Siskiyou Century

[Veronica]

How big is the TE contingent for this ride?

V.

[SadieKate]

Me! Guess you knew that.

Jason can't come but Jenny is talking with a friend who will probably take his place. Remember Lon from the Lake Berryessa ride? It's his wife. You know, I should find out if Lon is coming. Kim was talking about coming so the two of us could find a room elsewhere. I'll give Jenny a call.

[aka_kim]

Details, I need details.

You're staying at Mt. Shasta Resort? But it only sleeps 5 or 6 and all beds are taken?

Are you driving up on Friday, and back on Sunday? Whose cars?

What happened to Snap and Slinke and BG?

[Veronica]

You're staying at Mt. Shasta Resort? But it only sleeps 5 or 6 and all beds are taken?

Are you driving up on Friday, and back on Sunday? Whose cars?

Mt. Shasta Resort it is. I've reserved a suite that sleeps 6, but current set up - all beds are doubles - one is a sofa. But I need to call them anyway to be sure that our roommates can get in before we arrive, so I can ask for a suite with a different bed set up if need be.

They do have regular rooms with two beds for around $100 a night. I figured anyone else going would get a regular room and could use the kitchen in the suite to store/make their breakfast.

Thom and I are driving up and leaving around 4PM Friday and back on Sunday. I suspect SK will have the busmobile and for a small fee you could carpool.

V.

[Bike Goddess]

Hey Kim- I'm on vacation that week and haven't decided if I'll be riding or camping . Haven't been to the Sierra since last year- may do the Eastern Sierra century if we get over that way.

I'll let you all know. I'd need a place to stay or camp too if I come. It would be fun to go with you all.

[SadieKate]

http://search.weather.yahoo.com/forecast/USCA1271.html

88 degrees tomorrow and showers Saturday?

[slinkedog]

I saw on the news tonight that they're expecting a low pressure cell to move down from the Pacific Northwest and dump some rain on the mountains northeast of Tahoe. It's still a little ways out... maybe it will move further east from where you guys will be! What a bummer!!!!

However, the weather here will be perfect. Mid 70's for the foreseeable future. My PG&E bill is loving that.

[Veronica]

Yeah, I had been looking at the weather too, thinking about how to dress. I'm thinking of it as an adventure.

V.

[SadieKate]

http://search.weather.yahoo.com/forecast/USCA1271.html

Oop, weather front must be delayed! Probably got sidetracked by some PNW beer.

[slinkedog]

Looks like perfect century weather to me! I hope you guys have a blast. Wish I could go!

[snapdragen]

***snap sits glaring at her "bike 'o pain"***

I've decided to set my sights on next year Time to start training for Cinderella!

Seriously, I keep shopping for bike stuff, never buy a thing. I'm thinking I should shelp Bleu up to Riv and say --- fix 'er up. New bars, stem, brakes, shifters -- here's my Visa. Oh, and just slip a Saluki in there while you're at it..

Have fun guys!

[yellow]

[I'm thinking I should shelp Bleu up to Riv and say --- fix 'er up. New bars, stem, brakes, shifters -- here's my Visa. Oh, and just slip a Saluki in there while you're at it..

I need a new commute bike. Can I slip that in on your Visa as well? You are so very generous! I wear a 48 frame.

[SadieKate]

Report on the excellent century ride loop (leaving the metric report for V) which Kim and I rode, sort of: Since Kim's been fighting the sniffles and I've been training my legs rather than my butt mtnbiking, we opted to cut out 20 miles which was easy since the route was a convenient figure 8. We ended up riding 83 miles with at least 4400' climbing.

Any way, the loop went west and then south from Yreka so we spent the entire day in the gorgeous Siskiyou mountain range. Elevation averaged over 3000 ft so we were up in juniper and pine forests and remote country. Only about 60 or so people rode this loop while the other routes stayed further east out in the valley. The morning was unexpectedly cold as a weather front came down from the Pac NW and brought snow in the high peaks! Kim looked up at the peaks at our first rest stop and said in disbelief, "Is that snow?" At least we now had an excuse for numb toes and fingers.

