Dam Corners and Valleys road ride - Sat, May 19

[maillotpois]

I have new shoes. That may be the problem - but I think it was the cleat moving I did after my bike fit. I will try the old positioning (farther back) on our super long team ride and see how it goes. if it doesn't work, it's back to the old shoes for the Death Ride.

[aka_kim]

More like "Wall o' Flames". Unfortunately our Designated Photographer did not do her job, and we have no proof of the surreal landscape we rode through, thus you'll have to believe everything we say. It was touch and go, flames licking at our wheels. WrenchBoy's handlebar tape starting to melt. Singed clothing.

Or not.

[SadieKate]

Lessee.

We rode to the mouth of the Canyon at Lake Solano where the road was closed due to a fire. We heard something about the Davis Double and "backward." So we decided to ride our loop back wards up to Moskowite (yellow, same loop and direction we rode on the Foxy Fall day) and make the decision there. If the road was open, we'd continue and if the road was closed, we'd go back down to Fairfield and take the train home.

We got to the intersection of 121/128 (just above the Wooden Valley School rest stop) and Lee was looking like he was going to gack on the spot. Asthma wheezing and rasping you could hear from 50 ft away. Kim and Bill had already headed for Mosokowite so we sent Jobob after them to take their chances and I hauled Trek and Lee back to Fairfield. I deposited them at Coffee World where having had milkshakes on the morning stop there, they decided to lollygag in the shade with Italian Sodas while I rode a 25 mile time trial back to Winters to get the car (cause I decided I wanted to see if I could beat Bill, Jo and Kim on their route).

Meanwhile, Bill, Jo and Kim decided to ride on. They'll have to give you the details but there was no CHP officer at the road block up top and the CalTrains employee said "No highway patrolman here to say you can't and I don't know if there is one farther down the road who will send you back, but you can try." So off the three Darwin Award Candidates went. Their story from here on out so they'll have to supply the details of the dread and terror, the descent and return from Hades, the close call with the snake, etc.

Let it be said that I arrived in Winters only a few minutes behind them. OK, OK, they had lots of sightseeing and people to talk to on the way , such as the fire captain who said "Well, I don't see any highway patrolman here so be careful." Bill thinks he thought they were loons.

Meanwhile, the Davis Double was re-routed to do the last half as an out and back. A few folks had started before the official time and got out in front of the officials and so got to ride an extra 40 miles to get back on course.

[jobob]

OK, I'll pick it up from where we Bubba, Kim and I taked our way past the Caltrans woman at the roadblock.

We had Hwy 128 practically all to ourselves heading over Cardiac and down to the Beryessa dam. That was ever so cool.

As we were descending Cardiac we had a great view of the smoke billowing from the bottom of the valley. When we regrouped at the dam overlook before the last of the descent, I asked if we were about to become candidates for the Darwin Award.

After a tiny bit more debate - we REALLY didn't want to have to retrace our route and go back up Cardiac! - we continued on. We reached the bottom of the descent and crossed the bridge and approached an RV park. By then we could actually see flames along the road up past the RV park. We continued on with a bit of trepidation. Well, OK, I had a bit of trepidation, as much for the fire as for the thought that we might have to turn around only 10 flat miles from our destination. We spoke to some firefighters who said the road would be OK to pass. SK's right, they probably thought we were loons, I sure did ...

So, onward through the fire zone! At this point the road was up against the hillside, which had pretty much burned out by then but there were still small isolated fires burning. It was so weird riding along the road where there were flames right along the road - they were almost lickin' at our heels!! (well, if we were riding on the other side of the road). The firefighters were letting these fires burn out, but they were also watching them carefully since it was so close to the RV park.

We then passed thru an area that had already burned out, the stark view was very creepy. There were remanents of a tree that had fallen into the road which had been picked up by then (for the most part) but the road was still strewn with tree bits. All together the fire area stretched maybe a mile along the road.

A memorable experience!

[maillotpois]

Wow. So I am going to do a double with you, Jo??? I think I'd better double check my life insurance limits...

[Deanna]

Wow!! What a ride! My brother-in-law and his stoker somehow missed the message that the DD was an re-routed due to the fire and did the original loop with only one rest stop and $8 to buy food and water.

[Veronica]

Yeah, but they finished in like 5 hours...

Did Paul ride it with Cat?

V.

[jobob]

Wow. So I am going to do a double with you, Jo??? I think I'd better double check my life insurance limits...

Nah, just get a Kevlar vest

Anyhow, it was Bubba's idea.