Say do you remember...cycling in September

[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?

[ny biker]

Wednesday night...rain. Thursday... rain forecast to end in the afternoon but it kept raining into the evening. Yes I can ride in the rain but I really don't enjoy it, especially when it's dark and cool at the same time.

Friday night...clear skies, no wind, temps around 70 dropping to the low 60s. So I went for a very nice bike ride. 17 miles.

Sunset was just before 7 pm. (Our next post-7pm sunset will be on March 8. I have noted this in my calendar.) I was having an easy day at work and thought I'd be able to leave a bit early, but I made the mistake of exchanging pleasantries with someone as I was leaving the restroom and learned the hard way that this woman really likes to talk. It took me 20 minutes to extricate myself from a conversation about cold offices. For some reason I now know that this woman has to leave the drawers of her dresser open otherwise her clothes smell bad. Anyway that was 20 minutes of lost daylight for my bike ride.

Another lesson learned the hard way -- soccer season has started and the soccer parents in this town are clueless and self-absorbed. I was thinking of moving the ride start, and now I think I have to do that to avoid either being run over by their SUVs or crashing into them when they look straight at me coming towards them down a big hill and then step into the street in directly front of me.