Coastal Classic again!

Posted on February 17, 2013 by Mike

This has to be the most-common moderate-distance ride I do- the Old LaHonda/Pescadero/Tunitas Creek loop. It’s the go-to ride because it’s safe, it’s reliable (you know where to find food & water), it’s challenging if you want to make it challenging, or just a bit on the “tough” side it you want to take it easy. But there’s no way to really take it easy, ‘cuz you’ve got a few hills along the way-

Old LaHonda (1300ft)
Haskins Grade (800ft)
Stage Road climbs 1, 2 & 3 (about 400ft each)
Tunitas Creek (2000ft)

Total time on the road runs from 3.75 to 4.5 hours, depending of course on how much time you spend at the Pescadero Bakery! But even though it doesn’t take very long, and it’s not even very far (from my place in Redwood City it’s just 58 miles), it still feels like you’re quite a distance from home as you head out past Loma Mar on your way to the coast.

Today Kevin and I had an earlier start than usual (on the road by 8:30am) because he had to be back in time for a 1pm on-line video game contest of some sort, one of those things where you form teams and go after military objectives, which sounds better than saying you’re trying to kill as many people on the other team as possible. Kevin was a bit concerned that we weren’t going to make it back in time, but y’know, after doing this route so many times, it’s not like I don’t have a handle on it. But there may have been a reason for some of his uncertainty, as this was only his 3rd time back on the back after 17 days off due to a kidney issue and tonsillectomy.

Jerry climbing up Tunitas on a beautiful winter day! We sold him that Trek back in 2003; it’s seen a lot of miles since.

He needn’t have worried. While he wasn’t particularly fast going up Old LaHonda, finishing less than a minute ahead of me (22-something), he held up fine everywhere else. We even skipped the near-mandatory stop at the Pescadero Bakery after checking to make sure we had a few energy bars, just in case. And Tunitas Creek provided the opportunity to chase down some rabbits, including Jerry, a very good customer of ours (seen in the photo). We arrived back home at 12:30, plenty of time for his game.

Great pre-game ride with Jeff & Kevin

Posted on January 21, 2013 by Mike

Mastadon Country (actually there’s a family debate over whether it’s a Wooly Mammoth or a Mastadon), just east of Pescadero Road. Why someone would put a giant sculpture of a Mastadon, facing off against another prehistoric creature, in a farm’s field… well, that’s what makes our rides so interesting, seeing things like this!

Click for larger Mastadon image

This was not going to be our typical Sunday ride, where we don’t get out the door until noon. I wanted to see most of the 49er playoff game, and it also gave us the opportunity to ride with Jeff, friend & customer, who normally does his riding while Kevin would be dragging himself out of bed. And I wanted to see first-hand just how fast & fit Jeff really is; his Strava scores have been looking pretty impressive lately.

Steam on West Alpine

We had to put something fairy tough together for Kevin and I, since a bit too much winter weight has been showing up on the scales lately. Up Old LaHonda, out to San Gregorio, south on Stage to Pescadero, up & over Haskins the tougher direction, then Jeff went back the faster route, via 84, while Kevin and I took on West Alpine. 65 miles, about 6700ft of climbing, and, for the middle of winter, really nice weather!

West Alpine is a beautiful climb any time of year!

Jeff proved to be the stronger rider on the climbs today, getting to the top a full minute faster than Kevin, even though Kevin’s posted the fastest Strava times in the past. Me? Another minute or two behind Kevin. I was able to keep up, just barely, on the two Stage Road climbs, but watched them both ride away from me once again on Haskins. It was just myself and Kevin up West Alpine (Jeff having taken the shortcut home), and, nice guy/Dad that I am, when Kevin was in trouble a few times, I waited up. Of course, further up the hill it was Kevin feeling better, and did he wait for me? Not a chance. I asked him tonight about riding up a climb at a “social” pace, and he just looked at me with this quizzical expression and asked “Why?”

Deer me!

Posted on September 13, 2012 by Mike

It started last night in my front yard…

About 10pm last night we hear a noise outside the family room window; my wife recognized it instantly as yet another deer that’s munching on apples that have fallen from a tree. Not all that timid, it hung around long enough for me to get the photo you see. More to come, as it turned out.

