66: The calm before the storm

This Saturday (today) has been remarkably calm. I woke up at ~11:30, and decided to go for that bike ride I mentioned in yesterday's post. I only rode to the top of Panorama, which only ended up being an hour ride total, 35 minutes to the top and about 20 back, plus a breather at the top of the hill. I had somewhat of a crazy experience today. I saw a fellow mountain biker at one of the cattle gates on Poly Canyon Road, because you have to dismount to open them, but then he just disappeared (I waited at the next gate for a few seconds to see if he was going to be behind me, so I could hold the gate open for him). I didn't think much of it, and the only other people I saw on the way up were a couple of hikers, but then at the top of Panorama, where it connects to Rollercoaster and keeps going up the hill, the other cyclist from earlier came down rollercoaster! We chatted for a bit, and I learned that he was on an e-bike, and had covered nearly twice the distance I had in the same amount of time, and was on his way down to do another lap. To be clear, he was on a proper electric mountain bike, no throttle, just pedal assist, and he was pretty good. He kept pace with me all the way back down Panorama and the Quercus Connector, and then at the bottom turned back up the Poly Canyon road to do another lap!

This interaction blew my mind a little bit, because I've never had my e-bike here, so I didn't have the context on how fast these trails could be ridden, but it sounds about right. I really wish I could have my ebike this year, but seeing as I live on the third floor of a building with no elevator, that isn't reasonable. Getting my (relatively light) normal mountain bike up two flights of stairs isn't fun, almost tripling it's weight would be quite an ordeal to be doing for every single ride.