Wednesday, September 06, 2006
Today did NOT go as planned!
This morning I got up, got the kids ready for school and then headed off to pickup Kevin so we could go mountain bike riding. We wanted to ride to the top of Black Mountain, which we had attempted twice previously and failed for various reasons. We drove up Stevens Canyon Rd, and parked on Redwood Gulch, got out our bikes (after locking the car, I carefully placed the keys in my spare tire pouch on the bike - unfortunately, this becomes important later), and off we went.
We rode up the mountain faster than we had the previous two times and got to the top in just over an hour. It's a pretty tough ride, especially the last mile and a half, but we made it. There is a commanding view from Black Mountain, and we were pretty proud of ourselves. So far so good.
We flew down the hill (it took a little less than 30 minutes to get back down), and eventually ended up back at the car. Neither of us got hurt. So far still so good.
I reached for my pouch and noticed that it was somewhat open and thought, wouldn't it be awful if the keys had fallen out somewhere on our 15 mile ride? 10 seconds later, I was sure they had. Doh! I was feeling pretty sheepish as I told Kevin what had happened. Shockingly, he said (rather sheepishly), "Oh, when we stopped (about 3.5 miles back) I saw keys hanging out of your pouch, but I figured you must have had them clipped in or something." Doh!
In addition to the obvious pickle we were in, there was another not so little problem. It was 11:00, and I was meeting my friend Hugh at a restaurant at noon. I know what you're saying to yourself, "Just call him on your cell phone." That thought crossed my mind too. You see, I always, always carry my cell phone when I bike, but of course I had learned last time we rode on this trail that there is no signal anywhere along it, so I very wisely locked it in the car.
Now if Kevin hadn't said he had seen my keys just 3.5 miles back, we would have certainly abandoned the thought of ever getting them back, but for some reason, since the problem seemed somewhat contained, we decided we most certainly would find them if we rode back up the hill and searched for them. So that's what we did. Well we did the riding back up the hill part. We didn't actually do the finding part. However, we killed the better part of an hour trying.
So now we're back at the car (which is really in the middle of nowhere) and it's almost 12:00 and the car's still locked. So now what should we do? Ride toward town as quickly as possible, find a pay phone and get a message to Hugh, right? So that's what we did. We rode toward town, and in a couple of miles we got to a pay phone. Now I don't think I've used a pay phone in at least 10 years, but I figured I was up to the task (although having no money made me slightly nervous). I dialed 0, and eventually got an operator. I told her I'd like to make a collect call, and she called my house. After 3 rings she said, "There is no answer" and before I could say anything, she hung up. So I dialed 0, and tried to make a collect call to Patty's cell phone. It turns out you can't make a collect call to a cell phone, or at least not Patty's (or Kevin's friend, Drew's).
So now what do we do? Ride as fast as we can toward Kevin's house (it's only another 6 miles or so at this point). Along the way we stopped at a pay phone and tried the collect call thing again. Same result. At 12:40 we arrived at Kevin's house. After a few failed attempts, I finally find Hugh's cell phone number and give him a call. He was extremely understanding, and we agreed to reschedule (sorry, again, Hugh). Now I ride home (another 5 or 6 miles), and finally arrive around 1:15. It turned into a pretty impressive ride: 33.3 miles, 3655 feet of climbing, 3 1/2 hours in the saddle, all on soft mountain tires, and about 2/3 in the dirt.
Ideally, that should be the end of the story, right. I get the second set of keys, get a ride up to the Suburban and pick it up. Nope. We look for the second set of keys and realize they must be in our trailer, which is parked at a lot, about 5 miles from home. So I take a quick shower, grab the keys for the trailer (and the gate for the trailer park), and drive the 15 minutes to the park. I get out of the car, walk up to the gate, only to find I've got the wrong set of keys. I'm holding a set of keys that looks almost identical, but is at least 8 years old. In fact it has a key on it to a file cabinet that we've been unable to open for the past 6 years. I don't know how they showed up at this particular moment, but they did. So, I drive back to my house (15 minutes), find the right keys, drive back to the trailer park (15 minutes), go into the trailer and look for the keys. I don't know what you're thinking, but I know what I was thinking. The Suburban keys aren't going to be in here. Low and behold, they were - my luck was finally changing! I took the keys, drove up Stevens Canyon and found the Suburban waiting (Patty had visions of someone finding the keys and walking out, eyeing our car, unlocking it and driving it away).
