Perfect Day for a ride and a surprise

[Beaker]

Well a day off for Beaker -- kiddie based chores meant I stayed home the whole day, and seeing as it was such a great day outside, it seemed an A1 opportunity to get in a ride this afternoon, so I decided to take a little 30mile route and do the 3 bears.

http://grizzlypeakcyclists.org/RideRating.html

This used to be my local loop and I really cut my teeth on it, when I first dusted off my hybrid last year and decided to get back into cycling. In 2007, the pinnacle of my achievement was being able to climb all 3 hills in my 34 x 28 gear.

Today I paced myself and found I was able to climb mama and papa in my 39 x 24 (sweet!) and stood up to do baby bear in my 39 x 21 (I call that the climb back up to San Pablo Dam Road and the bottom of wildcat). That alone gave me a great feeling of satisfaction - then I checked my cycle computer and found I'd done the loop in 1h 6min, a full 16min shorter than when I did it after first getting my roadie in January. Beaker is now officially stoked.

I've been spending the intervening months finding tougher hills to do -- I guess all that punishment paid off. Sorry to brag, but figured you guys would appreciate my pleasant surprise, a big deal for an aging late 30's, part time biker like me.

[BenRidin]

Nice job.

That's a great ride.

BR

[taxi777]

Well a day off for Beaker -- kiddie based chores meant I staid home the whole day, and seeing as it was such a great day outside, it seemed an A1 opportunity to get in a ride this afternoon, so I decided to take a little 30mile route and do the 3 bears.

http://grizzlypeakcyclists.org/RideRating.html




I've been spending the intervening months finding tougher hills to do -- I guess all that punishment paid off. Sorry to brag, but figured you guys would appreciate my pleasant surprise, a big deal for an aging late 30's, part time biker like me.

I see Diablo in the near future;)

[Beaker]

Thanks BR -- it's a funny old route, it doesn't have the jaw dropping views that other hills do, but I got into the habit of going out early mornings (6:30-7am) on weekends, and there's something soothing about riding through those fields with no-one around except for the occasional cyclist.

Taxi -- oh yes, I fear you are correct. I resolved to get up Diablo this year when I got my bike in January.

[taxi777]

Thanks BR -- it's a funny old route, it doesn't have the jaw dropping views that other hills do, but I got into the habit of going out early mornings (6:30-7am) on weekends, and there's something soothing about riding through those fields with no-one around except for the occasional cyclist.

Taxi -- oh yes, I fear you are correct. I resolved to get up Diablo this year when I got my bike in January.

Let me know, maybe a BF ride?

[Beaker]

Very tempting....although from what I read here, it'd probably end up with Tam and Hamilton tagged on the end for luck.;)

I'll keep you posted.

[RelevantCycling]

Well a day off for Beaker -- kiddie based chores meant I stayed home the whole day, and seeing as it was such a great day outside, it seemed an A1 opportunity to get in a ride this afternoon, so I decided to take a little 30mile route and do the 3 bears.

http://grizzlypeakcyclists.org/RideRating.html

This used to be my local loop and I really cut my teeth on it, when I first dusted off my hybrid last year and decided to get back into cycling. In 2007, the pinnacle of my achievement was being able to climb all 3 hills in my 34 x 28 gear.

Today I paced myself and found I was able to climb mama and papa in my 39 x 24 (sweet!) and stood up to do baby bear in my 39 x 21 (I call that the climb back up to San Pablo Dam Road and the bottom of wildcat). That alone gave me a great feeling of satisfaction - then I checked my cycle computer and found I'd done the loop in 1h 6min, a full 16min shorter than when I did it after first getting my roadie in January. Beaker is now officially stoked.

I've been spending the intervening months finding tougher hills to do -- I guess all that punishment paid off. Sorry to brag, but figured you guys would appreciate my pleasant surprise, a big deal for an aging late 30's, part time biker like me.

Good time on that loop - well done. Grizzly Peak cyclists runs a casual time trial first Saturdays of the month on the Bears, FYI.

[ROJA]

Nice job! My best time so far is 1:11 (details here: http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=337531).

[ROJA]

BTW, isn't Baby Bear the first hill (after you turn from SPDR onto Castro Ranch)? I can tell which ones seem to be Mama and Papa, but I've never been sure about the Bambino.

