This past weekend I did a couple of rides along the coast, in order to escape the heat.
Be careful what you ask for.
Saturday I went on an ACTC club ride starting from La Honda. We headed down 84 to the San Gregorio store, up the northern end of Stage Rd & back to the store for a regroup, then headed south on Stage Rd to Pescadero, then up Pescadero Road & Haskins Hill back to La Honda, for about 31 miles and 2300 ft. It was foggy & damp & drizzly for the entire ride. brrr. But it's nice to climb when it's cool out.
On Sunday I went on another ACTC ride. It was my first club ride at the "M" level (one level up from what I've been riding in the past). There were going to be some big climbs so I was kind of nervous beforehand. But I kept up!!
It was a huge confidence boost for me.
We started near Natural Bridges park at the north end of Santa Cruz, headed up to Empire Grade, up EG and turned around at Felton Empire Road, and back down some of EG to Smith Grade, up SG to Bonny Doon, great descent down Bonny Doon (40+ mph descent, whee!) to Highway 1, North on Highway 1 to a bakery in Davenport. (These people have their priorities intact.)
After Davenport, we went North on Hiway 1 to Swanton Rd. Swanton was a big U so we wound up back on Hiway 1, headed south past Davenport, then back UP Bonny Doon (with 10 to 12% grade in parts). From Bonny Doon, we took Pine Flat to Martin rd to Ice Cream Grade (crappy descent on that, I'm suprised I didn't lose a filling or two - and no ice cream, even !
), another short climb then a very fun descent back down Empire Grade back to the start.
It ended up being about 56 miles and nearly 6000 feet of climbing, whee. It started out foggy and chilly like Saturday, but by the time we were climbing Bonny Doon the fog had burned off and it was lovely out. I'd never ridden on those roads so it was a treat.