Saturday Surf Session

Original photo by Clayton Plummer

This past Saturday I went down to Cardiff with my SUP.  Cardiff is quickly becoming a favorite spot for me when my girlfriend and I are down at her parents’ place.

I was up early (for a Saturday) and made my way to the surf by 8:50-ish.  This worked out great since low tide was at 8:30 or so this past Saturday. Cardiff is cool because there is a rock-reef for the wave to form against.  There’s one spot in particular that is close to the surface, especially at low tide.  It makes this really cool and weird water boil every time a wave passes over it. In general, the reef makes the wave ultra predictable.  It breaks in a very specific spot every time.  So, that makes it easy to paddle out, line up, and catch waves.

I surfed for about an hour and a half.  It felt like much longer because my wave count was high.  There was a pretty good crowd, and quite a few SUP’pers out there.  Thankfully, there were plenty of waves for everybody.

It was a good day of surf, waves were fun, crowd was mellow, and the marine layer burned off early so the sun was shining. One of these days, I’m going to bring some fishing gear and check out the reef out past the breakers.  I think there are some fun fish to be hand out there.

Gotta Go Hiking

Original photo by Clayton Plummer

This past Sunday, Father’s Day, my girlfriend and I went hiking at Daley Ranch in Escondido, CA.  This hiking trip was training for Montana later on this summer.

The drive up to the trail head is pretty cool all on its own.  It isn’t very long, but it is STEEP.  I think it kicks up around 15-20% at one point.  I had to down shift my Tacoma into 2^nd gear to have the proper torque.

There is plenty of parking at the top for free, but if you want, there is also a Forest Service booth at the start of the park that you can pay to park inside the gate.  We opted to park for free since there were plenty of spaces available.

Original photo by Clayton Plummer

Dixon Lake - Original photo by Clayton Plummer

Once we were on our way, the trail starts off dirt, but switches to paved road for a short while.  We split from the paved road at the Middle Pond Trail fork.  As we approached the pond, I could hear a bull frog doing his thing.  My girlfriend had not ever heard it before, so she got a kick out of the drumming bass note the bull frog produces.

We hiked for a short while and as the trail wound its way around, we came to a spot where we could hike up to The Dixon Lake Reservoir.  So, that’s what we did.  Dixon Lake is a small reservoir but is actually a real body of water made bigger.  The water reminded me more of what lakes are like back where I’m from in Michigan versus any of the reservoirs I’ve been on.  The water was clean, healthy, and clear.  So, it had that black appearance out where the water is deep.

We hiked all the way around the north side of the reservoir until we had to go up into a parking lot, through that parking lot, up another trail to a nice grassy park where families were setting up birthday parties and such.  Once through that park we hiked around the bend in the road, through the paid entry gate, and back to the car.

Of course, I forgot my Garmin.  So, I don’t have any data to share, sorry.

I did bring my phone and snapped a couple of pictures, though.  Enjoy.

Until next time, keep it rubber side down!

Clayton

Rest Week - Bike Building Time

Original photo by Clayton Plummer

This week was an off week for me, well, off weekend anyway.  I did workout all five days of the work week.  I just wasn't into surfing despite there being actual surf to be had.  I also didn't feel like hiking.  So, I spent my energy on building two of the three bicycles I have in various pieces in my garage.

I started with my Santa Cruz Stigmata 'cross frame.  I used my local bike shop, Richard's Cyclery, to help me with the Chris King Pretty and Strong headset installation.  Thankfully, the Easton EC90X fork I used for this build already had the Chris King crown installed on it.  For the handlebars, stem, and seat post I used Ritchey Logic WCS pieces all in black.  The drive train is all of the Shimano Ultegra stuff I had except the cranks are FSA Energy with 53/39 chainrings.  It's not geared for actual cyclocross at the moment.  The wheelset is a Chris King Pretty and Strong hubset with Mavic Reflex tubular rims that I bought from my friend at Built To Last Wheels.  It is a light bike and it looks good.  I think I might race it a few times before I actually ship it off to my mom's house for good.

Original photo by Clayton Plummer

The second bike I built this weekend is my Specialized Allez frameset from 2011.  It's a nice frame, made out of E5 aluminum, which was the state of the art stuff back at the beginning of the millennium.  It has a carbon fork with a tapered aluminum steer tube.  A Cane Creek tapered headset keeps the fork in line.  I added a couple of Specialized Rib Cage bottle cages in blue to match the frame.  Like the Stigmata, I used a Ritchey Logic WCS stem, handle bar, and seat post.  This time I used Ritchey's wet white color.  Even though you only see a tiny bit of the handle bars once taped it makes my OCD happy to know they all match.  For the drive train I used a SRAM Force groupo that I pieced together this winter/spring.  It's not the new SRAM 22 stuff, but still cool looking.  The wheels are a Powertap Pro hub in the rear and a Chris King R45 hub in silver in the front mated to DT Swiss RR465 rims that I bought from my friend at Built To Last Wheels.  I am looking forward to riding it and getting used to the whole SRAM double tap shifting thing.

Original photo by Clayton Plummer

I have one more bike to build, but that's another blog for another time.

Happy Riding and keep it rubber side down!!
Clayton