Calaveras this weekend ? (preferably Saturday)

[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.

[jobob]

That's a really cool site !