TimFrog 2023: A Post-MADE Campout with Friends

Words by Erik Fenner, photos by Erik Fenner, Tom La Marche, Jeremy Sycip, Curtis Inglis, and Steven Smith

With dust still swirling in the air from the MADE trade show teardown, I scrambled through the panniers we’d used for displays at the Old Man Mountain booth to find my sleeping bag, rainfly, stove, and all my other gear that was stuffed into various bags. I rifled through everything and loaded up for the TimFish ride, which was headed up by Rie from SimWorks USA.

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This will be the third post-show ride Rie has organized. The first two were after the Chris King Open House events. With so many bicycle frame builders and industry friends in town, Rie has jumped at the chance to get a group of her friends together for a boondoggle of a bikepacking ride and informal birthday celebration.

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Promised chill vibes and lots of snacks, I rolled into the Timothy Lake parking lot at about 10:45 a.m. on Monday. Half the group had arrived, and half were still making their way up Highway 26. We all tucked, primped, and stowed gear on our bikes, took naps on the pavement, and talked about how MADE went for us. Unanimously awesome, by the way.

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The last crew to roll into the lot was Jay and Jeremy SyCip, Curtis Inglis (aka Retrotec), and Scott Turner from Santa Cruz. They arrived in Jay’s new Japanese fire truck, a stunning little rig that makes onlookers smile. Just imported from Japan with a whopping 7,000 miles on the odometer, Jay has already started modifying it with the help of Oscar of Simple Bikes to become the perfect MTB adventure rig.

Fully prepped and loaded, we gathered around to discuss the plan and find out who had downloaded the Ride with GPS track Rie emailed and texted to everyone. The single raised hand amongst 20ish people was a clear omen of how our wayfinding would go on this trip. We had cell reception in the parking lot to download the track but decided to roll with the chill vibes and follow our now de facto guide, Joe.

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One hundred yards out of the parking lot, we crossed the dam at the end of Timothy Lake; glassy calm water to our right and a difficult-to-grasp torrent of water a harrowing distance below to our left. Then, right on to smooth, flowy, loamy singletrack. It was the perfect trail for our gravel bikes and full of chill vibes… and then we hit the first T intersection in the trail. With a choice of left or right, our unofficial navigator Joe’s map said left while others decided to download the track and said the correct answer was to turn around as we’d missed the turn. This was the moment we realized there were two variations of the route. Later, we’d find out there were even more variations and detours in the mix—some chosen and some accidental.

With a change in direction, we sailed into some rolling hills and a mix of pavement and gravel, some smooth, some washboard, and many filled with logging truck braking bumps. The chill vibes party atmosphere was high with lots of snack breaks and stops to swap stories of past rides and compare gear. Curtis’ Retrotec and Jeremy’s SyCip were my favorite bike setups, and this is by no means swayed by the fact that I’m the Marketing Director for Old Man Mountain. Nope, not at all.

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Curtis ran our prototype Axle Pack mounts on his FOX fork and a Divide on the rear with our Ponderosa Panniers and Juniper Trunk. Hearing the surprise at how well they worked on a bike that wasn’t made to carry racks was gratifying. Jeremy went a unique direction with his setup. He made some custom risers for our Pizza Rack to give it plenty of clearance on his 29″ wheels. He bolted a knife sheath to the rack upright and gave it a slight Mad Max vibe. On the deck, he put all his gear in one big duffle bag and strapped it down. Front heavy? Sure. Simple as hell? Absolutely!

About 20 miles into the ride, we departed the route onto a chunky and rowdy descent down to Clear Lake. Curtis and Tom La Marche ran into the water, ready to dive right in, but 100 feet out from the shore, the water was still just knee deep and the bottom a deep/soft silt if your feet didn’t land on the mat of green plants blanketing the bottom.

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Swimming aside, it was a beautiful spot and a unique landscape of tree stumps that spend their winters submerged in the lake and their summers sunbathing in the shallows or dry shoreline. Half the group retreated up the banks to the shade of the trees on the winter shoreline while others stayed in the sun among the stumps.

