May These Quiet Hills Bring Peace. Photos by Lucas Winzenburg
May These Quiet Hills Bring Peace. Photos by Lucas Winzenburg
wearegoingawol reblogged
May These Quiet Hills Bring Peace
May These Quiet Hills Bring Peace Words by Erik Nohlin, photos by Lucas Winzenburg.
“May these quiet hills bring peace to the souls of those who are seeking.”
These were Sada Coe’s words when she donated the ranch and surrounding land she inherited from her father, Henry W. Coe, to the people of California in 1953. She formed a deep understanding of our human need for wild places while growing up on the grassy hills around Pine Ridge Ranch. Five years after taking ownership of the ranch, Sada decided to give her property to Santa Clara County as a wilderness retreat, open to everyone. Sada’s spirit is the reason why the public now has unlimited access to the beautiful wilderness area today known as Henry W. Coe State Park.
Picture your fingers spread wide, raking half an inch of red dirt along a footlong track of earth. Now do that again right next to it. Scale that up a thousand times and you have a crude sketch of Henry W. Coe’s topography. You would be the size of an atom in this 87,000-acre Northern California wilderness.
Largely untouched by man, the flora and fauna remain intact the way they were before we managed to destroy much of the Californian nature. Ponderosa pines dominate parts of three major ridges stretching the full length of the park. Dense chaparral and vast grasslands speckle what’s between.
Coe is a hidden gem in one of the most densely populated areas of the country. Though the park sits just one ridge away from the 3,000,000 people in Silicon Valley, hardly any locals realize what they have only half an hour away from the valley floor.
Roads and trails can take you anywhere in Coe, but the decisive factor will always be water. Coe is vast and waterholes only a few, remote and seemingly random. A century ago ranchers built a handful of dams that still carry water year round, but you can never count on streams, especially in the summer, and will always need to filter water.
Enter the park from the west and ride in a latitudinal angle and you’ll be pushing your bike up steep hillsides for hours and riding down steep canyons for brief, exhilarating moments. Enter from the south and you’ll do some of that, but you’ll mostly ride on the Diablo Range’s lofty, unending ridges. There are about 200 miles of dirt roads and trails in the park. Some are manicured, but they’re often just overgrown jeep roads transformed into singletrack.
Our gang of four was prepared for a long weekend of traversing ridges. Our imagined speed was set to around six skids per hour and we were eager for an excursion into the hearts of Henry and Sada Coe. Our loose plan was to diagonally traverse as many ridges as we could, making our way deep into the park. We packed our bikes lightly in anticipation of Coe’s ruggedness, but you’re always in for a surprise when roaming around within her bounds. One thing is certain: Coe is never an easy ride. There will be equal time riding and pushing, regardless of your gearing. If you don’t give a shit about distance and have a flexible mind, there are tons of beautiful views and moments to take a break, smoke a pipe, write a poem, or just let Coe’s majesty soak in.
We entered the park from the Pine Ridge entrance in the west with a loosely defined route in our heads. Day one: Coe Headquarters to Coit Lake. Day 2: Coit Lake to Mississippi Lake with a detour to Pacheco Falls. Day 3: Mississippi Lake back to Coe Headquarters. A good mix of shred, chill, and pushing.
A couple of factors govern winter camp spot selection in Coe. Nights are cold and valleys are deep and dark. Ridges are exposed and windy. Pick your camp spot up high, but in a sheltered location where the morning sun will hit first. The difference in available light could be as much as two hours. This rules out all northern facing slopes. Orient your tent toward the sun so the morning light gets all the way into the back of your tent, first thing. This will do you good after a cold night and your tent will be dry just in time to break camp. A Protip for winter camping is to prepare your morning coffee before you go to bed. With your stash only an arm’s reach away you can drink coffee in your sleeping bag as the first sunbeams hit your face. Pure magic.
We roamed Coe’s vastness for three days and had such a good time along the way. We got it all: the larger than life sunsets and crisp sunrises, the wind-blown rain, the adrenaline, the cougar prints, the sweat, and the laughs.
During our many hike-a-bikes we had time to discuss the commonly held beliefs that good camp spots should be kept secret and the knowledge of how to access nature belongs only to a self-selected few. Consensus was that we don’t agree, but instead believe in spreading the gospel of backcountry bicycle travel. It’s a small and dedicated group of riders who would make their way into Coe, quite far from being mainstream. “Blowing up” a spot in the park would be in complete harmony with Sada Coe’s vision to bring peace to the souls of those who seek it. All the better if more folks get inspired to venture in. The park can accommodate us all.
