Northern California - Sunday 8-April Easter ride up Big Basin

Ok, here's a detailed route-map for the ride: BigBasinPageMill.pdf (http://www.gururacing.net/CyclingArticles/BigBasinPageMill.pdf) (map on 2nd page). Thanks to SteveE for the detailed surface-route on the way back. :)

Let's meet between 8:30-9:00am and leave by 9:00am. I'll leave copies of this route under my windshield-wipers for those who arrive late and want to catch up. There's going to be 6 rest-stops along the way to regroup so it shouldn't be a problem for anyone. I've been sick the past 2-months, so I'll probably need them! :(

Here's the list of attendees from the previous thread:

APRIL 8th RIDE LIST

qpliu
x136
bigbossman
ahpook
platypus
Dauphin
Bikingshearer
Danno
Pheard
SBW
Hermes
law_in_motion
Hoa (Danno's brother)
t4mv

NOTE: There's a chance that the left-turn halfway down Pagemill might be missed. You'll end up on Moody Road if you go straight. If so, that's OK, just stay on Moody Road and it becomes El Monte and goes under the freeway. On the other side, it'll meet up with Foothill Expressway anyway and put you ahead of the group. :)

UPDATED 07-April 11:01h: created a gmap route here: Gmap-pedometer.com (http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=840167), says it's about 35 miles.

See you on Sunday. Great map and planning.:)

Danno I have to work that day. I couldn't get it off. I tried. Sorry. :( Dang thats a great map, I want SO bad to go!!!!!!!!! :mad:

I ordered a road bike though so for the future I should be able to not stick out like a sore thumb!!:)

i'd be interested in maybe joining you guys on the ride.

not to be bossy, but can i make one suggestion? instead of taking homestead to de anza blvd, i would recommend homestead, right on stelling. stelling turns into prospect and then you can turn right back on to saratoga-sunnyvale and back to jake's. stelling/prospect actually has some bike lane and considerably less traffic. just my two cents.

fun fun! I'll be there for sure!

i'd be interested in maybe joining you guys on the ride.

not to be bossy, but can i make one suggestion? instead of taking homestead to de anza blvd, i would recommend homestead, right on stelling. stelling turns into prospect and then you can turn right back on to saratoga-sunnyvale and back to jake's. stelling/prospect actually has some bike lane and considerably less traffic. just my two cents.Sure, if you want to come out and ride with us, we'll take your suggested route! ;) :p

I have three hours of zone1 planned for sunday. How fast is the pace going to be? Want to come out but don't really want to ride by myself because I do want to stay in zone1.

I may show up, too. The family wants to have an Easter Brunch. So 35 miles or so will be about right.

Danno - I can give you a better route back to the start:

From Los Altos:

R. Foothill
L. McClellan
R. Bubb
L. Rainbow
R. Stelling (Stelling becomes Prospect)
R. Saratoga-Sunnyvale Rd.
R. Jake's

Or, if I make it, I can give you a more circuitous route through my 'hood

Damn ... sounds like a great ride, but unfortunately, I'm on-call this weekend. I guess it's trainer time!

I have three hours of zone1 planned for sunday. How fast is the pace going to be? Want to come out but don't really want to ride by myself because I do want to stay in zone1.Definitely Z1 on Sunday. I plan on 10mph average on this ride even with a 45-50mph downhill. :)

Count me in as a definite maybe :) Hard to resist something starting that close to me.

Crap, I can't do it this weekend... but if you guys have a ride agaion soon I'd love to join you guys. I'll be back of the pack but I'd still love to ride with you guys! Plus I need to log in some miles!

Z1 for shizzle. I'll be toasted from the start after Saturday's torture, er I mean race.

Sorry, but I'm out. I broke my leg on April 1st. I was being stupid and tried to hop the railway tracks by Davenport on Hwy 1 without getting perpendicular. I jumped, came down, then went down and couldn't move my leg. I got helicoptered to Stanford, where they patched me up. I won't be riding at all for at least a couple of months.

