Being new to the team, as well as being new to California I was super excited to head away to Anza-Borrego Desert State Park for the annual bike camp.

Some of the team headed away on Friday afternoon to start the camping weekend early and to get an advanced ride in early Saturday morning. I headed away on Saturday morning with Jasmine.

When we arrived, everything was setup and the team had just come back from a run around the campsite. The sun set early and so it was already dark by 5PM. The team relaxed for the evening around the campfire while Sofia made quesadillas for everyone. Saturday evening was filled with laughter as we had a team dinner in a local Mexican restaurant. Great team bonding! Followed by the compulsory s’more making, the first s’more for the two Aussie twins.

As the sun rose at 5:30AM on Sunday we were all up early and eager to get the first team ride in. We set off at 8AM, I began cycling out of the park but unfortunately one of our new members Jill had a bad fall and we had to postpone our start to wait for medical attention. Finally, at 9:10AM Liezl and I head off in the same direction as the rest of team mates. Post cycle we all filled our bellies with a well-deserved burrito for lunch and headed back to camp for some technical skills and bike maintenance. Late afternoon some team members were done in for the day, while the rest ran up to an amazing oasis only 1.5 miles from camp.

Monday morning saw a few fragile heads climb out of bed and face packing up camp. We worked well together and got the camp cleared by 8AM. After congregating at Christmas Circle we head off in our packs to climb up Yaqui Pass. This was a great climb and an even better descent. Finally, on our way home we stopped for pizza and apple pie to carb load just in case we felt we didn’t get enough throughout the weekend. Sad to say that was my only bike camp, but I thoroughly enjoyed the weekend.

Article by Roise McSorley