Heading up Kings to the mid-point hairpin

This morning’s ride started in the fog, a bit mentally, but foggy in a very real sense for the first half of Kings. Since it’s a Thursday we rode up through the park, at a reasonably-civilized pace (defined as any pace that doesn’t drop me like a rock). An interesting observation about the through-the-park route… the ranger was doing a great job getting that bottom gate open prior to our arrival up until the beginning of summer, and since then, we’ve had to squeeze our way through the gate’s bars. Are we supposed to be providing someone a wake-up call?

We weren’t the only bikes on Kings this morning

I was content to have climbed Kings through the park just under 30, especially since I was using brand new shoes and probably have to make some minor tweaks to the seat height (the new Bontragers have a lower profile than my Sidis), and yes, it’s possible that using the inhaler is helping my lungs a bit. Still breathe a lot more than the rest of the guys, but less wheezing at the end of each breath.

There was a sign up on Skyline actually warning cyclists (specifically!) about road construction & gravel, and suggesting a different route, but we ignored it and continued on, fortunately without incident. They’re doing a lot of roadwork up on Skyline, and on the side roads as well, but today, our path was clear.

The pace deer on West-side Old LaHonda

The obligatory view of the coast from West Old LaHonda

Another group at the top of Old LaHonda, including Monica, a very long-time Chain Reaction customer (and very nice person too) (like all of our customers, of course!)

West-side Old LaHonda went pretty well for me; I wasn’t dropped after the halfway point, and decided to try and hang on for dear (deer?) life to whatever wheel was in front of me. But before we got to the steeper section we came across a very small fawn (deer) running literally right in front of us, obviously separated from mom and scared. We slowed down, eventually nearly stopping, giving it a chance to figure out what to do. Could be that a deer taking its time to figure out what to do is no different from a deer acting on instinct; bad news either way. In this case the little guy went straight up the side and then, after we’d passed, came crashing back down to the road behind us.

You can ride the same roads hundreds and hundreds of times, and there will always be something unique and different. Sometimes you have to look for it; today, it was as plain as a deer caught in your headlights.

First time for Tues/Thurs ride- descending Old LaHonda

Posted on June 27, 2012 by Mike

It was a Tuesday/Thursday ride indistinguishable from most, for the most part. Large group, with Kevin, Kevin, Keith, Zack, Karen, Jan, John, George, Todd, and even a guest appearance by Patrick, our Redwood City service manager, who joined us mid-way. Missing were Karl (is he playing Chess again?), Eric, and Marcus (presently riding in Ireland, according to his Strava reports).

We started out pretty easy on Kings but things got serious before the first hairpin (the one over the creek, about 5-6 minutes into the climb), and that was pretty much the last I saw of most everyone. I could have kept up longer were it not for my determination to ride the entire way up the climb remaining in the saddle, which has not been my “style” of climbing for quite some time. Very hard on the hamstrings, but figured that which doesn’t kill me makes me stronger, plus if I can do more climbing in the saddle instead of standing up, I can get better ride videos (there’s a lot of rocking from side to side when I stand).

Kevin (not the pilot) got to the top in the elite group of Zack, Keith & George, and had a new best time of 24:50. Me? Almost 4 minutes later. So much later that Keith came back down the hill looking for me. I remember, way way way back in the day, when it used to be me doing that, keeping track of everyone on the ride by frequently turning around and riding back down the hill a bit before heading back up.

Passing through Sky Londa we noticed road work on 84 east (the descent into Woodside), so we made the unusual decision to ride down the east side of Old LaHonda. Thankfully not a single car was heading up the road, just a pair of bikes, so it was almost but not quite fun heading down (not quite fun because you never knew what to expect around each corner; if you knew it was clear, you could really have some fun on that descent!). You can see what it’s like below-

Rest assured no Strava KOMs were in jeopardy on the descent this morning!

Do snakes rattle your nerves? The joys of warm-weather riding!

Posted on June 17, 2012 by Mike

About a third of the way up Old LaHonda Kevin spotted this guy, at first hiding at the edge of the road before deciding to come out and show some skin. Skin and a bit of tail which might sound like a male fantasy but probably not in this case. This guy was the right size and, I think, coloring, for a rattlesnake, and pretty sure I saw a rattle at the end of the tail (you can barely make out the appearance of the rattle in the inset). That plus a little bit of aggressiveness as he raised his head about a foot off the ground. Not your typical gopher snake behaviour, but rattlesnakes typically have a wider head.