Z1 for shizzle. I'll be toasted from the start after Saturday's torture, er I mean race.
Which one are you doing?

the *plan* was to go and do the 35+ 4/5 race at Copperopolis, but at the moment I'm stuck at work without knowing what time i'll get to go home. If I get out of here before midnight, I'll go to the race. If I'm still here at 12, I'll probably be too tired in the morning to safely drive out there, much less race.

the *plan* was to go and do the 35+ 4/5 race at Copperopolis, but at the moment I'm stuck at work without knowing what time i'll get to go home. If I get out of here before midnight, I'll go to the race. If I'm still here at 12, I'll probably be too tired in the morning to safely drive out there, much less race.
Hope you can make it. I will be in Cat5, ... representing! I will be leaving in a few minutes.
I used to live few miles from the start of the race, and never knew it was there!

Heard there might be rain Sat. night. It should clear up by Sun. morning to give us nice clean roads! :)

Sorry, but I'm out. I broke my leg on April 1st. I was being stupid and tried to hop the railway tracks by Davenport on Hwy 1 without getting perpendicular. I jumped, came down, then went down and couldn't move my leg. I got helicoptered to Stanford, where they patched me up. I won't be riding at all for at least a couple of months.

Since no one else said it here: OW!

Sorry to hear about that. I've never broken a bone yet, and have no desire to do so. Especially if it meant I couldn't get out and ride.

East Hill

Looks like an excellent ride. Too bad I'm on-call this weekend.

It's only 35 miles? Thought it would be more like 40 or 50. Or maybe I should calibrate my computer?

Danno - I can give you a better route back to the start:

From Los Altos:

R. Foothill
L. McClellan
R. Bubb
L. Rainbow
R. Stelling (Stelling becomes Prospect)
R. Saratoga-Sunnyvale Rd.
R. Jake's



This is the ticket, as this is the route I take to get home on my Stevens Canyon route.

If I can get my #1 son out of bed and on the bike early enough we'll come by w/ a tandem to try and keep Hermes company, elsewise it'll just be me on a single. I'll believe this 10 mph avg when I see it :p , but I do appreciate the effort Danno's put into this and all y'all sound like a really fun bunch to hang with. 'Hope to see you folks tomorrow.

It's only 35 miles? Thought it would be more like 40 or 50. Or maybe I should calibrate my computer?Could be that due to the large scale of the map, there's loops and curves that gets cut off as straight lines, thus reducing the distance. We'll measure it for sure when we ride it this weekend, I though it was closer to 40miles too.


This is the ticket, as this is the route I take to get home on my Stevens Canyon route.I've revised the maps for this latest route. I'm taking off now. Might check in tonight, but most likely I'll be too drunk from partying. See y'all Sunday morning !!! :)

Heard there might be rain Sat. night. It should clear up by Sun. morning to give us nice clean roads! :)

It was pretty misty up on the ridge this morning, at least up around Old La Honda, Kings, etc.. Not enough to clean the roads :) but enough to make the cornering interesting.

This is the ticket, as this is the route I take to get home on my Stevens Canyon route.

If I can get my #1 son out of bed and on the bike early enough we'll come by w/ a tandem to try and keep Hermes company, elsewise it'll just be me on a single. I'll believe this 10 mph avg when I see it :p , but I do appreciate the effort Danno's put into this and all y'all sound like a really fun bunch to hang with. 'Hope to see you folks tomorrow.

Great. You may keep us company, but we are on road bikes tomorrow. Today was tandem riding / training day. We got 42 miles in Canada and 92 to Los Altos Hills. We talked with one cyclist who was on Skyline today and he said it was cold, wet, foggy and raining. We went through a little rain but nothing to speak of.

I'll try to make it next time. Have a great ride!

I won't be able to make it. My legs are shot right now. Plus I don't think I will be able to wake up early enough to ride to the starting place on time.

I'm about to head out to the start point. see y'all there!

I'll check back later for a ride report, I hope you all have a lot of fun!

I just woke up. Slept through my alarm. ha ha.

I hope someone took pics at the group ride.

Weather looks great for the ride. Wonder if anyone is taking pictures?

Anyone... Anyone...Buehler?

Helloooooo...........

