Saturday Ride....
 

... if anyone wants to join in.

Leaves from Hagan Park in Rancho Cordova at approx 10:05 (it'll take us about 5 minutes to get there).

Up Iron Point, Left on Empire Ranch. Climb up and over the ridge on the right. Left on El Dorado Hills (or whatever that road is called) to Green Valley/E Natoma back to Folsom. Cross the wooden bridge on the ARBT and back to start. Approx 45 miles, 2000 feet of climbing. Laid back pace.

I know it's late notice, but it took this long to find a sitter. My wife and I are going on this ride. Ya'll are welcome to join in. Please just post here to let me know to meet you.

I'll post pictures back to this thread tomorrow afternoon after the return.

We left the house at about 10:30 and headed out to the ARBT for the 1st leg of the ride. It was a nice easy pace up to Iron Point, where we left the path and headed up the road. We topped out the climb and were feeling pretty good. My wife had a snack of half a chocolate chip bagel we picked up this morning.

We turned left onto Empire Ranch and picked up a pretty good headwind. Being the good husband, I let her draft as I fought my way through to our next turn for climb number 2. This one heads up and over the ridge to the East and to El Dorado Hills. This one is tough. Grades up to 16%. At one spot it "leveled out" to 12%. Here's a picture I shot of Bess making her way up a 16%. Folsom Lake is in the background:
http://www.jspublications.net/images...09-01-10/1.jpg

We made our way down the other side and turned left on El Dorado Hills Blvd, which we took over to Green Valley for an easy ride home. We stopped off at the shopping center where Green Valley meets E. Natoma. Subway makes for good lunch stops!

Total ride was 45.56 miles. 2479 feet of climbing.

Profile:
http://www.jspublications.net/images...10/profile.jpg