Coe is one of the last sanctuaries in northern California where nature still dictate the rules. It’s a pristine wilderness area accessible to anyone with even a slightly adventurous heart. Henry W. Coe State Park, a bikepacker’s paradise, can be described with just a few words: intense quiet and openness.
My thanks to our gang of four: Lucas is the photographer and the man behind Bunyan Velo. Gabe is the eternal randonneur and designer of bicycles. Jake is the 4th generation apple farmer and cartographer, always wanting to know the lay of the land. Erik is the kreatör of stoke and adventure at Specialized who camped 30 nights in Coe last year, and also the man of these words.
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Last Monday’s #CAMPOUTWITHYOURLAMPOUT in the full moon was nothing but magical. No head light neeeded, the moon did all the work for us. Getting out in nature mid week is easier than you think, especially with a bike like our AWOL. Check the hashtag for more inspiration!
DEADRECKONING NZ 003
Anthropologists agree that New Zealand was the last major land mass to be settled by man, and that its isolation from the rest of the world’s continents allowed the fauna to develop unperturbed. The arrival of man quickly wreaked havoc on the indigenous species, but despite our best efforts the underlying feeling, the bedrock, subsonic, baseline vibe is that nothing much has changed, or rather nothing is old enough to have really changed.
This is new country, new space, still very much unaffected by the clinging compounding change of the new millennium. We hiked through the space, pushing against gravity, the wind, and the cold.”- KVH
The sun was setting on our second day as we made a final push towards our night’s sleeping hut, we were surprised and relieved when we were greeted by a warm fire, a round of beers, and two amiable deer hunters who had been snowed in the night before. With our shoes and socks set by the fire we laid our heads down and those of us who couldn’t force ourselves to pass out spent the evening as unwilling guests to an all-night concert of guttural staccato John Cage covers. It is possible that somewhere, deep inside the mind of our knowing vocalists, the feeling that man needs to make mark, to leave some trace, the need to have meaning was propelling their apnea, and as their snores careened off the cabin’s wall the wind rushed by our humble little hut, unimpeded by evolution or erosion.
Txt and photos by Yonder Journal.
Insane sunset on last weeks #campoutwithyourlampout in Henry Coe State Park. Every Monday we ride the 1,5 hour / 3000 ft climb up to the park and camp out. Six campeurs showed up with burritos and an adult beverage to spend some quality time after work. The Califorinia winter sunsets is one of the best shows on earth.
John Watson shot some rad action of Erik and Dylan going AWOL in the Marin Headlands a couple of weeks ago. Dylan wheelies an AWOL Comp, Erik skids the new AWOL EVO. This bike is so much fun. More on The Radavist
A photoset from a couple of weeks ago when Team AWOL and friends went off on a spontaneous late Saturday overnighter north of San Fransisco. In less than 14 hours, we rode out of the city, camped out on a magical spot and returned to the city for a productive Sunday. All images by Erik Nohlin
John Watson shot some beautiful photos on the #rustawol check the whole photoset out on The Radavist. #rustneversleeps
Just another Monday #campoutwithyourlampout session. Leave work, school or whatever, buy something to eat, ride until the dark catches you, set camp, have a feast, sleep under the stars, wake up, make coffee, ride back. Easy as that!
DEAD RECKONING NZ 002
Our goal was to cross the country from east to west traversing the Southern Alps, and in the process we would be going to places where no bikes had gone before. I don’t want to ruin the surprise, though. Our crew: Paul (the guide), Patrick (the coach), Benedict (the face), Erik (the metal), Daniel (the camera) and myself (the support) departed from Dunedin aboard a wizard train that most likely shuttled Harry Potter to his magic school. We crossed high trellis bridges, mugged for the camera, and a took verbal/physical pot shots at one another. Eventually the train dropped us at the end of the line. The wind was trying really hard, and if there is one thing that a cyclist loves its wind. Paul had a surprise for us, “It’s going to be all tailwind from here.” The elation was brief, because what Paul was talking about is a New Zealand Tailwind, or a very strong gusty wind which blows incessantly and from any direction. We left Otago station riding with one of those New Zealand Tailwinds. Much much later that day, after some not insignificant rain, below comfortable temperatures, an almost lost wallet, innumerable sheep, and some very, long very flat, very unpopulated miles we arrived to Dansey’s Inn at dusk where we would enjoy lukewarm showers, hot meals, and a paint stripping conflagration that was roaring in the inn’s communal fireplace.
The AWOL x YONDER JOURNAL #deadreck Brass AWOL’s are made in 4 limited pieces and will travel the world during 2015, get used and abused, beaten up and patina nicely. Naked brass will never stop evolving and the adventures will leave scars like natural tattoos on the frames. More to come.
