Interesting morning; did NOT expect to wake up to wet roads!!! Actually, expected to wake up a lot earlier than 9:15am too. Not sure what’s up with that. Not like I’ve actually gotten enough sleep for a while, so not a bad thing really, just an odd thing.

So we waited for the roads to dry. And waited. And waited. Eventually, around noon, things were looking good so Kevin and I got out there, and gave the roads in the hills a bit more time to dry out by heading south a bit then up Page Mill. Page Mill, that one road you just can’t get a rhythm on. Or at least I can’t. Hate that first part, all the way up to Foothill Park. From there on, it’s steep enough you can establish a good grind, but before that, those ugly little bumps and even that gradual lead-in from the start of the timed climb at Arastradero… it all makes you wonder why you’d want to climb it. Which is likely why we don’t climb it very often! Yet, today, the moderate speed forced by Kevin’s still-angry knee and still out-of-shapeness seemed almost pleasant.

From the top we descended West Alpine and yes, the lower parts felt quite a bit colder than the 49 showing up on my Garmin. Felt good to bottom out and get into the sun again, and even better to make the turn up the hill to to Duck Pond detour.

The climb from 84 to West Old LaHonda isn’t so bad when you haven’t ridden 84 all the way from the coast; Kevin kept up a reasonable pace. West Old LaHonda was its usual pretty self, with a large flock of turkeys greeting us near the start.

By the time we got to Sky L’onda I’d pretty much lost feeling in my fingers and switched to the heaviest winter gloves that I had brought along, just in case. Good thing. Should have put them on much earlier! They didn’t even start to come back to life until half-way through the post-ride shower.

What a difference a few days makes. The top photo is from today’s ride; the smaller photo on the right is last Sunday. But while it was bright & sunny, the sun wasn’t working all that well.

6 showed up for the ride today; Kevin, Kevin, Karen, Dave & I think the other guy was another Mike? Plus me of course. This was a significant ride for younger Kevin; his first “full” Sunday ride in quite a few months I think? He hasn’t been to Pescadero in ages. Between his knee, and sometimes just not feeling too lively, he just hasn’t had it in him for the “usual” Old LaHonda/Pescadero/Tunitas ride. But a couple days ago, he said this was it, we were going to be doing the traditional Turkey Day ride, and have tacos at the Pescadero gas station.

I was initially worried that we’d overdressed; base layer, jersey/jacket, heaviest long-finger gloves. Need not have worried! When we met everyone at the base of Old LaHonda, it was 34.5 degrees. Got up to a nice toasty 41 at the top and stayed there, and probably could have been OK even if a bit cooler because, while we’d taken it pretty easy up Old LaHonda, the pace picked up a bit on Haskins. Dropping to 36 in that valley after you pass through Loma Mar, but with Dave & Kevin pushing the pace at the front, we all stayed pretty warm just trying to stay on their wheels. Normally I’d feel bad, sitting back while being pulled entirely by just two people, but I was more concerned about keeping an eye on (younger) Kevin, making sure he was doing OK.

So where do you get food in Pescadero on a holiday? The gas station, of course! It’s a well-known secret they serve great tacos there. Usually I go for fish, but today I went with Carnitas, same as Kevin. Along with a Mexican Coke (real sugar). Make sure you bring cash as they don’t take credit cards. Very tasty sauce. We each had two; I think I would have been better with just one, as I felt more than a bit bogged down for a while. I was hoping they’d kick in by the time we got to Tunitas and maybe, for me, they did.

Stiff headwinds on Stage Road but again, we had others to share the load! Things picked up a bit on the Stage Road bumps; at one point Kevin had to stop to take care of something (don’t recall what) so I dropped back with him and… that was the last we saw of the group until the Bike Hut. By now Kevin (younger Kevin) was beginning to show the effects of the “extra” miles on this ride, but he hung on until Tunitas started tilting steeply upward and… that was that. It was a pretty easy pace (for me, not for Kevin) up Tunitas, and he was making it pretty clear that it’s not one of his favorite climbs (that title goes to West Alpine). I went along with it, but truthfully, when Kevin was flying up the hills not that long ago, I don’t think there really was a climb he didn’t like. It’s not going to be too long before he’s at that point again.
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