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Oh yeah, and what's with all of the wussy bikepacking photos, anyway? Double flat tires, or just non-flat abs?

I think a little from column A, and a little from column B. Brian had just had a kid recently, so his riding time has been cut back drastically. I was on a borrowed bike that was too small, and had a bit of a loose headset. There wasn't much on the trail that I wouldn't have tried, were I on my own bike (no-one makes a hard shell travel case large enough that I could take it ). I was also rather out of practice -- the terrain out here in SoCal is a little less... challenging, for the most part. Lots of dusty fireroads and hardpack singletrack. Wet rocks and roots are a bit of an anomoly, here, owing to a lack of trees larger than shrubbery. We make up for it with big-ass hills to climb. I think the lack of wet is a big part of the reason I haven't been doing much biking lately.

The folks in those pictures were the guys that got me into riding, in university.