PrincessZippy

Yep - congratulations! I envy you your run time!

Veronica

toytech

Bass cove>Brandon>Joaquin trail and back. First ride on my new to me 29er. Yayyy.

Midland

Rode up North Gate rd. to the Jnct. and back.Lot's of riders on the Mt., weather was great.

danec99

Saturday it was a VS club ride over Patterson Pass, never been up there before, I imagine in the spring it is nice but very desolate on a Fall morning. Weather was nice, warm and clear and then, oddly, while returning into Livermore on Altamont encountered headwinds! Rode back into Livermore on the as yet unopened Isabel overpass, which was cool - virgin road. However then trying to get across, Kittyhawk? was a bit more challenging.

mouse925

I hear its tarantula season up there, any problems having to dodge them on descents?

Midland

Didn't even see one tarantula, on the way up or down.

spingineer

Saturday was Levi's Gran Fondo, although I only did the Medio. Seems that the Gran Fondo sells out really quickly, and by the time I decided to do it, Gran Fondo was all sold out, so I was left with doing a metric century (Medio). I actually got even less than that ... only 59 miles, and 2890 feet climbing. Not my usual clip, but I did get to do an offroad option ... that was hard doing 15% on hardpack dirt on a road bike.

Here a ride report ... https://spingineer.blogspot.com/2011/...ran-fondo.html

spingineer

Did Sierra Road LKHC. Crazy ... kept crowding the street with cyclist, and there were still cars trying to make it up Sierra. When it was all said and done, I got a PR out of it, even though just about everyone passed me. I was able to record it all on video though.

tprevost

Awwww.... Heck Ron, you weren't even breathing hard!

toytech

Nice easy ride Saturday, my wife and I rode Bart to Emabarcadero then rode to Tiburon via the Golden gate bridge and took the ferry back to SF. O the humanity of all the humanity! The crowds along Fisherman's Warf were ludicrous and there was a see of vendors apparently cashing in on the protest on Market st. Crowds no withstanding it was a fun ride.
The Blue Angels were pretty badass too.

mouse925

I went this morning, seen 10 live ones crossing my path before the junction on north gate, but none after. I hate spiders, especially big ones! ha

JonnyL

Am I alone in thinking Saturday is the most dangerous morning to ride? I'm new to this game and in the past I've scoffed at people driving somewhere to go for a ride but I take it all back; they're the smart ones. I've been working nights which means I have the midweek mid- morning roads to myself but sod that riding the same streets on a Saturday morning.

Beaker

Must be a New Jersey thing.

freighttraininguphill

I want to thank spingineer and his excellent LKHC video for the extra motivation on yesterday's climbs. Unfortunately, what happened after the ride put a damper on the post-ride euphoria, and creeped me out!

I climbed Bucks Bar Road and Grizzly Flat Road in El Dorado County. While looking at the map for this ride the other day, I noticed a Moody Road off of Grizzly Flat Road. I wanted to see if it compared to the Moody Road in the Bay Area (that I've never climbed) that spingineer posted a video of back in July.

At 4/10ths of a mile long, it's not quite as long as the one in Palo Alto, but it definitely matches it in steepness, at least until the last part of the climb where it levels off to single-digit grades instead of the 11%-15% stuff earlier in the climb.

At the beginning of the descent I encountered yet another loose dog. This time I found that slowing down to walking speed until past the dog's territory avoided a chase situation.

Here's the creepy part. After my ride, I stopped recording on the helmet cam, but didn't turn off the power. I stopped at the store on the corner of Bucks Bar and Pleasant Valley Roads for a snack. A heavyset older male and a teenaged boy left the store as I pulled up. They got in a dark metallic green SUV. They didn't leave right away, and I noticed the boy eyeing me as I removed the Kodak Playsport from the handlebars. They made me nervous, so I brought the bike in the store with me.

While I was picking out a snack, I heard someone say "Excuse me ma'am, can I talk to you a minute?" It was the boy from the SUV. He asked if that was a camera I had on my helmet. When I said yes he asked if it was recording. I said no. Then he said that if it had been recording he would have to get my name, address, and phone number because he's in the military and "not supposed to be documented". I told him he was full of it and that there was no way in hell I would ever give my information to a stranger with no credentials who claimed to be military or law enforcement. I reminded him that anyone can claim to be anything and it doesn't mean sht.

I also reminded him that there is no expectation of privacy in public, so if anyone did record him no laws were broken. He claimed that a buddy of his was killed in Afghanistan because he was recorded here in the US.

I had to repeat the no expectation of privacy line several times during this bizarre conversation, and I noticed him getting red in the face and more agitated. He told me I needed to be careful with my helmet cam and that some people may "get enraged" if they are recorded. I told him that anyone who attacks me for having a camera on my helmet will go straight to jail, as I will contact law enforcement asap.

He finally gave up and said "God bless" before leaving.

On the drive back down Pleasant Valley Road I spotted an El Dorado County Sheriff's deputy sitting in his SUV in an empty parking lot, so I pulled in and told him what happened. He asked if there was anything missing off my truck. I said no. He thought they may have been trying to distract me while they stole something.