Click on image for closer shot of the snake’s head, to help identify as either Gopher or Rattlesnake (looks more like a Gopher Snake head under closer inspection)

The original plan went to pieces when Kevin developed quite a nasty headache prior to the ride (a “cluster” headache I’m told it’s called), but, somewhat against his wishes, I did get him out on the road. He was giving me the silent treatment until we got about a third of the way up Old LaHonda when he yells to me, “Did you see the snake?” No, I hadn’t seen it, but he circled back to show me where it was (although between the time he’d seen it and then went back to find it, the snake had literally holed itself up in a hole in the embankment, but eventually came back out to find out what was going on).

This guy was pretty big, and pretty mobile. The warm weather gets them moving faster, but also a bit more aggressive, so that, once settled into the drainage area along the side of the road, he lifted his head up about a foot or so, definitely trying to strike a threatening pose. Normally, I remove snakes from the roadway so they don’t get run over, but thankfully this guy wasn’t in the road (close though) and besides, I’m not going to play around much with what might be a good-sized rattlesnake. So instead we stayed around for a bit, warning anyone riding up the hill to stay to the other side of the road (since this guy was easily within striking distance of an uphill cyclists’ legs). Check this out for a prior ride where we came across a no-question-about-it rattlesnake.

Eventually we moved on, heading over the top of Old LaHonda and down the other side to San Gregorio. The original plan had been to head to Pescadero and return via West Alpine, but that wasn’t going to happen, not with Kevin still feeling a bit under the weather, so instead we went north to Los Lobitos, took in that nasty steep section and then looped back to Tunitas.

Only 47 miles with about 5100ft of climbing, but still a nice ride, and enough to keep my weight about two pounds below where it was last year.

A view to die for / Why we ride

Posted on June 7, 2012 by Mike

At the start of this morning’s ride, Kevin (pilot) gave his oft-repeated warning that he’s going to be slow today. Right. But he insisted, he’s going to be slow. I hoped he was telling the truth, but by now, I know better.

It was Thursday so we rode through the park, and it took no time at all to see that Kevin was riding plenty strongly, able to entertain Keith for a while anyway, and Keith is FAST. Keith, Kevin, Ludo and Eric were doing just fine, while I’m at the rear, catching up briefly at the park entrance, then dropping off again. I woke up feeling like I was going to be lucky doing 31 or 32 minutes bottom-to-top via the park, but got up in 29-something, and felt just fine about that. Tired, but fine. Shortly after arrival I mentioned to Kevin that, when he starts the ride by telling me he’s going to be slow, and then he quickly rides me off his wheel, it would be civil to say something like “I did better than I thought” since without that, I’m left thinking great, he was “slow” today which makes me…

The other Kevin wasn’t with us today; he remained at home, nursing a nasty cold, thinking that’s a good reason not to ride. In some ways he’s obviously from my DNA, and others? I was hoping he would ride, and maybe for once he’d be at my speed.

Speed? I did start feeling better once up on Skyline, even taking a pull once or twice.By the time we got to the descent towards Sky Londa, I took off, trading the lead with Keith, and managed, with perfect tactics, to take the sprint against a far faster rider.

But as always, the highpoint was the incredible view from west-side Old LaHonda road. It is sad that so many people ride up the east side, from Portola Valley to Skyline, and never continue the couple of miles down the coast side, missing a real gem.

The all-purpose (challenging) winter ride

Posted on December 5, 2011 by Mike

One ride that has it all-

Steep climbs!
Fast descents!
City limit sprints!
Great views!
Awesome food!
Friendly people along the way!
And today, great weather!

Well OK, it didn’t have tailwinds all the way, and in fact I recall headwinds but no tailwinds at all. Not that I’d admit to them if they were there. But if you want a near-perfect 100k ride out of Woodside that’s challenging & fun and even allows for a shortcut if you get in over your head, this is it. But please note the word “challenging” in the description, because this ride has its share of climbing.

