Tag Archives: cycling

I’ve trained these guys well

Tues/Thurs 7:45am ride, ,

I time things very well; I know exactly how long it takes me to get going in the morning, when I have to get out the door, how fast I need to ride to get to the start of the Tuesday/Thursday-morning ride in time. If I’m feeling really good, it takes just over 8 minutes to climb over Jefferson and head down Canada to Olive Hill. If my legs feel like a caffeine junkie who’s been given decaf, it can take up to 2 minutes longer. I plan on slower and hope for faster. What I didn’t plan on was feeling slow and having to fight a nasty headwind getting to the start, so I arrived with a scan 20 seconds to spare. George, Karl & Chris, if I recall correctly, were all suggesting that I had arrived late, something unthinkable for a ride that leaves on time, period. Fortunately, Eric was there as well, and he, like myself, has a Garmin GPS bike computer that gets its time from a satellite, and knew that it was, in fact, still 7:44 and some number of seconds.

So, without any time to chat, we did leave at precisely 7:45am, just as we always do. At one point there were 10 of us; I’ll try and recall everyone. George, Karl, Karen, Chris, Eric, John, Ludo, Marcus, and one other person beside myself. Nigel! OK, I think I’ve got them all. Overall the ride was as leisurely (at least for some of us) as it was windy. Most of the time we were protected by trees so the primary effect of the wind was noise, a vey loud noise very much in contrast with the relative calm below.

Eric and Ludo rounding a bend on west-side Old LaHonda
Yes, it was a beautifully-clear morning on the coast, while curiously-hazy on the bay side. I took the mandatory photos of the view from west-side Old LaHonda, but when I discovered that some of our group had dropped behind a bit, I stopped a bit further up to get a picture from a different vantage point, as you can see here. That’s Ludo & Eric heading up around the last corner before heading into the trees.

Oh yes, about those trees. Those trees that initially protected us from the wind. On our return, descending 84, George was literally attacked, not once, but twice, by Eucalyptus branches falling in front of him. After the second one, we decided it wasn’t too safe to be around George and gave him plenty of room! Too bad I didn’t have the video camera running today; there would have been a great shot of him swerving to avoid his second encounter.

What’s missing? What did we look for on our rides, back in the day, that is no more?

Ride reports (not Tu/Th), ,

Many of us have ridden the Peninsula roads for 30 years or more, on such a regular basis that we don’t pay much attention to the changes that have come over the years. It only becomes apparent when we ride with others and pass something that clicks in our mind that it’s not the same as it was back in the day, and that they’re missing something.

Flamingo House back in 2004, in its heyday

Flamingo House today
Today’s entry in this category is the Flamingo House. Located just a few miles inland from Pescadero, for many years it was known far and wide as the peculiar house across the creek with a zillion flamingos stuck into the ground (no, not real flamingos, just the plastic ones on steel rods that you place into the ground).

I don’t know the story behind the flamingos, and I can’t even make one up that’s nearly as interesting as the visual itself. I do recall “for sale” signs on the house some years ago, and it was about that time that the flamingos took flight. I just came across a photo I took in November, 2004, when the flamingos were in full force. Then today, as I rode past, I stopped and took another photo of the same house, which for years had no flamingos but now sports maybe three.