RUST AWOL 005
tRUST ME, I’M A DESIGNER
The project was crowned with a Brooks Cambium rust saddle and bar tape where the fabric matches the bike and the vulcanized rubber matches the tan wall tires nicely. As a last step I gave the Supernova headlamp and the Tubus rack a kiss of iron oxide. The humid and cold San Francisco summer will continue to corrode and oxidize the surface even though it’s been sealed with a clear coat as I surprisingly discovered in some close up shots today. I learned a ton on this project, got my hands dirty and created a bike that’s really fun. I love that I sometimes can show you the hands-on process of being a designer at a big brand when 90% of my work never leaves the design studio. Confidentiality keeps us all from sharing what I know a lot of you like seeing and know more about. Personally, the making-of-dvd in the Indiana Jones DVD box is far superior to the movies themselves and getting dirty the only way to learn something new.
RUST AWOL 004
tRUST ME, I’M A DESIGNER, Words by EN / Team AWOL
31. The matchy matchy matching game is strong. The Brooks Cambium Rust saddle, wrap and bar plug jammers are amazing for this project. And oh, The Swinger dropouts go to 11. 32. I'm not kidding, these go to eleven, and they all do!! 33. Rusting is done; I really like the living surface and "natural" evolution of the rust. However, time to kill that darling / stop the process with some dead matt 1k clear. 34. To get some extra depth in the rust I darkened it by tinting the clear with a black gold and a dark cherry from House of Kolor. 35. Some deep orange and cinnamon pearl amplifies the effect in the sun. 36. Hmm, this sounds like Old Fashioned ingredients. 37. Without a well-developed gut feeling, make a test spray before you shoot the real stuff (or do that anyway) Gut feeling is all I have so I'll go bang on target with the cinnamon deep orange pearl amplifier clear. 38. Mix your shit well and filter it, you don't fuck around with the clear after all that work. 39. Make sure you have all the time you need to finish the job with focus, can't stress here. 40. Put some dangerous music in your ears and go 41. Good, better, best. The result of your paint efforts aligns with the quality of your tools and craft. A rattle can of clear might give you luck, randomly. Real equipment gives you radness every time. 42. Let it dry overnight. 43. Build the bike up. 44. Ride the shit out of it.
OMG, OMG, It´s one of the 2016 AWOL’s OMG, OMG,
wearegoingawol reblogged
BRASS AWOL
While riding these things I like to refer to them as “Battleship” “War Axe” “Dark Chariot of Shred”. And for good reason too. You can aim this thing up and it will gross mountains for you. Although you are constantly reminded that you are caring 50+ lbs on your bike, it all seems weightless on this thing. And after you have grinder your face off for a 10000ft climb you can point this Bazooka down hill and lock it up with a 40 foot skid around a loose corner weighted down with some good front load which will whip out your back and let it chatter against the loose boulders right before it locks back up and spits you into the next water bar. Sending you into a nice lifted air, style optional considering you are the most stylish badass already. My point is, while saddled up on the AWOL you feel unstoppable. The geometry keeps you comfortable for those 14 hours days, and when you are carrying your home with you everything seems limitless. So for now, “The Dark Warship of Shredding” will be my weapon of choice when it comes to slaying mountains.
Words and photos by Dylan Buffington
RUST AWOL 003
tRUST ME, I’M A DESIGNER, Words by EN / Team AWOL
My colleague Barry Gibb had previously used the Rustique rusy paint to create a fantastic surface on a carbon bike ( the #Rustvenge ) and I wanted to try it to, on steel this time. We ordered some paint and decided that this nickel plated AWOL would be the victim for this experiment. The month of June is usually pretty mellow at work (read: not as completely fucking crazy as July and August) and I spent some afternoons in the workshop and paint booth to finish off this creative experiment in an effort to bring real organic life back to a surface that’s dead.
21. A nice and smooth layer of iron oxide is covering the frame and parts. 22. Mix the rust activator and shake well. 23. Breakfast. 24. Spray the water based rust activator/agent on the frame. The agent will bead up on the surface. 25. Rub the agent into the basecoat using a Scotch pad. 26. From diamonds to rust #inrustwetrust, this shit really works. 27. Let the agent work for 12-24 hrs. and evaluate the first layer. 28. Getting back to work after the weekend is easier with this waiting. A pretty healthy layer of rust formed since Friday. I put the frame outside over the weekend, a decision I might regret, it could have been a better, darker result if I stayed inside and that bird shit on the down tube would have been undone. 29. Just sprayed / splattered on some Muriatic Acid (diluted to 10%) as an experiment. Hopefully it won't erode the current layer of rust. 30. Now coffee
Our friend Benji at Poler has a little nice interview over at Huckberry also including one second of fame from that hard to get a hold of AWOL x POLER. Go check it out