Race Organizer : Norcal-AR
Summary: Pacheco State park is hilly, lots of fire roads, with some fun single track. Navigation can be challenging, but the open space makes it easy to see where you are going. There are also great water features to help with the navigation. Kayaking on the reservoir is often challenging due to high winds

Please join our Team Vanderkitten group on Facebook!

Folks,
As we’ve blogged before, Julien, the mountain bike guru who puts on the California Adventure Racing Association Skills Clinics is really a phenom on the bike and a great coach. We’d highly suggest attending one of his clinics—worth every penny!

Next clinic: Mountain Bike Skills Level 1 at Arastradero on Saturday February 14th.
For complete details and registration please visit:
http://cara-mtb-skills.eventbrite.com/

For additional details and questions please e-mail us at:
skills@california-ara.com

After January 26th’s AR Open House, we have a lot of excitement and interest in adventure racing!

First, we advocate and support all women of all levels to the sport and community of adventure racing…check out the CalARA website http://californiaara.com/ to learn, explore, and play in this awesome sport.

Second, let me tell you a little bit about gals that are hopefully future Team Vanderkitten members:

Who we are: A core group of women who compete in long-AR races (8+ hours), currently in California, with hopes to grow nationally in the long-term.

Responsibilities of Team VK members:

• Passionate about AR
• Always safety first
• Ability and attitude comparable to current team members
• Committment to attend team training events and racing for the season
• Race as a Team VK memberfirst unless/until team is fielded

I know a few of you that might be also interested as a Guest Racer as Team VK.  

• First we’d love to have you, but we have a few little ground rules. 
• Since AR is a team sport, it will be important that you have trained together with the team members prior to the race, and that you can commit to race as a guest racer for no less than 2 races.  
• And since we are a meritocracy, every team members must feel comfortable and agree to the guest racer; sometimes we are out there in rain, sleet, cold going on our 10th hour in the dark–and we want to make sure we all are comfortable communicating and working together as a team!

So, if you are interested in joining our team and/or the AR sport, just follow these easy steps…

1. Sign up for the google group at the CalARA site.
2. Check out the emails and updates on training events sent to the google group.
3. RSVP to come to the “All-Women Cal AR Training Events” posted at the CalARA site… these will be either a CalARA event or a club RWG All Women’s training event or a Team VK-hosted training event.
   There will be specific levels to match with different skills [beg, intermediate, or advanced].

We’re looking forward to having you join us….so, come out and have some fun with Team Vanderkitten 2009!

We have a great event that we highly recommend everyone to attend!! See you there…

Well, here’s your chance to do both!

When: Monday, January 26, 2009
What time: 7:00pm to 9:00pm
Where: Sports Basement, Sunnyvale (1177 Kern Ave)

Be there to LEARN, MINGLE, and best of all…EXPLORE:
• What is Adventure Racing?
• How does one get started?
• Free resources—local groups, weekly activities, training, and events
• Meet local teams
• And much, much more…

We live in a great place!
It’s early January.. and I just rode ~18 miles at the Sierra Azul Open Space Preserve (Kennedy-Limekiln Area) in Los Gatos. The weather was sunny but cool, and couldn’t have been better. We really live in a great area.

This post is about our Mid Peninsula Regional Open Space Preserves..great places for riding, as they outline here in their website. Information is also below.

Most of the District’s 220 miles of designated trails are unpaved “wildland” trails in steep, rugged terrain. Approximately 65% of these trails are “multiple use” trails and are open to bicyclists, which is the highest ratio of trails open to bikes among parks and open space in the Bay Area. Many of these trails are also single-track trails, providing bicyclists with a more technical experience.

Sixteen open space preserves are open to mountain biking. When planning a mountain biking trip, you may want to visit these preserves in particular.

El Corte de Madera Creek Open Space Preserve
Features 34 miles of multi-use trails, including some steep, technical single-track trails; rugged, heavily forested terrain; redwoods; occasional views to the coast.

Fremont Older Open Space Preserve
Nearby urban areas affording a quick trip after work; features 11 miles of multi-use trails; woodland, chaparral, rolling hayfields, and former orchard; 900-foot Hunters Point; Maisie’s Peak.

Long Ridge, Monte Bello, Russian Ridge, Saratoga Gap, and Skyline Ridge
These South Skyline Area preserves are interconnected affording bicyclists with miles of multi-use trails to explore; grasslands; oak, madrone, and Douglas-fir forests; views of Big Basin Redwoods, Butano Ridge, and the Monterey Peninsula.

Sierra Azul Open Space Preserve
Features approximately twenty-six miles of multi-use trails; rugged, steep terrain; chaparral-covered slopes; dense stands of bay trees; outstanding views of Santa Clara Valley; 2,999-foot Mt. El Sombroso.

Happy Riding!

Below is the 2009 upcoming race calendar for confirmed Team VK races. Team Vanderkitten will field all-women teams for each of these races.. check back to our site for race reports after the races!