Steep climbs? Parts of Old LaHonda & Haskins (from the west side) qualify, but more assuredly West Alpine. Fast descent? Haskins & 84. City limit sprints? This has the classics- San Gregorio, Pescadero & Loma Mar. Great views? They’re endless on this ride. The views of the Pacific from west-side Old LaHonda & Stage Road, the valley leading into San Gregorio, the creek along Pescadero Road, and the sweeping vistas on West Alpine and Skyline. Food? Pescadero’s famous bakeries. Ollalieberry scone & turnover for me today, from a place that loves cyclists (unlike the San Gregorio General Store, where we’re tolerated but not too welcome). Friendly people? Lots of cyclists out on the roads today, including one guy who flagged us down on Skyline… flat tire, no tube, no pump, and said we were the first cyclists in an hour and a half to come through (this was at the vista point just north of Page Mill).

And, as is so often the case this time of year, nicer weather on the coast side than near the bay.

It’s certainly not as difficult as the Santa Cruz loops we’ve been doing so many of lately, but rather a ride that might be described as challenging but fun. Today, perhaps a bit more challenging than it should have been, as I’m getting over a nasty cold and got to watch Kevin ditch me on Old LaHonda. But later I got him on Haskins, and West Alpine saw us evenly matched.

I’m back and I’m slow!

Posted on November 13, 2011 by Mike

Got home from China late Saturday night, 10 day trip, 13 days off the bike, and, thankfully, didn’t gain the usual 1/2 pound per day that’s happened in the past on such ventures. Unfortunately there was some help in keeping the weight off, when I got pretty violently sick for about 6 hours in Shanghai. But hey, doesn’t everybody? Great trip nevertheless.

Meantime, I was worried that I’d come back and get killed on the bike by my son, except it turns out that he didn’t ride while I was gone. Huh? Not quite sure how that all did or didn’t work out, but it did give me some hope this morning, when I finally got back on the bike.

Ugly? No, not really, how could the ride have been bad on such a beautiful morning? But I shouldn’t have hoped to keep up with Kevin, who dropped me twice, first about halfway up Old LaHonda, then again on the Tunitas Creek return. Proof below-

Even if I’d gone full-tactical I likely couldn’t have kept up on Old LaHonda, and certainly not on Tunitas. But I don’t think I did too badly on my first day back. –Mike–

Skyline between Page Mill & Hwy 9- why so much tougher heading south?

Posted on September 11, 2011 by Mike

One of these days my son is going to finally realize that his perpetual challenge, expecting me to constantly come up with a ride he hasn’t done before, isn’t such a great idea. You see, there are traditional rides often repeated, for good reason. They’re fun, they’re challenging in a rewarding way, and they’re easily described to others because they’re well-known. For example, if you tell someone you did the Pescadero/Tunitas loop, everyone knows that’s shorthand for Old LaHonda, La Honda, over Haskins Grade to Pescadero, Stage Road to Tunitas and back over the hill and down Kings back into Woodside. A great ride.

But we couldn’t do anything categorized as “the usual.” I have to come up with new twists constantly, at least until I run out of odd permutations. Today was no exception.

The Yellow Jackets weren't giving Kevin much chance to eat his pastry in Pescadero

It started out like a pretty normal ride, heading from Woodside up over Old LaHonda, out to San Gregorio and then Stage Road to Pescadero. Then up over the “harder” side of Haskins Grade, and up the always-challenging West Alpine. OK, so far, tough, but nothing out of the ordinary. On Skyline, you’re expected to head North. Why? Because for some reason heading south on Skyline, especially between Page Mill/West Alpine and Highway 9, is infinitely-tougher than doing the same stretch in the opposite direction. Why? The Highway 9 end is only a few hundred feet higher, and heading north, you fly through those 6 or 7 miles. But it’s a whole different story heading south.

Along the way we came across Katherine, out for a 91(.1?) mile ride to commemorate 9/11

West Alpine's "Bridge of Death"

Once at Saratoga Gap (Skyline & 9) we descended to Redwood Gulch and then plummeted (seriously; Redwood Gulch is incredibly-steep) to Stevens Creek. From there it was a long & largely-flat run back north on Foothill, then back into Woodside via Sand Hill.

Kevin got his best time yet on Old LaHonda (21:45) and rode strongly again on the West Alpine climb (famous for its

It's tough to beat an ice-cold Mtn Dew on a tough ride!

“Bridge of Death” shown in the photo, marking the start of the climb), at 44:36. But once on Skyline, heading south, it was another story. Consider Kevin one more person done in by that should-be-easy but merciless piece of road. He was incredibly happy to pull into the fire station where the machine was happy to take his dollar bill in exchange for a Mtn Dew.

