Yesterday Sunday, I got lots of responses from biker friends thanking me for inviting them to ride. They all were wishing me to have a great ride but nobody wanted to ride in the crappy wet and cold weather. So besides going to power yoga again and hanging up with Sally and Poncho, I decided to write this blog story using some of my pictures and also stealing some of Tara's pictures instead of going out for a ride.
This ride has been my ONLY DRY RIDE I have done this year 2008! It was on Tuesday January 1st. Tara, Eric (Tara's boyfriend), Dana and me (Celia) drove to Calistoga to do an out and back loop ride on Oat Hill Mine trail. It was the first time I was going to use DH flat pedals I borrow from Dana. Yeah, flat pedals... so we had to wear skater dudes and dudettes shoes because these shoes have wide and flat surface that grabs better on the DH flat pedals pins. Look at the shoes so sexy and cute.
Dana and almost all my DH friends have been telling me I should get used to ride in flat pedals because is safer, in particular on technical riding and because they will teach me to have the right technique/form when doing dirt jumping.So far I have hit several technical XC and DH trails on my flat pedals. And I have survived. But I have to say I rather do trail riding on my clip ins. I feel more grounded and balanced. When I hit the jumps (if this rain ever stops!) I will use the flat pedals again to see if I can jump better. My goal this year is to jump doubles and increase the size of drops I can do.
Another goal was going to be to ride the DH shoots from the Nike site top platform, but I did that already, yeah! stay tuned for another blog story where I will share with you how I beat the fear, actually the terror of going down those steep shoots.
Here is Dana showing some style with matching bright yellow/green skater shoe laces and pedals. What a fashion queen!
Here is Tara showing some style too!
And here is Eric downloading our sexy Free Ride bikes!
But back to the ride, I was very nervious because I didn't know how I was going to do riding with flat pedals for the first time on that trail which is quite technical, in particular the top half if you are planning on going down fast. So I came with all my protection gear! Gosh am I a hot mama, or what!!!
This ride in Calistoga offers really gorgeous views you can appreciate when you are climbing Oat Hill Mine trail. The combination of the views and technical sections makes the climbing really entertaining. And then flowing down this trail is just exhilarating.
I like the top half of the trail because is rocky and technical. It is really fun to both climb it and descend it. Here is Dana clearing a technical section when she used to have both arms healthy, before the burning with hot water accident 
By the way, her arm got so bad, here is a picture from last week!
But back to the ride in Calistoga, here is Eric fixing a flat he got in the top half of the trail:
And here is me showing off my skater dude shoes:
Toward the end of the ride near the bottom of the trail there are a couple of small ramps where you can get some air, here is Tara showing some dirt jumping style:
And here are the three of us being photographed by Eric at the end of the ride.
For more pictures you can click here (These are more pictures from Tara):http://picasaweb.google.com/tara.ride/NewYearDayRideOatHillMineTrailCalistoga
We went to the local pizza place for pizza of course and beers. What a fun DRY!!!! day we had!
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