[RelevantCycling]

BTW, isn't Baby Bear the first hill (after you turn from SPDR onto Castro Ranch)? I can tell which ones seem to be Mama and Papa, but I've never been sure about the Bambino.

All the bears are, I believe, on Briones road. And despite the TT course being clockwise I think they may be counted the other direction. So Papa (also known as pumphouse) is the first long one, baby is the second and Mama the third. But I'm not sure about that!

[murphstahoe]

my knowledge is that Mama is the first climb on Bear Creek off Alhambra Valley, you take a sharp right and there you go. After Mama are two rollers that you can sort of fly over so they don't count. After the park you start Papa Bear which is about 1500M long, then you come down and try to fly over Baby. Then the long descent towards Orinda.

[murphstahoe]

you really qualify as a northern cal bike geek if you can identify which tops qualify as the Seven Sisters on Ridgecrest. I certainly have no clue.

[Beaker]

From what I can tell Mama bear is the first significant climb, then the couple o' rollers (some call this baby). Papa bear is the longest climb I believe, but I think is slightly easier than Mama bear, it just takes longer - then I assumed that baby was the last climb back to the start of the loop, since IMHO it's tougher/higher elevation than the rollers. Baby seems to move around alot depending upon who you talk to, but Mama and Papa seem pretty well ID'd.

Have any of you guys done the loop anticlockwise? That climb back up Papa looks like it must take a while - it's long enough when you're descending, although I never go as fast as I expect on the descent.

[Beaker]

Good time on that loop - well done. Grizzly Peak cyclists runs a casual time trial first Saturdays of the month on the Bears, FYI.

Hmmm. That's pretty intriguing -- although I'm unlikely to really get into any races/TT's -- are you a member of the Grizzly Peak club, RC? If so, what's involved? I just happened across their site a while back, since it gave me some yardstick to work out how I was doing.

[ROJA]

Here is my motionbased report: http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/3771665
(it starts at about mile 15.4 and goes about 18.8 miles).

Here is the elevation profile (it ends at the dip between 32.5 and 35):

http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/chart/get.mb?xy.domain=totalDistance&xy.ranges=elevation&xy.histogram=false&xy.legendVisible=false&xy.primaryRangeAxisVisible=true&xy.secondaryRangeAxisVisible=true&xy.rangeTitlesVisible=true&xy.domainAxisVisible=true&xy.plotForegroundOpacity=0.75&episodePk.pkValue=3771665&xy.plotForegroundOpacity=0.75&xy.autoFit=true&xy.width=800&xy.height=360

If I had to name them, I would say Baby ends at 22.5, Mama ends at about 28.5, and Papa ends at about 31.0,
but it sounds like that isn't the normal convention.

[ROJA]

you really qualify as a northern cal bike geek if you can identify which tops qualify as the Seven Sisters on Ridgecrest. I certainly have no clue.

True! I started counting at some point, but I could never really figure it out. Check my MB stats (http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/3700138) out.

Here is the elevation profile on that ride (I think the Sisters are from the top of the climb from the dam)
:

http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/chart/get.mb?xy.domain=totalDistance&xy.ranges=elevation&xy.histogram=false&xy.legendVisible=false&xy.primaryRangeAxisVisible=true&xy.secondaryRangeAxisVisible=true&xy.rangeTitlesVisible=true&xy.domainAxisVisible=true&xy.plotForegroundOpacity=0.75&episodePk.pkValue=3700138&xy.plotForegroundOpacity=0.75&xy.autoFit=true&xy.width=800&xy.height=360
I can't spot the sisters individually, but I think they are the slight dips between about 32 and 37...

[Beaker]

Here is my motionbased report: http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/3771665
(it starts at about mile 15.4 and goes about 18.8 miles).

Here is the elevation profile (it ends at the dip between 32.5 and 35):


If I had to name them, I would say Baby ends at 22.5, Mama ends at about 28.5, and Papa ends at about 31.0,
but it sounds like that isn't the normal convention.


Here's my graffiti'd version -- if I understood your trace, I'm not seeing the small climb that I had called baby bear -- climbing back up to the crossroads at SPDR and wildcat/bearcreek?