Northern California - Glen's Sierra/Welch/Morrison Ride Report 2/21

Just got back...Later with the report here's a teaser pict

http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/aa292/taxi777/TheGang-9.jpg:)

http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/aa292/taxi777/TopofSierra.jpg
I was a little apprehensive about what I was getting myself into today, especially when I saw what Chris was wearing...
http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/aa292/taxi777/Chrisflex.jpg
but it all turned out OK. I was pretty bonky after Sierra. It was my first time and I didn't really enjoy it too much. I had lead legs all the way down Calaveras and Glen tried to pull me through but I just didn't have it together. I skipped Welch Creek and went directly to lunch, which really help with my energy level.
Marco enjoyed his lunch date with Ruth as you can tell...
http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/aa292/taxi777/MarcosEye.jpg

The day ended with Glen's ride to " ****** Bag summit "

Glen said-
"It's hard to explain what's at the top, but it's really cool and the picture taking opportunities are astounding!"
I raced everyone to the top and here's what I found-
http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/aa292/taxi777/Theend.jpg

Highlights- Everyone gave me the finger for some reason...
http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/aa292/taxi777/Finger.jpg

Marco and Ruth make it to the top of Sierra...
http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/aa292/taxi777/MarcoRuth-3.jpg

Scenery was awesome...
http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/aa292/taxi777/Cows.jpg

70 miles and 50,000 feet of climbing!

Hell of a SAG wagon.

Tough ride. I just showed a huge sandwich who is boss.

We just split an entire large Pizza from Speederia in San Carlos.

We strapped it to the rack of the tandem on the way home.

It was brutal for us, not being in the saddle for a hard ride in a while.

I'm happy to be home, safe and dry. Thanks, everyone, for making this another great BF group ride. :)

I don't think my quads have been this sore in a long time. I thought they were going to explode on Welch Creek. All my switchbacks towards the top probably added a mile to the climb :eek: I had gone out a little too hard on Sierra and paid for it on this climb.

My "Southwest" sandwich in Sunol was tasty but I felt kind of sick for the next hour or so after scarfing down all that food so fast. On the ride home across the Dumbarton I finally got a second wind since my body had finished assimilating my lunch.

Thanks for the ride Glenn

Highlights- Everyone gave me the finger for some reason...
http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/aa292/taxi777/Finger.jpg:lol: Awesome.

How's your own medicine taste, sir?

http://img23.imageshack.us/img23/7423/pict0003aa2.jpg
Fremont BART

http://img7.imageshack.us/img7/8159/pict0027sm6.jpg

http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/1414/pict0029lp0.jpg
Filling up before Sierra Rd.

http://img5.imageshack.us/img5/4112/pict0030ur5.jpg
Before the day's first big climb

http://img9.imageshack.us/img9/6720/pict0031ug2.jpg
Loitering in the gas station parking lot

http://img21.imageshack.us/img21/1230/pict0047fo5.jpg
At the top of Sierra

http://img7.imageshack.us/img7/7595/pict0051vs2.jpg
Top of Sierra bike shot

http://img10.imageshack.us/img10/2521/pict0055zw0.jpg
Pete's bike du jour

http://img11.imageshack.us/img11/5544/pict0061fv4.jpg
Death march up Welch Creek Rd.

http://img23.imageshack.us/img23/567/pict0066th2.jpg
Posing with the firetruck in Sunol

http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/aa292/taxi777/DSCN1203.jpg
http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/aa292/taxi777/DSCN1230.jpg
http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/aa292/taxi777/DSCN1237.jpg
http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/aa292/taxi777/DSCN1263.jpg
http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/aa292/taxi777/DSCN1271.jpg

Thanks folks. I had a great time, but my legs were complaining when I climbed the stairs in my house. I hope you guys made it back over the bridge without getting too wet. I felt a few drops riding back to my car and it was drizzling in Niles Canyon on my drive home. I didn't take too many pictures today but here's a few.

