I was invited to ride along with Ely, a guy from work, and a couple others, John and Gary. Their style is faster paced than my typical rides but I was willing to bring up the rear.

A downed tree over the path requires a detour. Trouble is, the detour has its own downed tree, ableit smaller. I would have helped too but I was holding a camera.

He was working to get over the tree, I think.

I must have been lucky when I hit this. The heavy 650 slid over with a little push of the feet and I was on my way (to park and photograph the others).

Again, I would have helped if not for camera duties...

A little spin-out in the deep dust. Indeed, I think this ride would be a lot more enjoyable soon after (not too soon) a good rain.

After getting up the ridge we descended down a winding trail that followed a small stream for a short while.

We encountered this nice climb with a rut, plenty of dust and a big root to stop your progress. Oh, and a sharp corner at the bottom to prevent much of a run. I gave it two tries and couldn’t do it. John said he could ride it up and I said to go for it.

I felt bad after stepping back and pulling out the camera that they started pushing my bike up the hill before John hopped on to ride. I would have helped, really, but you were too fast.

Ely has a little video camera with an external lens mounted on his fender.

I was glad to hear that the one I couldn’t make was the hardest of the ride, now behind us.

Thanks John for getting my heavy bike up that hill … and Gary for pushing while I took pictures.

This one I got up without too much trouble so I was secretly pleased to see Gary and Ely have a time of it.

Like I said on an earlier picture: a little rain would be helpful.

Ely had no time to rest since Gary was having another run at it, coming fast.

Only there was no view due to the smoke from all the fires.

That would be preferable to riding in the smoke.

Ely went down kind of hard a few times. Him and his bike held up well.