Post by rebeccad on Oct 11, 2015 11:43:23 GMT -8
Okay, it wasn't hiking, but it took us through some lovely country.
Yesterday the spouse and I rode the Shasta Wheelmen "Give Me Wings" Century. That's as is in, just give me a pair of d---d wings, because that's the only reasonable way to gain so much elevation. Knowing it would be a tough ride--103 miles, 8400' of climbing--we made a pre-dawn start.
Here I am at 6:20 a.m., ready to start from the Foothills High School.
Somewhere in the first 8 or 10 miles, it began to get light, and we enjoyed seeing the dawn break behind Mt. Lassen.
This was the best time of the day, both for riding and for photos, which did set up a bit of an internal conflict. Sometimes, the photos just had to be taken.
By 8-ish, we no longer needed lights or jackets, so we stopped and cached them. Of course, we found at the first rest stop, a few miles further on, that they were offering a haul-your-stuff-back service. Oh well. It was kind of fun to drive the backroads, too.
As with any Century (or any other major bike ride, or hike, or...) a highlight was the snack stops.
You can see this wasn't a huge ride. There were only about 120 people registered for 3 distances--a metric century, the century, and a 126-mile Super-century, with another 2000' or something over what we did. I was just about the least gnarly biker we saw out there, and one of only I think about 4 or 5 women we saw at all. Most of the riders were men between about 50 and 70, as far was we could tell. Very fit men, I might add.
The final climb of the day was 1800' to Buzzard's Roost. In the morning, we'd spotted the buzzards warming up to go scavenge expired cyclists.
The Fresh Fire Grill in Palo Cedro where the ride actually started and ended provide the post-ride dinner. Why do these people look so happy? Because they are eating, and not riding, of course. Or maybe because they don't have to get back on those bikes until, well, Monday, at least.
I don't think I've even done so many hours in the saddle in a single day, even as a messenger (doing that you spend half your time running into buildings, anyway), or on a couple of bike trips I've done. I know I've never done so much elevation in a single day. It's nice to know I can.
And yeah, I ate dinner again when we got to the in-laws 2 hours later :D
Yesterday the spouse and I rode the Shasta Wheelmen "Give Me Wings" Century. That's as is in, just give me a pair of d---d wings, because that's the only reasonable way to gain so much elevation. Knowing it would be a tough ride--103 miles, 8400' of climbing--we made a pre-dawn start.
Here I am at 6:20 a.m., ready to start from the Foothills High School.
Somewhere in the first 8 or 10 miles, it began to get light, and we enjoyed seeing the dawn break behind Mt. Lassen.
This was the best time of the day, both for riding and for photos, which did set up a bit of an internal conflict. Sometimes, the photos just had to be taken.
By 8-ish, we no longer needed lights or jackets, so we stopped and cached them. Of course, we found at the first rest stop, a few miles further on, that they were offering a haul-your-stuff-back service. Oh well. It was kind of fun to drive the backroads, too.
As with any Century (or any other major bike ride, or hike, or...) a highlight was the snack stops.
You can see this wasn't a huge ride. There were only about 120 people registered for 3 distances--a metric century, the century, and a 126-mile Super-century, with another 2000' or something over what we did. I was just about the least gnarly biker we saw out there, and one of only I think about 4 or 5 women we saw at all. Most of the riders were men between about 50 and 70, as far was we could tell. Very fit men, I might add.
The final climb of the day was 1800' to Buzzard's Roost. In the morning, we'd spotted the buzzards warming up to go scavenge expired cyclists.
The Fresh Fire Grill in Palo Cedro where the ride actually started and ended provide the post-ride dinner. Why do these people look so happy? Because they are eating, and not riding, of course. Or maybe because they don't have to get back on those bikes until, well, Monday, at least.
I don't think I've even done so many hours in the saddle in a single day, even as a messenger (doing that you spend half your time running into buildings, anyway), or on a couple of bike trips I've done. I know I've never done so much elevation in a single day. It's nice to know I can.
And yeah, I ate dinner again when we got to the in-laws 2 hours later :D