Pete summiting Old Calaveras:

http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d195/gw_12/pete.jpg

Gray skies most of the ride:

http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d195/gw_12/sky.jpg

Marco and Ruth summiting Old Calaveras:

http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d195/gw_12/marco_ruth.jpg

The top of Morrison Canyon: (my camera was in "invisibility cloaking device" override mode ;) )

http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d195/gw_12/3-29-1.jpg

Pete's makeshift tripod:

http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d195/gw_12/petes_tripod.jpg

Here's the ride profile from my Garmin Edge. Looks like I lied about the Morrison Canyon climb. I said 600 feet. I guess I was recalling the climbing to the Vargas Rd junction. Looks like it was more like 800 or 900 to the top.


http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d195/gw_12/profile-3.jpg

Great ride report. Somehow, I'm not too sad that I missed it.
:)

Ruth & I were not having a good day, so we skipped Welch Creek, and stopped at the "Y" on Morrison Canyon a little before the top.

We still got in our century.

109.5 miles with 4800 feet (but a tough 4800 feet) of climbing.

Congrats guys - kinda sad to have missed an opportunity to try these climbs out, although given how little mileage I've got this year, that may have been a blessing in disguise!

Ruth & I were not having a good day, so we skipped Welch Creek, and stopped at the "Y" on Morrison Canyon a little before the top.

We still got in our century.

109.5 miles with 4800 feet (but a tough 4800 feet) of climbing.
Well, you guys kept me company and that's a good thing;)

Well done, people. :beer:

I, on the other hand, managed to bonk on Old La Honda Road yesterday. :rolleyes:

I'll be ready for a Glenn ride, someday...

Great ride everyone! The Sierra/Welsh Creek combo was tough, my legs are worked today.

Here are a few pics at the top of Sierra from my crappy iPhone camera:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3326/3301181384_8c8b0954ed_b.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3350/3301181508_e970fecef8_b.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3566/3301181790_958bf25e62_b.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3587/3301181590_b5021793f6_b.jpg

Here's a few of my camera phone pics.

Like everyone already mentioned, a great hard ride. I started out in the morning think about getting the extra 35 miles for my century of the month, so I rode out to Niles and got on the Alemeda Creek Trial and time trialed out to Coyote Hills, tried to make it out on the Bay but ran out of time so headed back to Bart with 25 miles in the books. By my calc, I needed 3 miles at the end for a round 100. Started felling the quads and hammie cramp on Calaveras, must not have been drinking enough in the morning. Legs where locking up basically all the way up Welch Creek until the guys started coming down, so turned around about .5 miles for the top. Turkey Sandwhich and Mo Creek didn't agree!

Ended up with 96 miles, 6970 ft climbing and ave speed of 15mph. Also top speed of 50mph down the back of Sierra. Never did get the last 4 miles, thought about riding around the block 10 times but ....

Here's my report. Thanks for planning this Glen. I had a great day. It was epic as I ended up with 112 miles, my longest since 2006. WE had the 68 from the ride proper, plus 33 round trip from Menlo Park Caltrain, plus about 11 to and from home.

I really enjoyed Calaveras Rd, even though my front derailleur cable broke there. The cloudiness helped even though it was cold on top of Sierra Rd. We had a few sprinkles leaving Fremont (after 5 pm) and then again on the Peninsula, but nothing more than that.

Here are some of my photos, Part 1:
In the morning
http://i468.photobucket.com/albums/rr41/chrisoco/a007-4.jpg

In the evening
http://i468.photobucket.com/albums/rr41/chrisoco/a059-1.jpg

Bikeforums ID
L to R: taxi777, ruthness, uspspro, mellum76, silentben
http://i468.photobucket.com/albums/rr41/chrisoco/a012-3.jpg

L to R
dl33, Bostic, gw 12, powpow
http://i468.photobucket.com/albums/rr41/chrisoco/a013-5.jpg

Sierra Rd
http://i468.photobucket.com/albums/rr41/chrisoco/a019-3.jpg

http://i468.photobucket.com/albums/rr41/chrisoco/a023-3.jpg

http://i468.photobucket.com/albums/rr41/chrisoco/a026-2.jpg

Welch Creek
http://i468.photobucket.com/albums/rr41/chrisoco/a035-1.jpg

http://i468.photobucket.com/albums/rr41/chrisoco/a042-2.jpg

http://i468.photobucket.com/albums/rr41/chrisoco/a043-2.jpg

Photos Part 2 of 2

Welch Creek
http://i468.photobucket.com/albums/rr41/chrisoco/a045-3.jpg

Morrison Canyon
http://i468.photobucket.com/albums/rr41/chrisoco/a051-2.jpg

http://i468.photobucket.com/albums/rr41/chrisoco/a052-2.jpg

http://i468.photobucket.com/albums/rr41/chrisoco/a054-1.jpg

Very nice. Looked like a great time. I'm still recovering from a two-week old cold so I'm trying to limit my outside-in-the-cold time to a minimum.

