REVIEWS DEALS BIKESHOPS TRAILS

The Gap was cold but fun this Saturday morning

1019 Views 13 Replies 9 Participants Last post by thefrush, Jun 22, 2009

Buzz Cut

Discussion Starter · Jun 20, 2009

45 and foggy but it made the trails super tacky.

First real ride on my new bike :thumbsup: and I'm really happy with the performance. I'm still fussing with the rear shock pressure [note to self bring shock pump on rides] as I had it a bit too stiff. Other than that the Flite climbs well, sucks up bumps and corners

more later

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1 - 14 of 14 Posts

D1PHAM

· #2 · Jun 20, 2009

Any mud on the trails? I'm planning to hit up the Gap this afternoon.

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thefrush

· #3 · Jun 20, 2009

Yes, mud in the first section and scattered in other sections. That was with an 8:30 start. It was warming up by the time I finished.

Fun ride for me, first time on that trail, first time on FS bike, disc brakes, etc etc. Fun fun fun!

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cbatenga

· #4 · Jun 20, 2009

Congrats on your new bike Im glad you had fun. Ive always wanted to ride Saratoga Gap but I don't know my way around the trails. Can you recommend me a good route starting from the parking lot. When is the best time to go there where there is not much people on the trail.

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thefrush

· #5 · Jun 20, 2009

Sorry couldn't really recommend a trail as I was following friends who have done the loop before. I know we started out on Saratoga Gap trail from the intersection of HWY 9 and 35. Then we were on Long Ridge. And we were on a trail called Peter's something at some point. Sorry, I know that isn't much help. Hopefully someone that knows the area better will chime in.

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Buzz Cut

Discussion Starter · #6 · Jun 20, 2009

grab a map at the trail head and go explore....

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spec306

· #7 · Jun 20, 2009

cbatenga said:
Congrats on your new bike Im glad you had fun. Ive always wanted to ride Saratoga Gap but I don't know my way around the trails. Can you recommend me a good route starting from the parking lot. When is the best time to go there where there is not much people on the trail.

Gap, generally, does not get crowded. Here is the route I typically take.....

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cbatenga

· #8 · Jun 20, 2009

spec306 said:
Gap, generally, does not get crowded. Here is the route I typically take.....

Thanks for sharing your route I can't wait to ride there maybe this coming weekend.

Stripes: I would go with you tommorow unfortunately I got too exhausted on todays ride at Santa Teresa park, too much steep climbing. I will need a couple of days to recover.

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CrashWorship

· #9 · Jun 21, 2009

spec306 said:
Gap, generally, does not get crowded. Here is the route I typically take.....

I rode there today and was wondering how much climbing there was. Thanks for posting your GPS info.

Which GPS are you using?

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spec306

· #10 · Jun 21, 2009

CrashWorship said:
I rode there today and was wondering how much climbing there was. Thanks for posting your GPS info.

Which GPS are you using?

I use a Garmin Edge 705; however, I export the data to TopoFusion rather than the Garmin application as TopoFusion has way more cool tools like 3D. You can check it out for free at http://www.topofusion.com/ .

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locoyokel

· #11 · Jun 22, 2009

Still a bit of mud as of this evening, also a tiny bit here and there at Russian Ridge, and the little annoying stream/mud rut along the top of Alpine road. Poison oak here and there along the Gap and the ridge trail between Skyline Ridge and Long Ridge.

spec306, 2000+ feet sounded too high for that route, it's more like 1500-1600' by the topo map (1600 is being generous - 1400' might be the actual). From what I've seen, most GPS and whatever computer-mapped results that people post for wherever seem to be too high (based on areas where you can easily check the actual climbing with a topo map and a calculator). Probably has to do with inaccuracies in the data and poor filtering.

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rensho

· #12 · Jun 22, 2009

locoyokel said:
Still a bit of mud as of this evening, also a tiny bit here and there at Russian Ridge, and the little annoying stream/mud rut along the top of Alpine road. Poison oak here and there along the Gap and the ridge trail between Skyline Ridge and Long Ridge.

spec306, 2000+ feet sounded too high for that route, it's more like 1500-1600' by the topo map (1600 is being generous - 1400' might be the actual). From what I've seen, most GPS and whatever computer-mapped results that people post for wherever seem to be too high (based on areas where you can easily check the actual climbing with a topo map and a calculator). Probably has to do with inaccuracies in the data and poor filtering.

2 Thursdays ago, on the Gap ride, we did 2 full loops at Peter's Creek, for a total of 13.14mi and 1850ft. Per my 705 and Garmin training center. Typically, if we put this into Motionbased, we'd see another 200-300ft on top of that.

We do find these number are all over the place. For trails like these, where there is so much undulations, both the barometric and topos are making pretty wild guesses at elevation gains/loss. IMO.

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