The long haul back on the valley floor wasn’t much fun for him which, again, was something I figured would be the case. One of these days he’ll figure it out. The regular loops, the usual rides… there’s good reason for them being “regular” and “usual.”

First pre-France test of Bike Fridays

Posted on July 3, 2011 by Mike

It was meant to be a longer ride, but that wasn’t the fault of our Bike Fridays. The plan was initially Woodside, Old LaHonda, Pescadero, loop down to Gazos Creek and back to Pescadero, north on Stage and back via Tunitas. Due to the warm weather we decided to drop the Gazos Creek section, but more pruning was soon to come.

Since we were on our Bike Fridays and not our lighter-weight and more-responsive Trek carbon bikes, I knew we’d be climbing Old LaHonda a bit slower than Kevin’s recent and rapidly-improving times, but the presence of large numbers of rabbits (cyclists ahead of us) and the fear of being passed by dogs (cyclists behind) was propelling Kevin strongly; so strongly in fact that, at the half-way point, he was slightly ahead of his best time ever (23:24). But literally within 20 feet of the top he had one of his more-significant seizures, causing great concern among the many cyclists who traditionally assemble at the top of the climb. I let them know he’d be fine in just a couple of minutes, but it’s got to be an odd thing for someone not familiar with epilepsy to see a cyclist struggle to get off his bike and then stagger around a bit before collapsing to the ground. Me? Old stuff. I know he’ll be fine shortly, and just make sure he gets laid gently on the ground (although today I couldn’t get to him in time).

Kevin sitting in the window at the San Gregorio General Store, talking with Dario (friend & customer)

Riders approaching Highway 1 on Stage Road, just north of San Gregorio

Within a couple of minutes he was mostly fine, but had lost his desire to keep going. I knew this was temporary so we moved on, but by the time we got to La Honda I decided we’d alter the ride a bit more and drop the Pescadero loop in favor of a slightly-shorter Los Lobitos addition. Given a bit more time (and, ironically, a bit of climbing), Kevin would have been fine with the original plan, and in fact by San Gregorio he was feeling very good.

Heading north on Highway 1

Kevin on the easy part of Los Lobitos; looking across the ravine you can see the hard part.

We fueled up with a Coke and Clif Bar and then set out to tame Stage Road, Los Lobitos and Tunitas Creek. While it had been getting quite toasty on the bay side of the mountain (and in the picture showing riders climbing Stage Road, you can see it’s rather heat-hazy up on Skyline in the distance), it was a very comfortable mid-70s on the coast. Dario, a customer we came across at San Gregorio General Store, rode with us as far as Los Lobitos and then continued on to Half Moon Bay (where he’d be eating lunch before turning back and doing Higgins Purissima and then Tunitas). Los Lobitos is one of those roads that starts out deceptively-easy and fun, and then turns into a pretty nasty, steep climb that winds around and eventually connects with Tunitas a few miles in from the coast.

The "other side" of Los Lobitos, seen in the prior photo

By this time Kevin was back to his old self again, riding strongly on the steepest sections and taking advantage of his superior lungs. Hearing Dad’s lungs noisily trying to snag spare oxygen seems to make him climb even faster. That’s OK, I still have more power in my legs; I just have to use them wisely, knowing that a sustained effort is going to put me into oxygen debt that I won’t quickly recover from.

Los Lobitos was the one piece of road we saw no other cyclists on. Actually, we did come across one cyclists, riding in the opposite direction, but no rabbits, no dogs.

Kevin riding up Tunitas Creek, clearly working it hard

Tunitas Creek? Same as it ever was. Steep, creek still running (surprisingly strongly), and today, so many cyclists on it you’d think there was an organized ride going on. Kevin kept a strong pace the whole way up the hill, clearly enjoying the fact that his current level of fitness allows him to pass so many others on the climbs these days. We did adopt a mellower pace on the flatter section up on top.

If we’d known how hot it was going to get as we descended back into Woodside, we might have spent more time on the coast! By the time we got home we felt like we’d had a far tougher ride than the 46 miles indicated, but the ride’s main mission, proving that the Bike Fridays were ready to tackle France in less than two weeks, was accomplished. The time I spent Saturday getting it set up identically to my Madone paid off very well. Now if I could just fix Kevin’s epilepsy as easily as I can deal with bike problems. –Mike–

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Ride reports & bike news from Chain Reaction's Mike J

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