The 2025 Mount Wilson Bicycling Association Pancake Breakfast

You did not want to be the one stuck with the yellow bike. I mean, push your teammates out of the way just so that you wouldn't be the last to choose, the one stuck with the yellow bike. Yeah, those who got stuck with the yellow bike crashed, those who got stuck with the yellow bike might ultimately choose to pick it up and run with it. Those who got stuck with the yellow bike invariably crossed the line last of each four person team.

Mountain bikers. How many times have we ended rides our legs seemingly darkened by a few hours in the sun, only to see the color wash away in the shower, a thick coating of fine dust down the drain. Or, maybe the ride ended with a splattering of mud, or a rivulet of blood and sweat running down a shin. Considering how these things go, a light drizzle falling on a plateful of pancakes and sausage, home-made cookies, or in a cup of hot coffee, certainly seems like a small bother, if that. The many trail stewards who turned out for the mornings' Mount Wilson Bicycling Association pancake breakfast fundraiser were not the least bit concerned. I use the word stewards for it seems the most encompassing word to describe what the MWBA has long done - building trails, maintaining trails, advocating for responsible trail use; government entities from the small to large recognized the value in the work of the MWBA and continue to entrust it with trail work and land management projects. So events like the pancake breakfast not only raise awareness and funds in support of trail projects, but also serves as a way for the Association to recognize the contributions of its many members.

In that spirit, i don't believe there was a single person who turned out on this grey morning with a spritz of water falling from the sky who was not having fun - from the always impressive raffle, to small bike race (and even though stuck with the yellow bike), to simply catching up with someone you had not seen since the last trail work day, or the previous weekends' trombone sale or, for that matter, sharing a table with someone who you'd never met, there was enough fun to push whatever drizzle might have been falling far out of mind.

happy times - a plateful of food

manning the gridle

award recognition from the Altadena Mountain Rescue Team

master trail builder, Steve Messer

the curse of the yellow bike

'round the tree

eventually, as you might notice here, the yellow bike was retired... and replaced with a unicycle

one of many raffle winners

winner of the last Roadrunner Bags / MWBA burrito bag

"all set for bikepacking" raffle prize winner

pack full of tools and shirts

with things winding down, the mrs. tries on her raffle prize knee pads while holding a conversation with an Eaton Fire homeowner who lost everything

afterwards we walked around the Crescent Valley Community Regional Park, with includes the older historic Hindenburg Park

more photos from the day at Claremont Cyclist (on Facebook)