Idyllwild Spring Challenge Pre-Ride...FAIL!

This ride had been in the planning stages for quite some time and this weekend Luke, The Mann Show and I decided to get it in. So Saturday morning I got up really eary and hit the road for Hurkey Creek park on Mount Idyllwild. I tanked up on coffee and stopped for breakfast and gas along the way. Mmmm...

I was enjoying them unti I read the nutrition label and noticed these contained 75% of my total RDA for saturated fat. Yeesh.

I made it to the Park a little early and was decidedly NOT pumped to discover light rain and temps in the 40's. Once the rest of the crew got there we discussed and made the decision to ride anyway. I had to work tomorrow, we'd already paid for parking, blah, blah, blah.

Suiting up...

Things started off a little moist, but the effort of climbing kept us warm. Soon we noticed snow patches (no biggie, press on!), which quickly became 1-2" on the ground. Just enough to make things slippery. Pretty, yes. Also a pain to ride in. Temps dropped precipitously and we all got cold. Allison mentioned she was having quite a lot of difficulty with the cold and wanted to head back. We were all cold and agreed to pull the plug. We all wound up disappointed the weather refused to cooperate, but that's the mountains for you. We covered a whopping 13 miles total and only 10 miles of the course in 2 hours ride time. Things should dry up by the Spring Challenge, but The Hurkey race might be a little cold and wet.

The cold is better, but I'm still snotty and coughing stuff up. I'm trying to decide on what to do about Xterra West since my Peak is ruined for that race. I might bag the West Cup, do the Spring Challenge, head up to Xterra MTN Champs and try qualifying for Maui there.

E.