• Sat Mar 14 NorCalAR: Pacheco Pass (VK) – Hollister, CA
• Sat May 9 Big Blue: Red Tail (VK) – Livermore California
• Sat May 30 NorCalAR: Henry Coe Park (VK) – Henry Coe Park, Gilroy, CA
• Sat Jul 11 Big Blue: Half Moon Bay (VK) – Half Moon Bay, Ca
• Sat Sep 19 Big Blue: Tahoe (VK) – North Lake Tahoe, Ca

Also, Team VK will be racing with our counterpart team Team Racing with Giants for the following races:

• Sat Feb 7 Baarbd Brawl (RWG)
• Sat Apr 25 NorCalAR: Almaden/Quicksilver (RWG) – San Jose, Ca
• Sat May 16 Central Coast Adventure Challange: San Luis Obispo (RWG) – Santa Margarita Reservoir, San Luis Obispo, California 93453
• Sat Aug 1-2 Big Blue: Tahoe 24 (RWG) – Kings Beach, Ca

It’s looking like a great year so far…Stay tuned for more adds to the calendar!

Today, Team VK and friends had an awesome mountain biking training ride at Soquel Demonstration Forest in the Santa Cruz Mountains.  Good trails, good company, good fun.

“Demo”, as it’s called by the MTBR folks, has long, fast, singletrack descents with rocks and roots scattered around.  There are three main trails (Braille, Tractor and Sawpit) that are sandwiched between grueling, hike-a-bike, uphill grinds!  Today, we started at the top and took Tractor down twice and Sawpit up once (and let me tell you, once was enough!) The trails also have great stunts, logs, ladders, and jumps galore with ride-arounds for the more faint-of-heart.

“We” were a large crew today… comprised of the Friday am regulars: Ian, David, Hani, Calvin, Thomas, Julie, Austyn, Gwen and me.  A ton of fun!

 A word of warning if you head out to Demo: Don’t leave any valuables in you car…better yet, don’t even bring them. The Santa Cruz sherriffs say they get calls on thefts out every week out there. Yikes!

The wonderful race directors of AR have announced some races for the 2009 season so far..

Here is the line-up so far…

·         Sat Feb 7 Baarbd Brawl (RWG)

·         Sat Feb 28 Tri-Adventure series 2009 (+) – San Francisco, Ca

·         Sat Mar 14 NorCalAR: Pacheco Pass (VK) – Hollister, Ca

·         Sat Apr 4 Dessert Winds AR: Lake Mead 3+ Beg – Lake Mead, Ca

·         Thu Apr 16-19 Sea Otter Classic – Monterey, Ca

·         Sat Apr 18 Big Blue: Red Bluff – Red Bluff, Ca

·         Sat Apr 25 NorCalAR: Almaden/Quicksilver (RWG) – San Jose, Ca

·         Sat May 2-3 Desert Winds AR: lake mead 24 – Lake Mead, NV

·         Sat May 9 Big Blue: Red Tail (VK) – Livermore California

·         Sun May 10 XTERRA: Del Valle (+) – Livermore, ca

·         Sat May 16-17 Central Coast Adventure Challange: San Luis Obispo (RWG) – Santa Margarita Reservoir, San Luis Obispo, California 93453

·         Sat May 30 NorCalAR: Henry Coe Park (VK) – Henry Coe Park, Gilroy, CA

·         Sat Jun 13-14 Mavericks Women’s Weekend – Eagle, Co

·         Sat Jun 13-14 AquanFest 2009 (+)

·         Sat Jun 20 Dessert Winds: 30/60 mile kayak – Black Canyon, NV

·         Sat Jun 27 XTERRA: Tahoe (+) – North Lake Tahoe, Ca

·         Sat Jul 11 Big Blue: Half Moon Bay (VK) – Half Moon Bay, Ca

·         Sat Jul 25 Gold Rush: Gold Rush Summer Challange – Jamestown, Ca

·         Sat Jul 25 High Trek Adventure Race – San Francisco, Ca

·         Sat Aug 1-2 Big Blue: Tahoe 24 (RWG) – Kings Beach, Ca

·         Sat Aug 15 Big Blue: Folsom Lake – Folsom lake, sacramento, ca

·         Sat Aug 22 High Trek Adventure Race – Berkley, ca

·         Sat Aug 29 XTERRA: Incline Village – Incline Village, NV

Whew! that should keep you busy.. and that’s just around our area.. there are still a lot more great races out there, and more adds.. we’ll keep updating this post with new races as they get released!

Happy New Year from Team Vanderkitten!

Team VK and Friends (Gwen, Cindi, Janet, Jen, Austyn, & Hani) spent our New Years out on the water in the SF Bay. We started off at the Redwood Shores (off Seaport Blvd) and headed out to the Bay.. a beautiful day, incredible views, and a great way to start 2009.

Photos, and hopefully videos, to come!