All posts by Mike

Sunday’s ride- a new place, right in our backyard!

Kevin felt blah, I didn’t feel really energetic, so heading over the hill wasn’t in the cards. I figured if we headed south Kevin would start feeling better as the ride went on, especially if I found him a few new roads. Which I did! Eventually we found ourselves at the usual place for coffee, Foothill Crossing’s Petes. And it was there that I got this screwy idea of figuring out how to get to the old cement plant, the one the railroad tracks lead up to at the Foothill/280 overpass. Been passing by it for most (all?) of my life, and never got there.

Not that hard with Google Maps to figure things out, and it’s not convoluted at all. Just continue on Foothill south, under 280, and first chance you get, at the light with the church on the right side, turn right. And just continue until it ends at the plant. Really, it’s that simple! And what an interesting place. All those tracks, it must have been one busy place back in the day. How had I never been there before? Quite a few cars in a parking lot but not much sign of life; I think I’d read that the county has been in the process of trying to permanently shut it down. Environmental issues; it’s contributed 39% of the airborne mercury in the bay area. Back when it was built, in 1939, nobody really cared about such stuff. Why was it built? To supply cement for Shasta Dam. Pretty amazing that it would come from so far away!

Heading back we tried to loop through Rancho San Antonio Park, but as you can see from our Strava track, we had to do a bit of backtracking as paved became dirt & gravel, and with no way of knowing how long before we’d hit something better, it was time to turn back. We were still in good form, having transformed just-a-ride into something unique and memorable, when Kevin had a seizure (plenty of time to safely stop) and his frame of mind kind of spiraled downward from there. Getting home was just about getting home. But at the end of the day, we were both talking about that strange place we visited. That counts for a good ride.

This is what 39F looks like. Quite pretty! But 60F just a couple weeks ago.

First pretty darned cold ride of the year. Had to happen sometime. At least, unlike Tuesday’s ride in the rain, we were on the right bikes, and dressed appropriately.

Nobody but us (myself and Kevin) this morning. The cold morning even delayed our exit from home as the garage door wouldn’t close (the battery for the outside remote had lost too much of its power from the cold). Heading to the start, it was the first time in ages that we had to be looking for ice in the corner I broke my pelvis almost 4 years ago. My heated gloves were getting a workout; there is absolutely no way I could be out riding in weather like this without them. Unfortunately, there’s no heater for the air coming into my lungs. Heading up through the park was really tough, but things got a little bit better once on Kings.

Until my fingers had a lot of trouble working the shifters. I was certain my Di2 shifting had gone completely haywire; I’d try to shift to a lower gear, and it would click into the lower gear and then very quickly come back down and settle into an even-higher gear than I’d started with. That can really bring you to a standstill if you’re not having a great day! I actually stopped at the first long clearing section to check it out, and determined no, it was just my messed up cold hands (even in electric gloves!) that were having trouble with the levers.

We were slow, but it seemed OK because we did warm up gradually as we climbed. Skyline was, well, crisp might be the right word. A small amount of power was returning on the small climbs, and I was looking forward to the West Old LaHonda grades just as a way to stay warm. And yeah, that did happen, but I’m wishing it was just a couple weeks ago when it was 60 degrees on that section instead of 39. But we did get a really pretty picture!

A major benefit of doing the full ride, including the West Old LaHonda loop, instead of cutting out the West Old LaHonda section, is weight control. There is literally a 1 to 2 pound difference at the end of the ride, probably because it takes quite a while before you start actually burning fat instead of carbs & sugar.

Definitely a ride where we felt better at the end than the start, as nearly all rides do.