Sourdough, cream cheese, closed passes, and somebody forgot the rope

This weekend was the yearly Pennock Pass Pow Wow ride. What is that you ask? Well, it's rather secretive as to when and where exactly, so lets just say you have to be in the know.  Or know somebody who is in the know. The moral of the story is that a bunch of peeps get together early in the morning in December and ride ~90 miles over the closed and usually snowed in Pennock Pass.  Wool and flannel are perfectly normal and lycra is frowned upon.  Also, creativity with food is a must. Why eat gels when you can bake a loaf of sourdough the night before and then slice it and cram it full of an entire block of cream cheese or bake sweet potato pancakes? Gells are for racing. Extra points are given for creative uses of bacon or bacon grease.

 

Bread, coffee, tallboy, and a flask.  Those were the food groups for the day.

We headed out west where the locals are nice and friendly. 

Closed roads and snow only make the route more enjoyable. 

Once atop the pass (~5,000 feet higher than our house) we enjoyed mashed potatoes compliments of my little stove.  Again, who brings gells and bars on a ride like this anyway?

We rolled out of the canyon just as the sun set and all met at the country bar down the street from home.  Beers were drank, entire pizzas were eaten, and stories were told. Great day out playing on bikes for sure!

Sunday, I had plans to go climbing, however Dave came down with some good old fashion food poisoning. So, being a few pitches away from anything resembling a bathroom didn't sound too appealing. I tried but couldn't rustle up another partner for the day. So I did the next best thing, trail ran into Greyrock, soloed another line on the SW side, gained the top, switched back into running shoes and ran back out. I wanted to do another chimney line on the east side for a second lap but I ran out of daylight so I boogied back to the car.  

This time I took a camera and managed to get some really bad pictures of myself. I look like an idiot but the smile plastered on my face and the air under my shoes don't lie.

This is about 3/4 the way up working back and forth in some crack systems.

View from (almost) the top.

Good times!