We had read about a weekly XC race series at Northstar Ski Resort and assumed there would be some fun trails (once again, I was searching for single track akin to Deer Valley & Park City). As soon as we pulled in the parking lot there were warning signs: dozens of cars had bikes, but they were ALL downhill bikes. Every single one of them. Naively, I unloaded my bike and went to the bike shop to ask about the XC trails. By this point I'd passed a handful of riders, all with full helmets and DH gear. The shop had a Fox demo going on outside, all DH bikes. The staff was less than friendly, they looked at me as if I was from the 18th century. They yelled at some guy in the back that they thought had ridden some XC trails at one point. He came out and said that years ago he'd ridden some trails. He proceeded to suggest an out and back a few miles up the road that was "flat". Have I made it clear yet what a different world downhilling is yet? I had no idea, but really, it is an entirely different sport.
I was running out of time, so I rode up the fire road (the single track is reserved for DHers and I'd be hit if I got tried to go up one, besides they have built features all over the mountain that you can't ride up.) 5 minutes up the road I hear gun shots and see a group of 4 men running. Then I see a dog chasing a bear and the bear runs up a tree while one of the guys is still shooting. I'm making the assumption that it was a tranquilizer gun. But I still want to know what the plan was, he was shooting even when the bear was 15 feet off the ground. If he did hit it with a tranquilizer, the bear would fall and die from impact right? There was another man taking photos. They had some type of official vehicle near them (not forest service and not Northstar??). I'm sure they knew what they were doing, but it sure looked "interesting". I stayed back for a minute to make sure all was safe then I rode past the bear that was huffing and grunting way up the tree. The men standing around didn't seem to think it was a safety hazard for me to ride by them, so I went on my merry way, up the stinkin' fire road. That was the best part of the ride. I'd spent so much time being frustrated about the ride that I got less than an hour of pedal time and didn't take any pictures. Johnny did take one of Kirkham eating his lunch on top of the mountain (via gondola and lift rides)! We went back to Lake Tahoe, relaxed on the beach and I got over my lame ride.
