Last Week's Roll Call in pics

Last week was more of the same in the middle of a mild So Cal summer.  Mid week local loops, a road ride (gasp!) Taco Friday, and one good ride on the weekend with multiple snake/lizard options and lots o' climbing.

Yes, I do have a road bike.  An old, steel custom frame that I just recently upgraded to 8spd.  Cutting edge stuff here.

Along the road ride, this stood out as a humble marker of time's passing.  Reduced for the web here, the iPhone4 takes some surprisingly sharp pics with nice color and contrast.

Taco Friday ride, Ed the Tall actually can still ride a bike after a lot of personal challenges lately.  Riding a bike is cathartic. 

Tacos with Dean the Machine and Ed the Tall.  Everyone gets a name.

Been testing a couple of Lezyne packs lately.  Excellent organization and well worth a look if you are hydration pack shopping.

Snake number 1.  A friendly country cousin in the form of a 2.5' Gopher Snake.  We also saw two Horned Toads but they were too fast for the lens.

Got trail food?  Clif Bar rocks.  Also, been playing with the HDR camera setting on the iPhone4.  Like this pic, it can really sort out the contrasty images.

Sat's ride was a 12 mile climb to the high point of the Angeles NF Backcountry.  The views were just alright ;).

Eric the Red.  Viking, mtn biker, all around good egg.

Hard to see here (in the blue circle) was the surly relative of the Gopher Snake we passed earlier.  He...or she...slithered off to look for a fight with a smaller adversary.  How can anyone NOT know the difference between a 'good' snake and a 'bad' snake?  This bad boy looked all business.

Out on the Epic again.  Crazy good all day bike unless it is really rough out there.