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Conversations varied. Those of us who are out of shape tended to bemoan that topic while those who have been getting plenty of miles in talked about Lambretta scooters, vintage car projects, and debating the merits of antique cast iron tool bases being repurposed into TV stands and end tables.

The snack breaks were adding up at this point, and we wanted to get to Frog Lake with plenty of time to hang out and swim. We took a look at the map and chose to take a shortcut. While technically a shortcut in distance, it was not short of effort. A few miles on more paved and gravel roads led us to a hike-a-bike that got steeper and steeper and steeper. It wasn’t too long, maybe half a mile, but wow, did it ever get the heart pumping and calves screaming. Too steep to put your heels down, it sure felt longer than it looked on the map.

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In hindsight, it would have probably been faster to ride the longer, mellower route than to take this “shortcut,” but then we would have missed out on bonding through a painful, poor choice while bikepacking. While a chill vibes ride is very much appreciated, I’ve found that the strongest memories are made in the painful mistakes.

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Some more chunky gravel climbing, a road crossing on Highwy 26, and a baby-head-ridden descent into the campground had us sprawling across three large sites and setting up our tents. Shinya from SimWorks was waiting for us at the campground. While we carried our bikepacking gear and most food, he drove a few coolers of beer and treats to the site for us. The spread was decadent! Ice-cold beer was much appreciated, and a well-appointed cheese plate with berries, crackers, and fancy salami outshined my slightly crushed bag of Cheez-Its.

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It was close to dusk once we all got settled. We filtered over to the lake and waded in, then pulled out our camp chairs and kicked back. I’m not sure who brought it, but someone had a Hunter Cycles slingshot. We set up some empty cans and got to work, quickly realizing we’d all starve if we actually needed to hit anything with it. Oscar of Simple Bikes was the only standout and was right on target shot after shot! More vintage motorcycle, Lambretta, and bike industry talk led us into the night as we slowly peeled off to our tents and sleeping bags.

A New Day

Lots of coffee brewing and breakfast snacking in the morning had us packing up for the ride back to the start. The Ride with GPS route(s) we were following were actually made for the ride to start and end at our campsite, causing some confusion about where we were in the elevation profile. Was the day ahead all uphill? All downhill? 12 miles? 30 miles? Who knew? Not any of us, and while we could have sorted it out in a matter of minutes, would that really conform to the chill vibes ethos we had prepared for? We were all there to just go with the flow, even if we weren’t totally sure who was setting the direction of that flow.

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Day two began with some smooth descents, a few small blow-downs to climb over but nothing much, and then we turned uphill for about a four-mile climb with a solid headwind pushing back against us. All told, we made it pretty far on day two before we got “off track,” but the accidental detour to Little Crater Lake was a beautiful pit stop. It’s a deep spring-fed pool with an otherworldly Kool-Aid blue color to the water. Super tempting to swim in if it weren’t forbidden and a constant 34 degrees year-round. After staring into the deep pool and pondering the scale of time in the face of such a geologic wonder, we walked our bikes through a short section of the PCT to get back to the Timothy Lake Trail #528.

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Some gravel and more mountain roads later, we found another divide in the routes we were looking at. One group headed off on the road for some longer miles but more pavement, and another headed into the woods for more loamy singletrack. It started tight, twisty, and smooth until it crossed the PCT again. Then it led to three bouldery switchbacks that would be a fun challenge even on full-suspension mountain bikes. Earlier in the ride, I might have chosen to walk it, but at this point, I said what the hell and sent it. Some bouncing and feet-off dabbing, and we made it down. It was a super fun section and took us right to the lakeshore’s edge for the final miles of the trip that mirrored the first set of gorgeous, smooth, pine-duff-filled miles with beautiful views and coves.

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As much as we love to talk about the routes, the gear, and the challenges we get to overcome, that’s not what the TimFrog 2023 was about. TimFrog was all about good company, getting to ride with friends we don’t see often, and just meandering around. Pedaling together mattered much more than where we were pedaling. A show like MADE is a treat in itself, but the opportunity it provides to bring us together from all across the US, Italy, and Japan feels like a gift.

Cheers, cin cin, kanpai, and good riding!

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