Running with the Toads

2010 Toad Festival

June 5th was the Toad Festival, an annual fun ride put on by the Warrior's Society. The key word is, of course, fun. The Toad Festival features casual rides that lack the competitive intensity and the grueling courses of the other Warrior's Society events - the Vision Quest and the Traverse. The Toad is more about camaraderie, getting outside and having fun. It is not a race, but there are games of chance along the course - dice, cards, horseshoes, darts - allowing riders to vie for a number of great prizes. I think there were prizes for everyone. There were also two courses, a short family friendly ride in Arroyo Trabuco and a longer ride up Holy Jim and down the Trabuco Trail. Both rides start and end in Oneill Park where there was a post-ride picnic.

It was a great event. Personally, it was a bit hot for me and I bonked a bit on Holy Jim. I rested and stopped to eat on Main Divide and then was mostly fine for the rest of the ride. (Although after the heat and exhaustion drama, I was too far behind to catch my riding partner, Josh.)
By the time I reached the top of W. Horsethief, I was feeling almost normal. The nice folks from the Warrior's society were offering Rootbeer floats to go along with the horseshoes at that stop. At the next stop - on the upper end of the Trabuco Trail - there were darts and a spray mister. Way to go guys. The ride down Trabuco was great as always.

I must mention the horseflies, however. They were particularly pesty, swarming and biting. Unless you were going more than 10mph, they were on you like papparazzi to a crotch-flashing starlet. I made the mistake of wearing only a perforated jersey and got bit repeatedly on my back. I should've worn a t-shirt. I should've worn a t-shirt. Two days after the ride my back sported an archipelago of itchy red welts. Yeah, those bugs are nasty. I am generally against Malathion, but I might make an exception in this case. The good news is that the bugs usually go away after a week or so. I don't plan to see them again this year. As for next year, yes I will return to the Toad ride, hoping for cooler temps, packing more food and bringing plenty of DEET.