Looks like a fun time. Hope to make it out there some time.

I'm jealous of the Speederia dinner... love that place (I work in redwood shores so we go there for lunch often)

Thanks for the great pics everyone. So I did the calculations for the gearing on NYChris bike with his mountain bike cassette. 39x28 and 39x32 are lower than 34x24 and 34x27. Boo.

Yeah, it was pretty funny.

I took the rack trunk bag and strapped it (inverted) to the top tube.

Then I used bungee-cords to strap the pizza to the rack. I clipped my tail light to the pizza box. I wish we took a picture of that. ;)

Get a couple more bungees and maybe you can start delivering pizzas on the side for a little extra cash :)

Thanks for the great pics everyone. So I did the calculations for the gearing on NYChris bike with his mountain bike cassette. 39x28 and 39x32 are lower than 34x24 and 34x27. Boo.

Before this ride, I was thinking about switching to an 11-25 or 11-26 from my current 12-27. Now I'm having second thoughts. I was in my 34-27 A LOT on Sierra and Welsh:). It would be nice to have that 11 on the downhills.

Welch Creek
http://i468.photobucket.com/albums/rr41/chrisoco/a035-1.jpg


This one pretty much tells me everything I need to know about Welsh Creek. Tell me, though - is it a dead-end? How many miles from start of Welsh Creek intersection to top?

This one pretty much tells me everything I need to know about Welsh Creek. Tell me, though - is it a dead-end? How many miles from start of Welsh Creek intersection to top?

apx 4 miles

This one pretty much tells me everything I need to know about Welsh Creek. Tell me, though - is it a dead-end? How many miles from start of Welsh Creek intersection to top?

From a Stanford site (http://cycling.stanford.edu/):

* Welch Creek Rd (4.1 miles, 1910 ft, 8.8%)

Welch Creek Road is not known to many cyclists, particularly on the Peninsula. The reason is twofold. First, the climb is away from civilization, in the Sunol Regional Wilderness in the East Bay. It's off of Calaveras a few miles past the 680 underpass, right before Calaveras itself starts climbing, at the place known as Haynes Gulch, flanked to the left by Apperson Ridge with its mighty Maguire Peaks (trail to the top is at 0.72 mi mark, but no bikes are allowed on that trail). Second, many bruised souls conceal their traumatic experiences with this long climb. It's a monster that will grind you to the bone, will turn your quads to jelly, will bake you in the cruel sun or envelope in wintry fog. The difficulty of its narrow one lane with abrasive pavement, and inconsistent gradient is tempered by the views and sounds of the creek (in the winter), and open skies and pastures at the top but accentuated by frequent (four or five total) cattleguards. Sunol Regional Park stretches from 0.3 to 2.8 mile markers. Within the park, a stretch of road between 2.0 and 2.5 mile markers is bloody steep, in excess of 15%. Above 2.8 mark, the road emerges from the canyon and becomes steeper again, bloody steeper. By the finish the gradient is truly bloody relentless. Views towards the bay could be tremendous. See also here. Net climbing is only about 1900 ft but will all the ups and downs you'll end up climbing 2265 ft, which would produce 10.7% average grade. Vultures are ready to pick on your exhausted meat, I mean muscles. You can also see acorn woodpecker, black phoebe, titmouse, yellow-billed magpie and turkey vulture. Did I mention it is long (and that's only to the end of paved section, dirt segment continues far beyond, as a bike legal dirt fire road for another 3.4 miles towards Rose Peak (which itself is only 36 ft lower than Mt. Diablo) but much less steeply, and "No Motor Vehicles" signs could obviously be ignored) and illegal beyond the border of Ohlone Wilderness? Since there are multiple cattleguards on steep stretches, caution and good brake pads are advised when descending. For the daring ... Update: Sometime in 2007 the road was repaved and asphalt is pristine - Enjoy! [Aerial Photo]

Thanks for the great pics everyone. So I did the calculations for the gearing on NYChris bike with his mountain bike cassette. 39x28 and 39x32 are lower than 34x24 and 34x27. Boo.

