jwalther

Rode my third century in the last four weekends yesterday. It was miserable! A cold front passed through the area over the course of the ride. Rain, and a temperature of 57 when we rolled out at 8:15. Rain and falling temps through our first stop at mile 28 when the mercury bottomed out at 49. Wet roads through mile 55 meant we might as well have been riding in the rain. Did I mention the wind? Steady from W/NW at 20, with gusts to 30. I've never been so happy for a ride to end.

Biker395 

We rode a century in the local mountains last Saturday. None of the grades are terribly steep (4-7%) and I'm trying to get myself into shape for the summer cycling season, so I brought Disco to the party. The route was from the base of the San Gabriels to Blue Ridge. In the process, we'd go over several mountain passes, including Cloudburst Summit (love that name) and Dawson's Saddle. Here is the route:

https://ridewithgps.com/routes/13768871

It was misty at first, but we soon climbed out and into the sun.


Here's the view from waaay above the mist.



From there, it's a short ride to the only food on the route ... Newcomb's. I screwed up and didn't bring enough food with me. But I figured I could make it to the end at Blue Ridge, and use that GU to get me back over the top of Dawson's Saddle and back to Cloudburst.

Here we are on Cloudburst Summit the first time. We looked a lot more ragged the second time through. By the time we got there, we were all famished, and had visions of juicy burgers and french fries dancing through our heads.




It was not to be. The kitchen was closed! We ate the only thing available ... potato chips and coke. Strangely enough, it worked reasonably well. I guess maybe calories is calories? Anyway, great ride.

Oh ... almost forgot! A pix of Disco near the top. The gears are such that I have to do a lot of standing up in the mountains. It's great exercise, but oy, can it make for a long day.

az_cyclist

I rode the Central Coast double century, out of Paso Robles, last Saturday. A beautiful ride but the most difficult I have ever ridden.

Biker395 

That is truly an epic and beautiful ride. I loved the first 100 miles (with the climbing and riding along the coast), and not so much the second 100 miles (broken asphalt and wind).

Congrats!

az_cyclist

Thanks Biker395. I agree with your opinion on the first 100 miles vs the 2nd. I would have to say the Central Coast double was a bit more difficult than the Eastern Siearra double.

az_cyclist

Thanks Biker395. I agree with your opinion on the first 100 miles vs the 2nd. I would have to say the Central Coast double was a bit more difficult than the Eastern Siearra double.

Biker395 

Oh, it is! When the weather cooperates, the Eastern Sierra Double is actually easier than it appears on paper. Funny how the numbers can be misleading, eh? The old Death Valley Double was the opposite. It looked easy on paper, but was always a struggle.

Will you be at the Eastern Sierra Double this year? I'll be there. I'm going up for Memorial Day and I'm going to work remotely up there for the intervening week. Hopefully, I'll be able to help out making PBJ or whatever is needed the Friday before the ride.

Biker395 

Acton Loop with a Side Trip to Mt. Gleason

We had another beautiful day in the San Gabriels this weekend. It was predicted to be rather chilly at the higher elevations, so we took in a lower route. Here it is:

https://ridewithgps.com/routes/13922776

The ride up from the base through Big Tujunga is beautiful. It's a little dry and sparse at the bottom, but the higher you go, the more beautiful it gets. It's spring and the roads are lined with Scotch Broom. Here's Molly enjoying the view, and me enjoying the view of Molly:



And here's the view:



It's springtime, so the mountains are all green. And Saturday, there were puffy white clouds all about. What a beautiful climb!



Eventually, we climbed up to Clear Creek for some water, and up to Red Box. The original plan was to climb to Mt Wilson, but since it was shrouded in clouds we decided to climb Mt. Gleason later in the ride instead. So we continued on Angeles Crest Highway for a bit, and turned down to make the long beautiful descent to Angeles Forest Highway. This is road that seldom use, so it was literally like being in the middle of nowhere.



The climb up to Mill Creek Station is an easy one. Not too steep, and not a lot of cars.



After making it to the top, we turned to make the climb up to Mt. Gleason. Mt. Gleason has a history. As late as 1974, it was a Nike missile base.

Nike Missile Site LA-04 Mt Gleason CA

Since then, it was established as a Fire Camp ... Camp 16. And it was the scene of a tragedy some years ago. There were 50 firefighters there when the Station Fire swept through. The heat was so unexpectedly intense, most of the firefighters there thought they were going to lose their lives. They took shelter in the main dining hall. Here is all that was left.



How hot was it?



Two of the firefighters had left to try to start a backfire, but ended up dying in their truck and 800 feet down an embankment. There is a memorial to them at the site.





Sobering. There is more about it here: A firefighter talks about what happened at Camp 16 during the fatal Station fire ? Wildfire Today

After that, we did a chilly descent all the way down to Acton for lunch. We were all hungry, and discussing what and how much we were going to eat all the way down. We settled by getting a pastrami sandwich, pizza, and big bag of potato chips. Yum.

