Red Rider

Shop ride, split off at 27-ish miles in Winters to stick w/the fast group. Putah Creek Rd., Pleasant's Valley Rd., Cantelow from the west side all at a much faster pace than what I ride. It was great! Weather was amazing, riders fun to hang with, did a good amount of pulling (and wheelsucking) and all in all more of a training ride than I had planned. Good stuff.

cccorlew

Just to warm up for the day, 19 miles, over 4000 feet of constant climbing, up to a ski resort with snow boarders asking "How did you get here?"
Finished up with around 60.

Beaker

Nice - which resort?

cccorlew

Timberline, on Mt. Hood. Rode from Welches to Maupin in Oregon.

hup

We were in Morro Bay for the Rock to Pier Run. I snuck away after the run and rode up to Montana De Oro State Park. It was a beautiful day.

alwayshungry

Saturday- Alpine Dam loop from home in Mill Valley with Dave H. Climb up Bolinas-Fairfax was taxing as usual, and sadly we were not rewarded with the expected Pacific Ocean views on Ridgecrest- thick fog, dripping trees and quarter-mile visibility at best! At least it wasn't hot. About 40 miles with East Peak detour.

Sunday- MTBing in the Marin Headlands again from home (I feel really guilty every time I put my MTB on top of my car when Tennessee Valley and Mt. Tamalpais are basically in my backyard) climbing Old Springs, Coastal, and the very nasty 12% or so Slacker Grade. Fog lifted so great views from Conzelman (still closed for construction) and Slacker. About 16 miles from home.

Monday (today)- Mill Valley to Fairfax on the fixed-gear Ron Cooper, return to Mill Valley via Corte Madera-Paradise Drive-Tiburon. Flatted in Larkspur, two cartridges in the repair kit, but where the hell is that damn inflator?! Friendly cyclist lent me his, enough to get me to Village Pedaler LBS where (former student of mine) Danny F. and the boys took care of me. Great to have so many truly superior LBS's in the area. About 35 miles.

bikingshearer 

Sunday, a first for bigbossman, MarkoPolo and yours truly - the Fairfax-Bolinas-Pt. Reyes Station triangle. What a great ride.

None of us had done Bolinas-Fairfax Road before, and it is simply wonderful. It's like being in the Sierras for scenery, except several hours closer to home. If you haven't ridden it, you owe it to yourself to go. It's a great cycling road.

As is our wont, we had a lovely lunch in Bolinas.

The road from Bolinas to Olema has more climbing than I remember, but we managed. The run from Pt. Reyes Station back to Fairfax was easy and fun. Here's a tip - take the old highway (San Geronimo Valley Road) that parallels Sir Francis Drake for a few miles. It's a nice little break from the traffic noise.

Great friends, great weather, great ride. 55 miles (includes 3.5 to ride to Rockridge BART so BBM could pick me up) about 4,050 feet of climbing.Joe-Bob says check it out. (And how many of you remember that sign-off?)

Steve90068

Amazing views, I've always wanted to ride in Morro Bay

alxndr

bikingshearer, that route sounds great, do you happen to have it laid out on mapmyride or ridewithgps?

bikingshearer 

No I don't because I am a techno-loser and haven't figured out how to download my Garmin info. MarkoPolo might, though. Bigbossman would except that his Garmin device's battery decided to take a vacation.

You can make your own easily enough if you've a mind to. The route is on major roads: there is only one road from Fairfax to Bolionas, Fairfax to Pt Reyes Station is a straight shot up Hwy 1, and back to Fairfax is along Pt Reyes-Petaluma Road, Platform Bridge Road and Sir Francis Drake Blvd. There are minor variations you can do along the way, the most important of which to take the bike path from the intersection of Platform Bridge and Sir Francis Drake to Samuel P. Taylor Park. if it is dry and you don't mind some hard-packed dirt, keep going straight on it all the way until you can't go any further - that way you avoid all of the narrow, beat-to-sh*t concrete sections of Sir Francis Drake. It's not at all hard to route it out from a map.

alwayshungry

Montana De Oro is awesome- spent three days there with my son a couple years ago. All we brought was camping gear, mountain bikes and surfboards. Male bonding at its best.

freighttraininguphill

If you have the info from your Garmin on the Garmin Connect website, then on the activity page for the ride you want the data from click on "Export". It's right above the map image. It gives you the choice to export the file as TCX, GPX, or KML. You just need to find out what format mapmyride or ridewithgps uses.

MarkoPolo

I'll second Bikingshearer. It is a really beautiful ride and the bulk of the climbing is early. Plus the bike path part is a nice stretch. Here's the link to the Ride with GPS map...

https://ridewithgps.com/routes/562781

waitingInSF

Hi, I'm a newbie here. Rode 45 miles last sunday with Sports Basement. We did Paradise Loop and back. Great ride. Though the trek back across the Golden Gate Bridge was a nightmare.

alxndr

Thanks! The one I cooked up had a different route through Pt Reyes Station, good to have the details.

tprevost

VMC and I did a fabulous 40 miler from Dorrington to Bear Valley and back... the first 7-8 miles was a relentless climb which made for an incredible last 7-8 miles on the downhill side! I figure this is a great practice route for the Fall Sierra Century... now to add on some more mileage!