So I left my other car there, and drove the Suburban home. Hopefully I'll be able to get a lift up there later and pick up my little car.
So if you're walking or biking up the trail from the end of Stevens Canyon toward Black Mountain and you happen to see a key ring with a remote and two keys, pick it up and let me know!
We rode up the mountain faster than we had the previous two times and got to the top in just over an hour. It's a pretty tough ride, especially the last mile and a half, but we made it. There is a commanding view from Black Mountain, and we were pretty proud of ourselves. So far so good.
We flew down the hill (it took a little less than 30 minutes to get back down), and eventually ended up back at the car. Neither of us got hurt. So far still so good.
I reached for my pouch and noticed that it was somewhat open and thought, wouldn't it be awful if the keys had fallen out somewhere on our 15 mile ride? 10 seconds later, I was sure they had. Doh! I was feeling pretty sheepish as I told Kevin what had happened. Shockingly, he said (rather sheepishly), "Oh, when we stopped (about 3.5 miles back) I saw keys hanging out of your pouch, but I figured you must have had them clipped in or something." Doh!
In addition to the obvious pickle we were in, there was another not so little problem. It was 11:00, and I was meeting my friend Hugh at a restaurant at noon. I know what you're saying to yourself, "Just call him on your cell phone." That thought crossed my mind too. You see, I always, always carry my cell phone when I bike, but of course I had learned last time we rode on this trail that there is no signal anywhere along it, so I very wisely locked it in the car.
Now if Kevin hadn't said he had seen my keys just 3.5 miles back, we would have certainly abandoned the thought of ever getting them back, but for some reason, since the problem seemed somewhat contained, we decided we most certainly would find them if we rode back up the hill and searched for them. So that's what we did. Well we did the riding back up the hill part. We didn't actually do the finding part. However, we killed the better part of an hour trying.
So now we're back at the car (which is really in the middle of nowhere) and it's almost 12:00 and the car's still locked. So now what should we do? Ride toward town as quickly as possible, find a pay phone and get a message to Hugh, right? So that's what we did. We rode toward town, and in a couple of miles we got to a pay phone. Now I don't think I've used a pay phone in at least 10 years, but I figured I was up to the task (although having no money made me slightly nervous). I dialed 0, and eventually got an operator. I told her I'd like to make a collect call, and she called my house. After 3 rings she said, "There is no answer" and before I could say anything, she hung up. So I dialed 0, and tried to make a collect call to Patty's cell phone. It turns out you can't make a collect call to a cell phone, or at least not Patty's (or Kevin's friend, Drew's).
So now what do we do? Ride as fast as we can toward Kevin's house (it's only another 6 miles or so at this point). Along the way we stopped at a pay phone and tried the collect call thing again. Same result. At 12:40 we arrived at Kevin's house. After a few failed attempts, I finally find Hugh's cell phone number and give him a call. He was extremely understanding, and we agreed to reschedule (sorry, again, Hugh). Now I ride home (another 5 or 6 miles), and finally arrive around 1:15. It turned into a pretty impressive ride: 33.3 miles, 3655 feet of climbing, 3 1/2 hours in the saddle, all on soft mountain tires, and about 2/3 in the dirt.
Ideally, that should be the end of the story, right. I get the second set of keys, get a ride up to the Suburban and pick it up. Nope. We look for the second set of keys and realize they must be in our trailer, which is parked at a lot, about 5 miles from home. So I take a quick shower, grab the keys for the trailer (and the gate for the trailer park), and drive the 15 minutes to the park. I get out of the car, walk up to the gate, only to find I've got the wrong set of keys. I'm holding a set of keys that looks almost identical, but is at least 8 years old. In fact it has a key on it to a file cabinet that we've been unable to open for the past 6 years. I don't know how they showed up at this particular moment, but they did. So, I drive back to my house (15 minutes), find the right keys, drive back to the trailer park (15 minutes), go into the trailer and look for the keys. I don't know what you're thinking, but I know what I was thinking. The Suburban keys aren't going to be in here. Low and behold, they were - my luck was finally changing! I took the keys, drove up Stevens Canyon and found the Suburban waiting (Patty had visions of someone finding the keys and walking out, eyeing our car, unlocking it and driving it away).
So I left my other car there, and drove the Suburban home. Hopefully I'll be able to get a lift up there later and pick up my little car.
So if you're walking or biking up the trail from the end of Stevens Canyon toward Black Mountain and you happen to see a key ring with a remote and two keys, pick it up and let me know!
# posted by Craig @ 3:46 PM 