My gearing set-up is mostly by chance since my bike came with the regular 53-39 and the least expensive way to get more gears was buying a MtB cassette (and I frugally with crossed fingers kept the original short-cage rear derailleur). But I really like the setup. The 39-32 definitely allows for climbing steep pitches. 53 gives a little extra on the mild descents. And finally, when your front derailleur cable breaks, you have a 39 instead of a 34 which is crucial for motoring along on the flats behind the Marco/Ruth express.

This one pretty much tells me everything I need to know about Welsh Creek. Tell me, though - is it a dead-end? How many miles from start of Welsh Creek intersection to top?

And yes, it is a dead-end (though there is a dirt road that continues going up). The climb itself is beautiful and feels pretty isolated. It's brutal, and gets harder toward the top. The descent is fun, but fairly technical as it is not a wide road and it's curvy, making it tough to see cars coming up.

Chris,

Great shot of Ramon and silentben on Welch Creek Rd.

-Glenn

And finally, when your front derailleur cable breaks, you have a 39 instead of a 34 which is crucial for motoring along on the flats behind the Marco/Ruth express.

:lol: Your cadence must have been Gerbil speed for sure.

I was going between basically 24-30 mph that entire stretch of Niles Canyon (mostly around 27-ish).

Looks like you are ready for Mix canyon. Here is the description.

Mix

http://daviswiki.org/Bicycle_Rides?sendfile=true&file=mix_lookout.jpg&thumb=yes&size=192 (http://daviswiki.org/Bicycle_Rides?action=Files&do=view&target=mix_lookout.jpg)A view from just above Mix Canyon lookout around mile marker 4.0
We've all seen the Vaca Mountains to the west of Davis. If you've particularly good eyesight (or binoculars), you'll see a collection of antennas near the top of the highest of these mountains. Reputedly one of the steepest paved roads in the continental United States, Mix Canyon Road climbs to these antennas. The low point is at 358 feet, the "summit" is 2717 feet for an approximate average grade of 9% for the whole climb. The five mile climb gets progressively steeper, topping out at a 23% grade (between mile markers 4.3 and 4.4) near the top. Some have likened the climb to the famed http://wikispot.org/wiki/eggheadbeta/img/inter.pngAlpe d'Huez (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpe_D%27Huez) of the http://wikispot.org/wiki/eggheadbeta/img/inter.pngTour de France (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tour_de_France) (which is twice the distance but "only" reaches a 14% grade). Mix Canyon Road begins at Pleasants Valley Road just south of Cantelow and a bit north of Vacaville (http://daviswiki.org/Vacaville). Much of the climb is half forested along a boulder-strewn stream. The first 3.5 miles is relatively easy (relatively!). Unless you've a http://wikispot.org/wiki/eggheadbeta/img/inter.pngred polka-dotted jersey (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polka_dot_jersey) somewhere in your closet, you may want to take these miles easy. The first landmark thereafter is known as "two houses". After that you'll climb to a guardrail and a vista where you'll finally see the radio antennas. Once you see these antennas, know that you're almost at the top, so keep going! As the grade of the road eases off, there is a fork in the road. The left is gated and the right a graded gravel road, continue right several hundred yards to gain the high point of the road. From here on a clear day you can see from the Sierra high country to the east, and to the west; Mt. Tam and the north and south towers of the Golden Gate Bridge. Believe it or not, this is not a very fun downhill ride. The road is too steep and twisted to coast for very far without braking. Stopping at the guard rail for the view and a moment to cool your rims is recommended. Traffic is scant here, but drivers are usually using the whole width of the road. The road is seldom wider than twelve feet, is a bit rough in places and the lower miles are often damp. All of these factors coupled with LSD (that's limited sight distance) make for a very heads up descent. If you start out from Davis, you'll have ridden about 60 miles once you get back. By the way, this is a way, way beyond-category climb. Weighted bragging rights: one minute ascent time per year of age. Good Luck!

http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w76/cgallagh/MixCanyonprofile-1.jpg

This ride is about 10 miles from our house. I have only done it once and it will definitely get your attention. Most people only ride it to the 3.5 mile mark. The last section takes you about a thousand feet in around 1.5 miles. The descent is tough. There is no way to coast any distance at all because of all the tight turns on a very narrow road.


Come on up and give it a try some time.file:///C:/DOCUME%7E1/CDG/LOCALS%7E1/Temp/moz-screenshot.jpg