Lanceoldstrong

63 miles / 7,602 ft climbing: Bohlman, On Orbit, Black Rd, China Grade and Hwy 9 climbs.

My 2nd time on this kind of classic loop: https://www.chainreaction.com/bohlmanblackchina.htm

Did it with Midland this time, last time was solo. It sure was easier with a friend.

Red Rider

Saturday: Lovely tandem ride, Gordon Valley loop, featuring tailwinds on the way home, and a lovely 42 mph descent on Gibson Cyn. Rd. 45+ miles.

Sunday: Shop ride with extra mileage tacked on: 48.7 mi., avg. 17.9 mph, lots of double and single pacelining -- it was seamless and so much fun.

freighttraininguphill

Well, I finally climbed something harder than Snows Road. This climb was similar to last week's Mosquito Road climb in that it climbs out of the American River canyon, but this one is steeper on one side.

I climbed Iowa Hill Road for the first time since 1997, when I climbed it on my HardRock. This time I used my road bike with mtb gearing. I needed it too! I measured constant grades in the teens and twenties, with 23% being the highest accurate max.

I changed the colors on the DashWare GPS telemetry gauges in the video so they are more visible. I also added a distance gauge.

I guess I'd better start warning people that there is heavy breathing in my climbing videos so their spouses don't wonder WTF they're watching. So be forewarned, there are suffer sounds in this video. That means heavy breathing.

Garmin Connect data: https://connect.garmin.com/activity/101476852

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hfFz6LUgDNE

Nice steep switchback on the first descent to the river:

Iowa Hill Road steep switchback by kittyz202, on Flickr

I rode through this town. There is no electricity, so people have to use generators for power.

road bike at Iowa Hill town limit sign by kittyz202, on Flickr

View from just outside the town limit sign:

view from Iowa Hill by kittyz202, on Flickr

There is a century ride with an optional time trial that starts at the river and finishes at the top of the steep part of the climb towards the town of Iowa Hill. Here's the finish line.

Iowa Hill Road TT finish line by kittyz202, on Flickr

Steep!

Iowa Hill Road 15% grade sign by kittyz202, on Flickr

View from the top of that steep climb:

view from top of steep part of Iowa Hill Road climb by kittyz202, on Flickr

View from the bridge at the bottom of the two climbs:

view from bridge at bottom of Iowa Hill Road climb by kittyz202, on Flickr

Other side:

view from bridge at bottom of Iowa Hill Road climb 2 by kittyz202, on Flickr
After finishing the climb. I took my time up the last short steep climb to my truck on Canyon Way, picking and eating blackberries along the way.

road bike and Iowa Hill Road street sign by kittyz202, on Flickr

RayP

Hi Red Rider,

Was that you and your group behind me on Pleasant Valley road today? I was mosying along with the wife when a group came up from behind. I picked up the pace a bit as I had not gotten much work in for the day.

I tried to pace along but couldn't gauge the speed too well to get you guys hooked up, not to mention the impatient car that started honking to get by.....

Anyway, if it was you guys, thanks for the push. If not, glad you had a good ride.

Ray

Red Rider

That was us, alright. I was the last rider when that car honked. I wasn't in the lane, just following the wheel in front of me, and that horn annoyed me. Couldn't wait for it to pass (and it took its time, too).

You and your wife are welcome to join us. We leave at 9 from Precision Bicycles on Orange Drive. It's a no-drop ride to Winters, then the group divides, with some going back to the shop the short way, others adding mileage & climbing -- yesterday we were the latter group.

It was sure a fine day for a ride.

alwayshungry

Saturday working in the front yard trying to get the new path in before I have to get back to work and prep for a new school year...all of a sudden it's 3 PM and no riding done yet and friends coming over at 7. Yikes! Quick change and start pedaling the Jake the Snake with road tires on, heading north from Mill Valley with no plan. Climb Camino Alto and decide to head to China Camp, quick loop around the park and back through San Rafael, swing around Paradise and home via Tiburon. Very windy on the return but still back in time for cocktails. No ride Sunday-took my dad and his wife to ATT Park for his 75th birthday- Giants 2, Brewers 1.

hup

Had a nice ride on this supported club ride from Shaver Lake to Wishon Reservoir and back. Beautiful day at 5000'-7000' .... even the nasty climb at mile 46 couldn't put a damper on it.
Ride details

UmneyDurak

Did foothill circuit race. Placed top 20. Freaken frustrating as hell. I know I have the form to be in top 5, tactics on the other hand is an issue.

spingineer

Did the Santa Cruz Mountain Challenge on Saturday, and that was one tough mofo ... 101 miles, 10,802 feet of climbing, and they were all intense climbs. Saw uspspro, ruthness, and Benridin there ... didn't see any others. Good times

https://sevencyclist.wordpress.com/20...ain-challenge/