Yerba Buena to Corral Canyon (and back)…via Backbone

Yesterday’s ride was HARD!!!

After last weekend’s 200 Hundred Mile Challenge, Luke had to one-up to challenge with an all day ride on the Backbone trail. Anyone who knows me knows…I awful with trail names and directions. The only thing I knew going into this ride was…it was going to be about 45 hard miles. I’d ridden parts of the trail, but not the entire thing (IE – no sane person would do this all at once!)

We woke up early on Saturday, chugged some caffeine (I mean…hydrated), threw on some spandex, and dropped off two gallons of water at the 16/36 mile part of our trip. Then it was off a long and windy drive up Yerba Buena to the the parking lot.

Since I knew this was going to be a big ride, I had to mentally prepare by breaking it down into 3 sections.

Miles 1-16: Yerba Buena to Backbone tunnel – this was probably the best part of the ride (read: fresh legs, feeling excited, recently caffeinated). Mostly single track, mostly downhill, some fireroad climbing, georugous views…life was beautiful!

Miles 17-31: Backbone tunnel to Corral Canyon and back – the ONLY thing I knew about this part of the ride was…I had attemped it once about 2 years ago and bailed 4 miles in. Literally. Bailed. Turned myself around and called it a day. Mentally, I was worried about this part of the ride. I threw down some Sport Beans (my latest obsession), some PB&J&honey, a Gu, some Gaterade, probably some Endurolytes (can’t seem to remember that part) – and off we went. The 7 miles to Corral were HARD, and I think the 7 miles getting back to the tunnel were harder!

Miles 32-44: Backbone tunnel to the car: PAIN, PAIN, PAIN…and PAIN! All I can say is…I ended with a prayer “Thank you God for down hills, Taylor Swift on my shuffle, and for keeping us safe and getting us back here.”