Calaveras this weekend ? (preferably Saturday)

[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 ?