First and foremost, I’d like to thank fate for allowing me to complete roughly 200,000 feet of ascending and descending more than 500 miles without crashing or crossing paths with mountain lions, landslides, runaway trucks, Africanized bees, rabid bison, or mosquitoes tainted with West Nile virus. Fate also canceled Stephanie Kalinowski’s early meeting with her maker, providing enough bushes for her to grab as she fell down one of Lower Sam Merrill Trail’s many slides, averting catastrophe. For that, Stephanie and I are truly grateful.
I extend warm thanks to the many persons whose brains I picked along the way, among them Kye Sharp, Casey Kelley, Deker Williams, Michael Kelley, and Mike Stanosek.
The staff of Helen’s Cycles Westwood served as my pit crew—keeping me properly outfitted and listening to my stories all the way through. I dread the day when the managers, Mike “Fukazaki” Feng and Pete Burnham, move on to bigger and better things. El Maestro Mecánico Gilberto Quintanella kept my bike from missing a shift the whole way—¡Muchas gracias, señor! Special thanks to Ryan Morse for building me a pimp set of wheels and for all the laughs.
Thanks to Patrick Rose, Maria Biber-Ferro, Quito Cooksey, Deker Williams, Gabriela Williams, Jason Tuttle, and Stephanie Kalinowski for making great riding buddies, photographers, and photographic subjects.
Perhaps the biggest thank you should go to the volunteer workers and park employees who have done such a fantastic job of maintaining the trails of Southern California. Without their tireless efforts, the forces of nature would surely take away many of our greatest trails within just a few seasons. Thanks, guys and gals, your work is much appreciated!