[continued]

Biker395 

[continued]

Next, we headed down the slight downhill through Soledad Canyon and up Sand Canyon road to Little Tunjunga. That's an awesome climb. Near the top at Bear Summit, a young girl lost her life in a tragic car accident. Her parents made a descanso ... one of the most beautiful I've ever seen.





The love of a parent.


From there, we climbed back over Dillon Divide:





And back to the cars after a long fun descent on Little Tujunga.





Beautiful day! I gotta say ... a full life is one full of days like this.

az_cyclist

No, I wont be riding Eastern Sierra this year (although I was tempted to). I like the ride but have to be out of town that week for business and wont get back until Friday afternoon. I will ride 4 of the Triple Crown doubles this year, and I guess I could be persuaded to ride a 5th. I do want to ride Eastern Sierra again though

woodcraft

I did the Davis DC last weekend- a bit harder than expected,

with cool temps, wind, & some rain. Did OK, 'tho.

Next up is the Terrible Two, which I may or may not be in shape for.

The course was changed, & is reputed to be harder than before.

My local, the Marin DC, was cancelled due to slide repairs being done on the date.

That was my scheduled #3 for the triple crown, w/ the TT as a bonus,

so I'll work hard to get the TT, & then I can slack off later in the year.


Oh, I also did this a few weeks ago- it has it's own web page & everything.

https://ridewithgps.com/routes/7688616

Biker395 

That Fearsome Fivesome looks awesome! The only way to get that kind of elevation with all the flat areas in between ... those climbs must be steep!

They've made the TT course more difficult than the past? That's a tough course as it is, particularly with the typical heat.

aubiecat

I did the Cheaha Challenge (century) a few weekends ago, 11,000'. I wasn't going to ride it this year but my friends talked me into it and I'm glad they did. Even though I'm not a very good climber I think I discovered I have a thing for it. Now I'm thinking of tackling 6 Gap in north Georgia in September. 13,000' in 100 miles.

woodcraft

The intent was not to make it harder- one county was being difficult so the change was to avoid it.

It added I think 1,000', but traded one big climb for multiple smaller ones- this is early in the ride.

Word is that you tend to go harder on those smaller climbs, leaving less in the tank for later.

jwalther

Anyone in town for the Horsey Hundred Home this weekend?

Biker395 

Yea, I read that on their website. I guess they are thinking the ride will take 1/2 hour to an hour longer with the re-route. I hope they extend the cutoff time, as it's hard for a lot of people to meet as it is.

I really liked the TT. It has some nasty steep climbs (Gualala and Ft. Ross come to mind) and Skaggs can be super hot, but you can do a lot of pacelining between the climbs, and roll through the course fairly quickly. The one time I did it, I finished in daylight. I would have bet my house against that!

Have fun!

Miele Man

I have one loop that I often ride because it's out in the country, has a lot of varied scenery and the terrain is such that it doesn't kill you. That loop is 100.5 kilometers according to my bicycle computer. I ride that loop for enjoyment not to see what my fastest time might be. A lot of my rides are actually metric centuries as i ride to explore and to go places. I've discovered a lot of neat places in a lot of small towns that I've ridden through. Many car drivers never see these because they're travelling too fast.

After riding a bit for each season it's surprisingly easy to be in good enough shape to ride a metric century or even an imperial century if you're not racing or pedalling really hard/itensely.

Cheers

Biker395 

That sounds nice ... Where's your loop?

sevenmag

I've done two metrics this year and have a century planned for Veterans day weekend. Festivelo will have a four day event and I'm hoping to do one century and one family ride that weekend.

jppe

I rode in the Mountains of Misery near Blacksburg, Va yesterday. It's pretty tough with almost 10,000' of climbing. The last 3 miles are the toughest stretch of finishing miles for any ride I've done. I was right at 30 mins slower than last time. A combination of being 5 years older, a little longer stops but primarily just not being able to hang with my starting group over lots of stingers the first 25 miles like I'd done in the past. Perfect weather although the outer bands of Bonnie provided threatening cloud cover all day. In fact it sprinkled on us a few times. There were some very scenic views of the Va countryside along the way. Very rural with lots of well preserved farms that had to have been passed down through families over time.

I greatly enjoyed NO cramping which was from a combination of spinning easier gears and pickle juice. PJ is the only thing I've found that works for me.

woodcraft

The TT went pretty well. We lucked out on the weather-

a bit of rain the night before, cool all morning, and warm on Skaggs but not too bad.

The new course provides for a great sunrise view, & less traffic.

I finished in just under 16 hrs, 14:14 moving, & felt good. The top finishers were right about 12 hrs.

The field was quite small, & the volunteers super helpful.

A 32 cassette would have been nice...

Jseis 

I'll be riding this in my 4th STP. This year I decided to have a little fun as opposed to ride the rocket ship (Colnago Dream). The Minn 3.0 cruises nicely at 12 mph (on "street" tires) and that's perfectly fine with my STP nubie buddy doing his first. He's lost about 80 pounds in the last year and is super excited that'll be riding with him and egging him own. He's about 25 years younger than me (I'm 61) so we could be even though he's riding a mountain bike too.