Wow…just WOW! I arrived at the bottom of Hummingbird trail at 7:45am this morning, (Simi Valley, CA) and set out to ride/walk my MUni all the way to the top and then drop back in for the awesome DH. This is usually always done as a shuttle, but I was solo this time. Right as I was about to start on my way up, I met a cool hiker who wanted to come along, and he also used my camera to film me on the way back down.
After that ride, I met 2 more hikers who joined me for a ride down Stage coach, aka, “Devil’s Slide”, which isn’t far from Hummingbird. I was able to actually set up my “Uni-cable-cam”, even though there aren’t any trees to speak of there! I had brought a couple steel stakes and a small hammer, so I could wedge them onto some boulders, so I had something to attach the two cable ends.
I’ve made lots of cable cam vids before, but this was really the first technical riding I’ve done using the UCC, and I’m pretty happy with how it came out! :thumb:
So here’s the video, and I hope you’ll enjoy it, and let me know what you think. Thanks!
Thanks, it’s really nice to hear that, and it really means a lot. Especially after making more than 200 videos, it’s like, ok, now what? (Actually, that question came up after just the first 5 or 10, haha!) So that basically forces you to keep trying to improve in your riding, filming, editing, and just trying different approaches, which is a good thing really.
Thanks much! Yeah Hummingbird is a great trail that throws pretty much everything at you; knarly DH, rocky terrain, Moab-like sections of petrified sand dunes turned to rock, some big drop opps, numerous caves, rock climbing off the flanks, amazingly beautiful scenery.
All this and it’s relatively short at less than 2 miles each way. But you can play there all day doing various lines in the same general area. This time of year is ideal weather-wise; in the summer it’s deadly hot and there’s basically zero shade, except for those caves.
UniGeezer whats wrong with you!? That’s the trail closest to my house and the first I have ever ridden and you did’nt invite me!? We gotta ride sometime dude! G-spot or hummingbird trail man. Message me when you want to go!
Haha, sorry I didn’t know you lived there. No wait, isn’t Camarillo like 20-some miles from there? Yeah the other trails, G-spot and nature trail are also crazy technical!
No we have’nt but I would absolutely love too. We, i think, are planning a ride at the hummingbird trail at the end of this month so you should definetely join us. I’ll give you details as we get closer to the end of the month so you can decide whether or not to go. Hopefully you can be our shuttle buddy.
EDIT: Heres a website that unfortunately does not get updated often because of lack of riders. You should definetly sign up and join. http://vcunicycle.webs.com/
Oh cool, I didn’t know of that website but am a member of SBUni (Santa Barbara) and LA Muniriders. Yeah just let me know by PM or email about the ride. As far as shuttling, I figured it was just as easy-and more fun-to just hike/ride up from the bottom, since you have to still climb almost a mile up that fireroad even with the shuttle!
But yeah, either way is cool with me. The timing should work, but soon I’ll be going to NV to ride “Bootleg Canyon” again. It’s literally like the “Disnelyland” for mtb! It’s located in Boulder city, and I plan to go for a few days toward the end of the month or very early November…hopefully before it rains!
Thanks Sean. How’s the ridin’ and the shows going in your neck ‘o’ the woods?
Yeah I was surprised it did seem to convey the steepness pretty well; especially since I was using my point & shoot. (sony w-290) It has a video mode that shoots in wide screen HD, but the focus tends to go in and out and get intermittently blurry.
Thanks. I think you actually meant cable cam; glide cam is hand-held. Most of my other ucc videos have much longer duration to each run, but these were quite short, and less then 80-100 feet on average.
Thanks. Of the several ucc videos I’ve made, this was the first where I used it for riding technical terrain. And as I had mentioned, there weren’t any trees, so I had to secure the cable by pounding steel stakes into nearby boulders.
Thanks Sigurd. Actually, the one I made called “Floating images” was probably the smoothest and the shots were at lot longer.
Btw, has anyone noticed that the guitar riff in the Strokes song, “The End Has No End”, (The last of three songs I used in the video) sounds a LOT like the opening of “Sweet Child of mine”?
