5 August 2006

Santa Cruz Mountains Challenge

I started off up Hwy 9 and Hwy 236 to the rest stop at Little Basin, where I had volunteered to help. This was the second rest stop of the ride, and the first riders started showing up just after 9. At around 12, most of the riders had passed through, so I set off to climb Jamison Creek, which I had yet to climb since my crash two weeks earlier, so I wanted to assess how I would do climbing it. After that, I had planned to stop a little at the next rest stop, then take Empire Grade back home.

As it turned out, climbed Jamison Creek in just about 29 minutes, a new personal best, so I wasn't feeling too bad. After talking to some people at the lunch stop, I decided to do the rest of the 100km course, to see how I'd handle the Felton-Empire descent. At Pine Flat, I decided to turn right to do the 100 mile route for that portion. It would rejoin the 100km route at Felton-Empire. Along the way, I decided to do the rest of the 100 mile route. So I climbed Zayante, which was quite painful, as I had gone hard up Jamison Creek, instead of pacing myself in anticipation of what I hadn't decided to ride at the time. I took an extended stop at the next rest stop on Summit, then continued on Summit, Old Summit, Summit, Soquel-San Jose, Laurel Glen, Branciforte, Granite Creek and Glenwood to Scotts Valley High, where I got more food and drink. I then returned home via Scotts Valley Drive and La Madrona.

The total time was about 12 hours. I spent about 7 hours riding, about 3 and a half hours working the second rest stop, and about an hour and a half at the other rest stops and Scotts Valley High.