Hatched a plot with ahmose to ride King Ridge as the last ride before next weekends festivities in Markleeville.
What was supposed to be a pleasant training ride ended up being one of my most memorable rides of all - every road was scenic, the weather, while hot, was great and the climbs up King Ridge, then Fort Ross and finally Coleman Valley made sure that there was some training going on among the sight seeing. We diverged from the Gran Fondo route turning right on Tin Barn from King Ridge, a nice undulating climb through several wooded stretched to Skaggs Springs, that took us through some more rollers back to the coast. We paused at Stewart Point for water, soda and a snack. There's an excellent store there which makes for a great staging post for an unsupported ride.
Highway 1 was very nice, not much traffic and superb views. Fort Ross Rd had me intrigued, as I knew it had a pretty good reputation as a kicker of a climb. It didn't disappoint - a solid mile and a half above 11%. Just a case of hunker down and grind or spin it out as much as possible. The payoff is to rejoin the Gran Fondo route in time for the Myers Grade descent down to 1 - where we were treated with breathtaking vistas of the ocean. Another stretch down 1 to Jenner for another soda stop and off to Coleman Valley. After climbing Ft Ross, this seemed a lot simpler climb, the steep part is shorter than Ft Ross and easier. It was nice to open the legs up a little more on this one as we knew the end was in sight. After reaching Occidental it was a fairly straightforward run back to Monte Rio where we started.
As much as I love Strava, here are some nice graphs from Sporttracks for data geeks:
King Ridge - Tin Barn - Skaggs to Hwy 1
Fort Ross Road from Hwy 1 to Myers Grade
Coleman Valley Road from Hwy 1 to Occidental
Stewarts Point Store
View from Myers Grade - courtesy of ahmose
