The Sea Otter Classic - 2002

    The "crew" made a camping road trip up to Monterrey for the Sea Otter Classic.  This was my first Otter and it really kicked ass.  Please take a look at some of the pictures from the trip.

Most of us were from the San Diego area, with a few from the Orange County area.  By 6:30pm, on Wednesday night, March 20th all us San Diego guys were on our way to Orange County to meet up with the rest of the crew at Jason's house.  After about 45 minutes of bike and gear shuffling as well as everyone taking a turn on Jason's rock climbing wall we headed out with three trucks and one van.  The logical first stop was to Mickey Ds for 39 cent cheeseburgers.  Once on the road we had this time trial thing happening that showed blatant disrespect for any speed laws.  440+ miles later and 2:30AM on Thursday morning we arrived at Laguna Seca.  

    It only took about a half hour or so for most people to get tent, pads, and bags setup and in for some shut eye. 

    We took it easy the next morning with some people not rolling out until about 10:00AM or so.  Of course my Navigator for the ride up (and the guys who was supposed to help me stay awake) slept for all but 15 minutes of the trip so he was up bright and early.  Good Job Mikey! :-) 

     The next morning was also when we everyone got a chance to "size up" each others tent to see who was living good, who was in the hood, and who was obviously "compensating".   Chris was definitely the domesticated house beeeautch with his Better Tents and Garden award winning  casa.  Look at this thing below, reading chair and flannel sheets with a little cute flower print.  The only thing he was missing was a cuddly little teddy bear.

    "Too Tall" Paul was definitely not compensating for anything with his tent selection.  Paul is about 6'5".  The day we left he swung by Wal-Mart and picked up a 1-2 man tent for the trip.  Paul forgot to check the measurements of the tent.  This tent might be able to fit two leprechauns.  It was exactly 6 feet by 4 feet and looked like one of those little demo tents they put on the shelf to show you what the full size tents will look like if you buy one.  So every morning we would laugh as either the imprint of Paul's feet or face could be seen on the outside of the tent.  The phrase 10 pounds of stuff jammed into a 5 pound sack applies here.

    Although not pictured, it is worth noting that Mike's new Ellsworth Truth slept in his tent.  I don't know if the Ellsworth had its own bag or not.

That afternoon we prerode the cross country course.  What a beauty of a trail.  Below is a panoramic shot of the one of the spots along the trail.  Also take a look at the video at the bottom of the page.

Meet Jeff Gieger, Bike Mechanic extraordinaire.  Jeff had mechanic school open for the entire weekend.  He also kept a dozen bikes tweaked in all weekend.  

    Friday we took a short road trip up the coast to the the Soquel Demonstration Forest about 10 miles or so north of Santa Cruz.  It started raining shortly before we got there and it kept raining.  Most of us decided to ride anyway.  We had a real blast in a battle against the elements sort of way.  We only hit a few of the trails in the forest but it was enough to get the check in the box feel like bad asses for getting out there in the muck.  (Keep in mind we are all a bunch of "It never rains in Southern California" fat tire types :-) )

After we got back to camp that afternoon, warmed up and cleaned up the boys went into Monterry for dinner.

Mike "Did I mention I just bought an Ellsworth" August

Jason "Bring on the strippers" Nunley

"Too Tall Paul" and Sean Dowling

Paul aka Rashy

Jeff "White Lighting Sucks!" Geiger

Mike, Larry "The Voice of MP3.com" and Bill

Larry, Garrett, Chris "You know your name" Eccles, Rashy, and Bill    

    After dinner we headed back to Laguna Seca.  We had left "Moto" Jeff  back at camp when we went dinner because....well he was too hammered to go out in public.  When we got back to camp Jeff was not up and around.  We thought he may have went to bed, but he was not in his tent.  We set out the search party and everybody checked their own tents.  Someone noticed that Jeff's tent looked like someone had tried to walk through it.  Upon closer inspection we noticed his tent had been moved and there was now a big lump under the tent.  Somehow Jeff had managed to get completely UNDER his tent.   A couple of good shakes (and an truckload of coke spewing out your nose laughs) later Jeff was up and around (and around and around and around...)  Jeff  "Ya Wanna Drink" tried to eat the dinner we brought for him but he was a little "Over Carb'd" to handle it.    Jeff kept things festive late into the night, but I was already crashed out, so no further evidence is provided. 

Sunrise on Saturday morning was quite pretty.  Saturday was a fairly laid back day with several people, including myself, doing the fun ride.  We did not go out with the offical start of the fun ride.  From the campsite we could see a huge traffic jam at the beginning.  About an hour later when we headed out there was little traffic and we were free to blaze and bomb the trails.

Here are some shots of the Amateur Cross Country races on Sunday morning.

Here are some pictures of riders working their way up the "Long Climb Home"

    Here is Mike at around the 17.5 mile mark of the cross country course, right before the it gets back on the race track.  Mike finished 28th in the Sport 30-34 category. 

    Here is Jason on the "The Long Climb Home".  He was racing the in Beginner 30-34 category.  

    We had a long drive ahead of us so we broke camp early and headed back south. Next year we may take Monday off from work and stay later to see all the pros race.