Three more months since the last post….yikes, am I slipping
on my ride posts? Yep, looks that
way. Why so long? Just lazy I guess. I have been riding, with the
highlight being a few off-road adventures and I’m really enjoying those
segments! And yes, they are on the
road bike. It’s really giving me gravel bike fever! El Niño
was supposed to be coming in with a vengeance this winter, but I really haven’t
missed much riding at all. So much
for weather forecasts. (And
unfortunately, our water supply.)
If it was raining, I’d run or get on the “erg” machine. There was one recent week or two where
I missed a couple of days, including Saturdays (the big mileage day of the
week). But my mileage is only
about 100 or so miles down from last year, which was pretty good (almost 1400 miles so
far). With the realization that soon I’ll have much more time (retirement
comes April 30th!), I’m a little less concerned about keeping up my
annual mileage.
So, what were some of the highlights?? Let’s stick with the trail rides! It turns out that dead ends are pretty
fun, if you can put up with potential “no trespassing” signs or loose
dogs. Here are a few.
There are some dead ends off of Bear Creek Road, including Garcia Ranch Rd, Hampton Rd. and Bear Oaks Dr. The dogs
weren’t loose, but they were interested in us! I really like these roads and the potential to connect with
other parts of Bear Creek or Alhambra Valley. I just did out and back rides that day, but may have to
explore more later. I also rode a nice trail on Old Tunnel Road above the new "Wilder" development in Orinda. Beautiful, but tough in sections!
The next fun ride was out to Drake’s Beach with some of the
Grizzly Peak folks. On the way
back, I took a detour up Mt. Vision (paved) and down into Inverness Park (o a rough trail). That was truly a
test! I put my foot down a few
times, but for most of the 5-10% descent, I just kept the right foot ready and
enjoyed the ride! It was truly a
quiet segment with no traffic, with a few hikers with a puzzled look, but also
fun. The common retort was “not on
a ride bike”….but I proved 'em wrong!
And then came Florida.
I went to visit my dad and step-mom and had a chance to ride the used
Trek bike I purchased last year.
In that part of Florida (Lake Placid), there are many areas “platted”
out in the 1960s, but rarely any built homes. So, that means many, many empty roads, with a combo of
pavement, gravel, grass and/or a mixture thereof. It made for some adventures! (I rode some of these roads during last year’s visit, but
didn’t really hit the dirt.) In
most cases, they were very passable.
But some were sand mixed with gravel and offered the chance for a front
wheel washout. Fortunately,
I stayed up on these forays! There
were many more possibilities on dirt roads that were private, but it’s best not
to come face-to-face with an angry property owner in these parts. But google earth sure made them look
inviting! My sister and I hiked in
a park that I thought might offer a cool riding experience too, but it turned
out to be really soft sand. The
land here is inherently very sandy (the “Highlands Ridge”) and when they build
roads intended for vehicle travel, they overlay them with
gravel (seashells) if they are not paved.
That makes for a pretty packed down surface. They even flatten them out with a grader every now and then,
which worked well for me on one particularly long stretch (Grand Concourse) of
dirt road.
As I noticed in the past, drivers were very cautious and sharing when riding on the road. Not quite the urgency to get places like at home. Kinda nice for a change. Counterintuitive to all of the "Trump" signs and the occasional Confederate flag in the yards down there! The anger doesn't seem to cross over into their driving....that's good for us cyclists!
Outside of these trail rides, there was also the St. Helena
ride with Floyd and the gang, including Dan and Lauren. It was fun to see old friends and ride
with new ones who were much better than me, including a number of BBC riders
(including the guy who leads the crazy Nifty 10-50 ride on a tandem with
his significant other….they were super strong!).
It was a mellow ride for about 55-60 miles until the fast folks dropped
the hammer on Silverado Trail! There
weren’t any dirt roads on the course, but it was just a fun ride on new roads
that covered some typically bumpy Sonoma roads that require beefy tires! With retirement looming and time to do
it, maybe I’ll have to push for a gravel bike of some type to keep this
newfound alternative riding going!
A couple of thoughts to leave with this time. I read a VeloNews article about racer Taylor Phinney recently and it was refreshing to get his take on riding since a bad crash last year. Here is what he had to say. It's all so true.
“Cycling has nothing to do with the Tour de France. Racing a bike is a totally different sport than just being into cycling. Cycling is this therapeutic, beautiful mode of transportation where you attach yourself to this machine and it becomes part of you. Then you can go to all of these new places that you weren’t able to go before, and that has nothing to do with racing. I’m not a bike racer; I’m a bike rider. I love riding my bike, but I also love testing what I can do on my bike. So, in that regard, I am a racer. But if I had been born in Belgium and I had to race in Belgium all the time, I would’ve never gotten to the level that I am now, because the racing over there is so stressful. It just takes everything away from the niceness of being able to ride a bike.”
Finally, I want to mention the loss of our dear kitty, Joey. Almost 15 years old and riddled with cancer, we had to put him down on February 23rd. He purred in my arms until the end. I really miss him.