I asked him if real military personnel would say the kind of stuff that kid did. He said no.

Here's the Garmin data for yesterday's ride: https://connect.garmin.com/activity/120338745#

Here's the video of the ride southbound on Bucks Bar Road and eastbound on Grizzly Flat Road.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3dJ2s6iUmc

Here's the video for Moody Road. This one is the climb and descent.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87ZFHin_NMo

First descent on Bucks Bar Road.


Second descent (on the way back). By this point the traffic was starting to get on my nerves, so I lost the motivation to push hard on the final climb and just took my time at 3-4 mph.


Moody Road

danec99

Destination: Susanville!
We were in town for the Marathon on Sunday, so it was riding for me. I discovered a hosted ride was happening on Saturday in Greenville, the Fall Leaf Peeper. They have it twice a year, May and October. As I pulled into the High School parking lot, running late, there were around 25 cars. 35 were registered for the century. My car registered an outside temp of 31 degrees, and thick fog. An hour into the ride it was colder and foggier. Each rest stop had a fire going, but I just ate a bit and moved on. As mile 30 approached the sky began to clear and show just what was hidden, a beautiful valley. Snow capped mountains rose high above the road. The brochure promised lightly traveled roads and they were not kidding, as we passed through the picturesque Genesee, it began to warm up and we began our climb. The road to Antelope Lake (Elev. 4995 ft) was incredible, smoothly paved and car free. Every so often a 4WD would come by, but they were few and far between. The climb as a nice steady grade. Once at the top we did a clockwise route and descended the same road as we returned to Genesee for lunch. On my way down a very large bear crossed the road a few hundred yards ahead of me. They put way too good a lunch on for mile 70 - Grilled chicken, tortillas, salsa, Hot Dogs and Chili. I could grab a beer and eat but I knew 30 more miles awaited and most of them were flat. We returned to Taylorsville (Pop. 154) and then on to Hwy 89 as we wound through the pastures on our return to Greenville. Aside from the very cool start, this was a great ride, my only complaint is the lunch was too much for mid ride, for me anyway, some riders were already in casual mode. They don't advertise this event much and it is a LONG way away - but well worth it.

On Sunday, I put knobbies on my commuter and road the Bizz Johnson trail. From Susanville it is 25 miles uphill on a railroad grade, crossing the Susan River numerous times and passing through tunnels, The first tunnel made me glad I traded my slicks for knobbies - I hit loose gravel in the pitch black tunnel. The trail gets a bit tiring after a bit but then you turn around and start flying. Beautiful country.

Saturday: Leaf Peeper 96.4
Sunday: Bizz Johnson 48.5



Bizz Johnson

DRietz

Wow. Haven't posted here in centuries.

Last weekend I did the Diablo Challenge, finishing with my PR of 53:41. A roundabout ten minutes off of the new record.

This weekend it was the metric Tour de Valley that my boss organizes. Great ride, perfect weather. The deer on the other hand, were a tad annoying. I got off of Foothill in far better shape than many of my colleagues.

JonnyL

I want to move out West.

Red Rider

I rode w/3 girlfriends the hilliest, prettiest part of Foxy's Fall Century. The weather was spectacular, the roads not crowded, the company great fun. 66 miles, 3974' of climbing, right at 4.5 hrs. -- we weren't in a hurry. Saw plenty of local riders but no BF folks.

Red Rider

Are you here yet?

I'm from Jersey; left in '75 and go back to see family. The Left Coast is the Best Coast.

spingineer

I did Page Mill LKHC on Saturday. New PR of 53 minutes. Nice .... was not a mass start, so they let us go in groups of 10, separated by about a couple of minutes. That didn't stop everyone from passing me up

Lanceoldstrong

Great Moments in Cat 6 History:

Had to react to a late attack by Bigbossman on Bollinger Canyon.
I was caught napping then pounced after him in a big ring surge before just pipping him at the top.

Roadstergal

I did my first century this weekend. It was fairly miserable - cold, wet, foggy, raining in places. But, I did it, which is all I hoped to do.

spingineer

Congrats! At least you can brag to those that ask you that you did it in inclement weather ... major HTFU points there.

spingineer

I did Bohlman LKHC this past weekend, and what a doozy that was. Spent 13 minutes in zone 5 (most of it was last part of Kittridge, continuing onto On Orbit). Normally I go up On Orbit to Bohlman, then make a right and head down ... this time, head left, and continue all the way till the end near Montevina. Tough tough climb.


Photo by Thomas Preisler


Photo by Thomas Preisler

I forgot to bring my Contour, so no video for this suffer fest.

rokphotography

I rode from Burlingame to Canada 92 to Woodside, down 84 to the Bay Trail and back the Burlingame twice this weekend. Trying to bump my training steadily to 50 mi a day on the weekend and possibly get my first century in before 2012.

https://www.mapmyfitness.com/routes/view/55408126

I'm not in any shape to do some serious climbing, but I was proud that I could do the same route twice.