Hi, Scott, I was one of the folks that went on this ride; I don't know what the exact count was but we ended up with eight of us doing most of the ride. The weather was great, Hwy 9 was "interesting" (son and I took a tandem, maybe not the brightest idea, but it was a great ride), Skyline had its ups and downs, and Page Mill was a big grin on the downhill portion. Steve gave us a custom scenic tour through Cupertino, and true to his word, Danno did actually probably keep the avg speed to somewhere around 10 mph, although I don't think this was a zone 1/max 160 bpm kinda ride though, unless you're an elite athlete or something. :p I didn't have a camera but I think Danno snapped off a few so perhaps he will have some to share with us. I want to thank all the other folks who went on today's ride for your enduring patience waiting for Daniel and I to catch up to the regrouping point. I'd definitely go on more of these rides if they popped up around N. Cal. 'Really a great group of folks we have here!

Oh I can't wait to see them!!

the weather was perfect! the company was even better. by my count, here's who showed up:

-playtpus
-me
-danno
-danno's brother
-steveE
-'nother
-hermes
-cranky stoker?
-t4mv and son

nice pleasant pace (at least for me). i did my best to keep up with the AV riders who showed up in force. i know danno snapped off some pictures, although it looked like a film camera so i don't know if we'll be getting any pictures soon. hermes also snapped a few from a digital. looking forward to doing this again.

Yeah it was a great day for a ride. I only did the first half, but it was the uphill half :) Nice to meet everyone and hope you enjoyed the rest of the ride!

Edit: OK I'll put in some semblance of a report, for at least the part I was on.

I rolled out from my house, which is about 5 miles away from the start, at about 8:20. I got to the start point just as SteveE was pulling in; DannoXYZ and his brother (?), Hermes & cranky-stoker, platypus, law_in_motion were already there, and a short time later t4mv & son drove up with their tandem.

There was some chatting and photo taking as everyone got to know each other and got suited up and tended to last-minute repairs and such. After everyone got their gear sorted, roughly at the stroke of 9:01, we headed out along Saratoga-Sunnyvale Rd, towards our first turn.

Apparently I haven't been on this particular route for some time and/or they recently started a lot of construction because the pavement quite a bit rougher than I remembered. Fortunately we soon turned off onto Pierce road, which is nice and flat at the bottom, but starts gradually introducing a few rollers, and eventually turns into an actual hill that required surprisingly more effort than I wanted to expend (following yesterday's antics on our club's B race...er, I mean, ride! :D) law_in_motion was setting a good pace so I just sat on his wheel for most of that, like a leech.

We stopped at the crest of Pierce road (at the entrance to the Mountain Winery), just as our club's A ride was blazing through. We waited for everyone in the BF ride to make it up, had a little rest and chat, then carried on down a short hill and right into Highway 9 (Big Basin Way). Somewhat like Pierce road but on a larger scale, 9 starts out flat-ish and gradually pitches up to a relatively constant 6% or so grade for about 5 miles.

Here things splintered up a bit, with SteveE, me, law_in_motion, Hermes, & cranky-stoker in a group off the front, with DannoXYZ and the rest of the crew a bit further behind. SteveE pressed ahead on a couple of solo ventures, so I tried my best to reel him back in to make sure he was being sociable :D

Due to family obligations, I had to turn around at the top of 9 to get home in time, so I bid farewell to the crew and headed on down. Stopped briefly to say goodbye to DannoXYZ and the other group before continuing on for a nice 35+ MPH descent into the town of Saratoga, and eventually, back home.

It was a good ride, wish I could've done the whole thing, hopefully next time. And I'll try to remember a camera.

Yep, it was a beautiful day. Clear blue skies, a little cool up on Skyline but a windvest was sufficient. t4mv and his son, Daniel, did great on the tandem. Hermes & Cranky-stoker got to ride further down the Peninsula than they'd done before. Hermes took some photos at the start and some more up the CDF station. law in motion and I rode together along the section of Skyline to Page Mill Rd. Platypus was a real trouper, having raced at "Clobberopolis" yesterday.

Thanks again to Danno for organizing the event.

Sounds like fun. Too bad I had to be on-call, otherwise I would have joined you guys. What was the mileage, time, and elevation gain? Looks like it wasn't a total hammerfest, so I probably would have hung in. I'm not the best hill climber!

