Booming

At some point Saturday evening I began dwelling on all that wildflower traffic out by Lake Elsinore after being reminded about it by a race photographer earlier in the day. All that dwelling convinced me to alter my plans for Sunday - choosing another day of US Cup racing close to home rather than sitting in a traffic jam for a couple extra hours to get to the season's second high school league races, at Vail Lake.

Whether you think that was a wise choice, or not, may depend on your perspective and tolerance for that kind of immobility. I certainly did not mind missing all that sitting, but with nine-hundred ninety athletes racing around those hills - yes, that is right, only ten short of a full round thousand - it would have been something to experience. The cheering, shouting throng lining the ramp of Space Force (or is it Air Force) Hill looks, in videos I have seen, very reminiscent of some of the old NORBA events of the past - search out some of the photos and videos and see for yourself. 

High school mountain biking is booming in southern California, as well as across the country, and who knows the next Kate Courtney (who came out of a NorCal League school) may very well come from those ranks of student athletes.