We had two good-sized but shallow steep climbs over the Scarface Ridge. The first was a little tough because we were really cold from the weather and because the climb started only 2 miles from the beginning. The climb was 3.6 miles long and steady but nothing steep (only 1358’ up) followed by “let 'er rip” downhill which would have been really fun except it was about 47 degrees minus wind chill. The temp sign at the bottom of the hill rose to a sweltering 55 degrees.

We then ended up in the Scott Valley and spun along almost flat roads past lots of ranches with active cowboys and cowdogs. This was big horse country with sheep, donkeys, burros and goats in abundance.

Lunch at the USFS station included the most luxurious accommodations ever. Not only was the food throughout the ride excellent, but this rest stop had great big deep and soft padded patio chairs. We came awfully close to just staying put, but after prying our posteriors aloft our saddles, we then faced a 14 mile climb. It sounded huge and intimidating but we only climbed 1800’ so there were lots of flat spots and easy rolling. The weather at last year’s ride was 20 degrees hotter so they stocked popsicles this year. The poor rest stop guy couldn’t pay us enough to eat them!

This last climb was followed by an intense steep descent on the only rough pavement of the ride that made me glad that I’d been practicing on Diablo. There were some vistas of the road that looked like the snaking high speed descents on the TdF. I let Kim show off her descending prowess while I did my best conservative crawl down.

This put us back into the main valley where we had some headwinds to battle on the way home but a lot of it was a very gradual descent into Yreka so it wasn’t the grueling fight we expected. We hooked up with a group of guys in a paceline and actually ended up dropping all but one (and that one kept drafting us, sprinting ahead and then getting reeled in). Guess they just couldn’t handle our blinding speed.

Post ride food was yummy. I think we all voted the baked potatoes and sour cream a brilliant addition to the menu and I, for one, would recommend the ride to one and all, not too hilly, not too flat, but just right.

V’s choice of a cabin at the Mt Shasta Ranch was great. Quiet, scenic and great for a group. We had a yummy dinner at Lily’s and a short drive back to the couch, brownies and champagne. It rained more Sat night and we woke to even more snow on the high slopes and the guess that snow may have fallen in the passes we rode over the day before. Great trip, ride and good company.

[Veronica]

Thom and I opted for the flat metric. Bewtween our three tours and the awesome ride with Jo last week, we've done A LOT of climbing. I think I'm working on my 6th Everest.

Anyhow...

The metric was very scenic with some low rolling hills - excellent course for a tandem. We were on our singles, but a tandem could really fly! We faced Shasta most of the way to our turn around point. Since up until now I've only seen Shasta from Rte. 5, I was suprised to discover that it has a cinder cone off to one side of it.

We blew past the first rest stop at mile 14 and went on to the second at mile 33. It was very well stocked and we were quite pleased with our average speed up to that point. I don't really like to draft on a ride like this - keeps me from looking around. Thom doesn't seem to have that problem, so most of the time I was pulling, with a few breaks when he pulled. There was so little traffic, that we did do some side by side riding as we ate. We saw very few other riders on this course.

After that rest stop we started up the biggest hill of the day. Maybe it was half a mile long, not very steep. When we turned to go downhill, we were faced with the worst pavement of the day. Every fifteen feet or so, the asphalt had cracks that were a few inches wide and deep. Thom practiced bunny hopping, dropping a banana in the process. I just gritted them out.

We then crossed under the highway and headed into the wind. It was about 25 miles back to the course start, all of it with a headwind. We pacelined it back, skipping the third rest stop on our ride. This section wasn't quite as pretty, but it was pleasant. Thom has no instrumentation on his bike, so it really amazes me how consistent he can be when he pulls. Although every time he asked me how fast we were going, he'd increase his speed a mile or so.

The lunch spread at the start/finish was excellent - a couple of different kinds of salad, chicken, steak or veggie burgers, baked potatoes (THE BEST!) and chocolate cake! You could have had carrot or vanilla cake as well.

I would definitely do this ride again. The scenery was gorgeous, the support was great, and the lack of traffic and low number of riders made it quite enjoyable.

V.

PS The quiche Sarah got us for breakfast today was REALLY good - even though it had fungus in it.

[Trekhawk]

Sounds like you guys had a great ride. Well done girls.