Calaveras this weekend ? (preferably Saturday)

[SadieKate]

we can also celebrate LeeBob's & my 18th anniversary.

Nice! Here's one to you two!

*clink*

[jobob]

Oh man. I'd forgotten my anniverasry is coming.

What day is yours Jo?

Tomorrow

[Veronica]

I need spell check at work. Stupid blocking software...

We'll have to have a toast, maybe Melba.

V.

[bikerz]

Congratulations Jo and Lee! (And Thom and Veronica!)

I wish I could celebrate with you by riding up a 16% grade , I mean, toasting you all with a pint of beer at Bosco's!

[Veronica]

Thanks, ours is Wed. 19 happy years. We've been married for 21.

V.

[DrBadger]

I am planning on being there tomorrow morning....Jo, I still have your cell number in my phone, so will call if I am running late or get lost. PM me tonight if you need mine again.

See you all tomorrow!
Ellen

[jobob]

Excellent!

I still have your cell number, E. See you soon!

[jobob]

Lee & I met up with V., Thom, MelissaM, aka_kim, and soon-to-be Dr. PABadger in Sunol. Glenn (gw_12 on bikejournal) showed up just as we were heading out.

We went out towards Calaveras but took a "little" side-trip up Welch Creek Rd. Lawd a mercy, that's a steep climb!!!

It starts off meandering along some pretty countryside, then before you know it you're going up a 15% + climb, yikes.

Here's the data from my computer for the first climb (the mileage is from our start in Sunol):


miles % grade
5.41 3.3
5.46 2.9
5.50 4.3
5.54 6.7
5.57 6.0
5.59 12.5
5.62 15.0
5.64 20.0
5.65 16.7
5.67 16.7
5.69 10.0
5.72 12.5
5.74 13.3
5.76 15.0
5.78 6.7
5.80 7.5
5.83 12.5
5.86 8.0
5.89 6.0
5.92 7.5
5.95 8.0
6.00 -1.2

Melissa & Ellen, that's the part you guys did!

Kim and Lee and I made it to about the halfway point (a bit under two miles) and decided to turn around when the road started tipping up even more. Thom kept going, and I took this picture of him vanishing into the sunset or whatever.



Naturally, V and Glenn made it to the top, and Thom made it about 3/4 of the way up. One of these days I'll make it all the way up there. It's harder than Sierra Road, I think.

The rest of the ride up & back on Calaveras was pleasant (and blessedly easy after Welch Creek!). We saw the eagle's nest and we were told by a photographer guy that there are two chicks in the nest, but it was really hard to tell w our little binoculars.

The ride ended with a fun lunch at Bosco's. Glenn had to leave but we were joined by Robert (roborider on bikejournal), who had lots of ride stories to share with us.

Another grand day out with the gang.

[DrBadger]

It was a great ride... very glad I came over for it.

OK Jo, I feel better about bailing on Welch Creek when I did after looking at those grades 20%

The Calaveras climb was great, I felt nice and pretty strong for most of it, and my standing climbing is really improving. Was even able to power up some of those rollers by the reservoir without downshifting, yay!

Lunch was also great, with great company of course. All in all a great day, will have to do it again soon (like in 2 weeks or so )

One last question.... do you guys have an elevation gain for the route today (I guess I can minus off Welch Creek) I don't think that I buy the elevation gain and loss that my Garmin is giving me, though it is the same in MotionBased even after it does all the elevation correction... just wanted to get another opinion.

Thanks again!
E.

[jobob]

Good question ... last weekend I had left my computer on record after the ride so it recorded elevation gain on the drive home as well but BikerZ said the gain she saw was about 1700-something feet (for Calaveras only).

Today I had 2265 feet. So yours was maybe about 2000-ish ?

[DrBadger]

Good question ... last weekend I had left my computer on record after the ride so it recorded elevation gain on the drive home as well but BikerZ said the gain she saw was about 1700-something feet (for Calaveras only).

Today I had 2265 feet. So yours was maybe about 2000-ish ?

OK, that sounds A LOT better than what my Garmin was reporting....I didn't have very good GPS signal, but it was telling me, even after correction, that my elevation gain was 5000'... I knew that had to be wrong! I will have to look and see if I can make any more corrections.....

Thanks!

[jobob]

hee hee, I need me one of those !

[Veronica]

For just the Calaveras section I have 1645 feet. Oh and a much higher average speed!

V.

[slinkedog]

So glad you guys had a good time! I had company over at 2:00, so I needed to stay local.

Wasn't it a beautiful day yesterday?

[DrBadger]

OK, so here is the description that Glenn was talking about for Welch Creek:
* Welch Creek Rd (4.1 miles, 1910 ft, 8.8%)

Welch Creek Road is not known to many cyclists, particularly on the Peninsula. The reason is twofold. First, the climb is away from civilization, in the Sunol Regional Wilderness in the East Bay. It's off of Calaveras a few miles past the 680 underpass, right before Calaveras itself starts climbing, at the place known as Haynes Gulch, flanked to the left by Apperson Ridge with its mighty Maguire Peaks (trail to the top is at 0.72 mi mark, but no bikes are allowed on that trail). Second, many bruised souls conceal their traumatic experiences with this long climb. It's a monster that will grind you to the bone, will turn your quads to jelly, will bake you in the cruel sun or envelope in wintry fog. The difficulty of its narrow one lane with abrasive pavement, and inconsistent gradient is tempered by the views and sounds of the creek (in the winter), and open skies and pastures at the top but accentuated by frequent (four or five total) cattleguards. Sunol Regional Park stretches from 0.3 to 2.8 mile markers. Within the park, a stretch of road between 2.0 and 2.5 mile markers is bloody steep, in excess of 15%. Above 2.8 mark, the road emerges from the canyon and becomes steeper again, bloody steeper. By the finish the gradient is truly bloody relentless. Views towards the bay could be tremendous. See also here. Net climbing is only about 1900 ft but will all the ups and downs you'll end up climbing 2265 ft, which would produce 10.7% average grade. Vultures are ready to pick on your exhausted meat, I mean muscles. You can also see acorn woodpecker, black phoebe, titmouse, yellow-billed magpie and turkey vulture. Did I mention it is long (and that's only to the end of paved section, dirt segment continues far beyond, as a bike legal dirt fire road for another 3.4 miles towards Rose Peak (which itself is only 36 ft lower than Mt. Diablo) but much less steeply, and "No Motor Vehicles" signs could obviously be ignored) and illegal beyond the border of Ohlone Wilderness? Since there are multiple cattleguards on steep stretches, caution and good brake pads are advised when descending. For the daring ... [Aerial Photo]

if you go to the website and click the links you can see photos of each of the "bloody steep"sections: http://cycling.stanford.edu/ scroll down almost to the bottom of the page where the rides on the "other side of the bay" are described.