misjudgment due to lack of sleep.

Driving home after the ride, through my mind whirled thoughts of, “No way in hell I am doing this ride again. What was I thinking? This was a mistake.”, however, looking back now, although there were some major technical issues on my part (wrong tires and cockpit setup, lack of preparedness, not being familiar at all with Coe, never before taking part in blasting down steep-ass loose singletrack in pitch black 2:00AM darkness!!!), yes—I will do it again! In fact, I fancy the idea of doing the Spring ride as well. Plenty of time to prepare.

Thanks again to everyone involved with this ride!!! :band::cornut: