Sep 13, 2009

Night ride at McDowell's Pemberton 09/12/09 - McDowell Mountain Regional Park

Last night Tim, Tom and I did the final night ride of the season, out on Pemberton last night at the McDowell Mountain Regional Park. They usually host these rides about once a month, and this was the first on I participated in.

We rolled into the Trailhead Staging Area around 7:30; it had just gotten dark. The lost was about 3/4 full of eager riders. We hit the trail about 8:15 and the 15 mile loop took us about 2 hours.

My new Princeton Tec Switchback 3 headlamp worked really well. I've been using it in the morning for the rides, but this was the first group ride with it, and it was reassuring it had the stamina to keep bright for an extended period of time. It is kinda heavy, and not quite as bright as an HID, it flooded the trail with tons of light. Not bad for $182 shipped to my door (via chainlove).

I've only riden Pemberton twice, and was never really thrilled with the trail, due to the lack of fun hills and sand, but it is pretty neat trail to ride at night. The creatures were out, as I spotted four tarantulas, a little toad, and big phat diamondback rattlesnake.

Here's a thread on MTBR that talks about the ride: Last Night ride at McDowell's Pemberton 09/12/09.

Here's a couple of short vids of the creatures crawling about:

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Dear U2metoo,
Glad to hear you had fun and got to see some "residents" on your night ride! As a fellow U2 fan, your page title really caught my attention! See you at the show next month!

u2metoo said...

thanks anonymouse, I can't wait for the show next month.