The weather was beautiful with clear skies, light wind with the temperature in the mid 60s. Our first regroup was at the winery after a steep climb - the longest part of the climb was yet to come. I snapped a few pics at the winery. Once everyone was ready, we started our ride to the top. After the winery, there are mile markers so that you know how much farther to the top. It is about 5 miles from the winery to the top. The road winds through the redwoods. The views along Skyline are breath taking but one has to watch the road, the traffic and the turns on the descent.

At the top of the climb, we regrouped at the fire station which had nice facilities. Then we started our descent. The descent was filled with fast downhill sections and many technical turns. Traffic was light and not a problem. We regrouped a key turns and made our way back to the start. It was a great day of cycling and Danno did an excellent job of organizing. SteveE provided a lot of insight and leadership.

Here are some pics and graph of elevation versus distance:

Cranky-stoker carried a Garmin so we have some metrics on the ride.

http://i170.photobucket.com/albums/u250/rallen94402/BF%20Easter%20Ride/Elevation.jpg

Here is the first regroup at the winery.

http://i170.photobucket.com/albums/u250/rallen94402/BF%20Easter%20Ride/PICT0003.jpg

http://i170.photobucket.com/albums/u250/rallen94402/BF%20Easter%20Ride/PICT0002.jpg

http://i170.photobucket.com/albums/u250/rallen94402/BF%20Easter%20Ride/PICT0004.jpg

Top of the climb hanging out.

http://i170.photobucket.com/albums/u250/rallen94402/BF%20Easter%20Ride/PICT0012.jpg

http://i170.photobucket.com/albums/u250/rallen94402/BF%20Easter%20Ride/PICT0011.jpg

http://i170.photobucket.com/albums/u250/rallen94402/BF%20Easter%20Ride/PICT0010.jpg

A rose between two thorns.

http://i170.photobucket.com/albums/u250/rallen94402/BF%20Easter%20Ride/PICT0008.jpg

http://i170.photobucket.com/albums/u250/rallen94402/BF%20Easter%20Ride/PICT0009.jpg

http://i170.photobucket.com/albums/u250/rallen94402/BF%20Easter%20Ride/PICT0005.jpg

Great pics. Thanks for sharing. Wish I was out there, but then you would have had to wait for me ...

Damn Steve you look kool! ha ha.
http://i170.photobucket.com/albums/u250/rallen94402/BF%20Easter%20Ride/PICT0002.jpg
I will try to make it to the next one.

Hey nice pics!! But who is who?

Good thing I couldn't go. You'd have had to call an ambulance for me. That climb would've done me in!

Hey nice pics!! But who is who?

I am the one that you can't see :D

Okay, I will identify but need a little help. Who are the two riders in the back of the first regroup pic behind the tandem? Were they the first two up the hill from the Alto Velo "A" ride?




Here is the first regroup at the winery.

http://i170.photobucket.com/albums/u250/rallen94402/BF%20Easter%20Ride/PICT0003.jpg

Okay, I will identify but need a little help. Who are the two riders in the back of the first regroup pic behind the tandem? Were they the first two up the hill from the Alto Velo "A" ride?

Yeah, if I remember from my chat with SteveE, that's Ted Huang on the left, and Brian Buckholz (sp?) on the right with the red/white/green. I don't know if they were first up or not, but they went back down Pierce, then a short time later and with a third rider whizzed past us going up 9.

Yeah, if I remember from my chat with SteveE, that's Ted Huang on the left, and Brian Buckholz (sp?) on the right with the red/white/green. I don't know if they were first up or not, but they went back down Pierce, then a short time later and with a third rider whizzed past us going up 9.

I remember them going past. We were in Zone 1 at the time:rolleyes: . Right?

I remember them going past. We were in Zone 1 at the time:rolleyes: . Right?

i'll take the blame for pierce. my excuse... i haven't been able to go out riding in about a month so i got a bit overzealous. thanks to you and cranky stoker for setting a more reasonable pace up big basin. and i second the comment about steveE - offered a lot of great insight. seems like he knew just about every rider out on the road too.

EDIT: btw, i'm the one to the right of steveE in the picture where he's looking "kool."

woof, that ride was a lot more tiring that it ought to have been! I'm in the pcitures wearing my safety-green day-glo jersey.

That was a lot of fun, we'll have to do i t again!