And a few more....





"Before the gates of excellence the high gods have placed sweat; long is the road thereto and rough and steep at first; but when the heights are reached, then there is ease, then there is ease, though grievously hard in the winning." - Hesiod





There were beautiful views out over the plateau in all directions.





The road led past a series of ranches, where we spent a few moment chatting with a young cowboy. After a couple of hills and some rollers came my favorite part of the ride. It was a fast, twisting descent. I'm not the greatest descender. I was lucky, though, to follow two terrific cyclists who passed me just as the road dipped down. I had the ride of my life as I stuck with them, through the pines and oaks and past Cherokee, an old Gold Rush ghost town, to reach the lunch stop.





The Chico Velo bike club prides itself on it's rest stop food, particularly the lunch, where there's a choice of veggie, roast beef, two kinds of turkey and cheese, and pate sandwiches, as well as fresh strawberries and assorted fruits, chips, giant cookies, fresh-brewed coffee, recovery drinks, any lots more.





There were forty more miles to complete after lunch. A mile or so dropped quickly downhill, and most of the rest of the distance was nearly flat. We lucked out this year, as the winds that typically blow up by early afternoon were absent. We followed and passed riders, some struggling, some barely breaking a sweat, into the little town of Durham and a final rest stop.





You might think 40 miles without a significant hill would make for an easy ride. You'd be wrong. Forty miles without a hill puts a lot of pressure on your ass and on your hands and arms. So much so that a lot of cyclists bail out near the final rest stop, to cut 20 miles off the ride with shortcut back to the fairgrounds. Dan and I though, were out for the full 100 miles, and after saying goodbye to Richard, the two of us pushed on.





We paused for a few moments to discover the cows were probable more curious about us than we were of them.





A century ride is an epic that's about, but not necessarily exactly 100 miles in length. The Wildflower Century ends at 96+ miles, which led Dan and me to take a detour for some extra distance into the insanely beautiful Bidwell Park. As my brother put it, "This looks like something out of Tom Sawyer."





Bidwell Park, one of the largest municipal parks in the U.S., runs for miles and miles along Bidwell Creek, flat on the valley floor, then turning upward to encompass a chunk of geography in the mountains to the east. At the lower end of the park, the creek turns into a massive swimming pool; it's a fantastic gathering spot for the lucky people who live in Chico.


After rejoining the official route, we still ended up .4 miles short of the full century as we entered the fairgrounds, where a sumptuous dinner – included with the cost of the ride ride – awaited us. We pedaled around the parking lot until we achieved our goal. A long day in the saddle was over for us. A year's worth of doubts about how much I'd recovered was over, too.