Say do you remember...cycling in September

[rebeccaC]

thanks khg, today is about wine so no more riding .....heading south to carmel later today and a day in big sur tomorrow.

[Crankin]

Did my club ride today; the same 40 mile route as I did on Labor Day, but, it's much cooler and drier out (yay!).
So, the spirit of our Wednesday group seems to be changing. Older members are slowing down (I mean 75+) and want slower, shorter rides. We have a pretty big group of people who like the moderately paced (15-17 on the flats, slowing on hills), but those rides seem to be the shorter ones... the faster guys, and it's mostly, but not all guys, do longer routes, but they are quite speedy, probably averaging around 17-19. So, today, the longer ride was led by my friend, Jack, who clearly stated it would be at the regular pace. We did not start out slowly, and didn't stop at all until after we had climbed the 3 mile hill in Littleton. I told the sweep I was going to go very slowly, but in fact, I was not the last one up. When we got to the top, we stopped at an orchard and I heard the sweep and another guy grumbling about the pace, so I said something to Jack. He invited a group to go ahead and do a breakaway... thankfully, 4-6 did and Jack slowed down after I told him to! I mean my average was over 15 after 24 miles and the climb, and I knew I couldn't keep it up for 16 more miles, on rollers. So, I did enjoy the second half, after very nearly turning back before we climbed the hill.
Had pizza and beer, back at Jack's house to celebrate the "second 75th birthday," of the guy Jack and I have been pacing for the last few Wednesdays...

[ny biker]

I did my usual Wednesday night ride tonight, even managed to start a bit earlier than usual. I left the really bright headlight home -- I blame my job, too many meetings this morning distracted me when I was getting everything ready before leaving for work. I had a couple of smaller lights to make me visible, but struggled to see in the dark in a few spots. Fortunately I know the route and the bumpy stretches of road well enough to be able to do the ride without any mishaps.

Things have been very bad at work this week, and I really needed the bike ride to clear my head. I can't wait for the weekend.

[rebeccaC]

as i wrote above no riding today but we made it to carmel for the sunset

[salsabike]

rebeccaC, you are a great photographer!

[rebeccaC]

rebeccaC, you are a great photographer!

thanks...but it may be more about the lenses and camera *S*

going to ride to the carmel mission to photograph it tomorrow and then hopefully i can get some good photos in big sur on our way south

eta...Rather than post again I’ll just add todays here

Carmel’s….Mission San Carlos Borromeo del rio Camelo










Big Sur






Pfeiffer Beach

[salsabike]

I know--those help. But still!

Any chance of seeing your Norway tour pictures sometime?

[rebeccaC]

Any chance of seeing your Norway tour pictures sometime?

I wish i could....i lost the sdhc cards that had the photos before i got back to my computer and the luggage I left at the hotel in oslo. I did post a couple cell phone ones in the july thread.

thinking it means I'll have to go back

[salsabike]

Oh--painful! But of course then you need to go back.

I wish i could....i lost the sdhc cards that had the photos before i got back to my computer and the luggage I left at the hotel in oslo. I did post a couple cell phone ones in the july thread.

thinking it means I'll have to go back

[Dragonfly5]

Your pictures are beautiful RebeccaC!

Only 13.5 miles today but it was a little more hilly than the ride I usually do so I guess it evens out. 50, cloudy and breezy but that first two miles of gradual uphill got the blood pumping

[Crankin]

I was the sweep for a club ride today, last minute. My friend, who we often lead with, posted an impromptu redux of the bike rally route for this morning on Wednesday. I took a rest day yesterday, felt a little off, but seemed OK last night. Then, when I woke up, I felt like I had been hit by a truck! Oh, oh... I couldn't cancel, so I went back to sleep for awhile, since the ride starts in Concord, but that kind of made it worse. So, I had some tea, took 3 Pepto tabs, and rinsed my nose. It was about 35 when I got up, but it was predicted to rise rapidly, and it did. In fact, I was a bit warm on the ride, but taking my arm warmers off, did the trick enough to make up for having my vest on.
This is a really pretty ride that I planned with DH; the group was nice, and I am really glad I was sweeping, because I could not have kept up with the rest! There were 2-4 slower people, and they didn't start annoying me until about 5 miles from the finish, when I usually book it, and they got super slow. No incidents, and pretty good riding behavior. The only down side was it's apple picking season and one of the prettiest roads on the ride was just filled with cars going to Honey Pot Hill Orchard. I know this is a big deal to people from the city, but it gets really annoying to have these roads clogged at my favorite time of year. Thankfully, the hill is after the orchard.
The group stayed to eat lunch at Verrill Farm, where we started, but I headed home, since DH had just arrived home from a 2 week trip to Japan and China.
29 miles with about 1800 feet of climbing.

[shootingstar]

We had a damaging snow dump last week, which damaged 2,000 trees across the city.
Snow melted..but now with combination of rising temperatures, the trees are turning brilliant yellow too fast, already! So my bike ride started to feel awfully nostalgic today.

[rebeccaC]

Thanks Dragonfly5 !!

Perfect day of riding for me after being gone for a week… I rode into the Santa Monica mountains for a 71 mile ride. For the climb off Pacific Coast Highway into the mountains I did Las Flores canyon road which begins with a 4.6 mile 2200 ft of elevation climb where once the grade eases back down to 8% from 13% I feel I’ve come onto a flat section. 30 miles and three more good hard 1.5 to 3 mile 10-11% climbs and it was then Encinal canyon road, which is one of the easier climbs into the mountains, and a pleasant descent back to PCH. Mid 70’s and ocean air conditioning for a lot of the miles. Since I just took my second weeks vacation this year I’ll probably be working too much to ride, other than commuting and shopping, for the next two weeks. That’s one of the reasons I wanted a good ride this weekend. Tomorrow it’s just a ride to the farmers market in the morning, some errands and to a lunch with some friends 9 miles south on the beach bike path.

[Irulan]

One of three creek crossings.
This was a real backcountry adventure. I've done this ride before, Long Canyon. 19 miles over all, 2K of climbing, 6K descend. The numbers are misleading. It's not a 6K flow descent; it is 17 miles of rolling technical trail through old growth. The forest management designation of this area is changing in 2015 - it will be managed as "Wilderness" even tho it is not a Wilderness Area, and it will be closed to bikes. Last year it took us 8 hours; this year 7.25. Whew.

[Raindrop]

It's been great, but warm riding weather. Unfortunately, I got a flat on my front tire on Friday, then today, just after the ten miles I rode to get to a multi use trail...and actually thinking to myself, "Well, at least I don't have to worry about glass and crap on this leg of ride", I flatted on my back tire. So...when I got home I figured I must have about 2,000 miles on my tires so I ordered some new tires and this time so puncture resistant tubes which I've never used before. Anyone have any experience with them? Are they any harder to change than regular tubes?