27 January 2007

Cultural Exchange Breakfast Ride

Rodeo Gulch It had rained yesterday, so the roads were wet. The forecasts called for a chance of showers, but it was sunny when I got started. The ride was to start near the Chaminade at 10:30, after a breakfast that started at 8:30, which I skipped. I took out my old bike, since the roads were pretty wet, and there was a chance of rain. It was much warmer than it had been for weeks. The later start time was a part of that, but it really was warmer, due to the overnight cloud cover.

On the ride to the start, the first few traffic lights favored me, but, then, on Water and Soquel, they slowed me down considerably. At Soquel and Paul Sweet, I waited through a full cycle before deciding that the left turn light wasn't going to detect me and ran it. At the start, there were lots of people driving by from the breakfast, but without bikes. I guess they were scared off by the prospect of rain, even though it was beautiful and mostly sunny at the time. The substitute ride leader even bailed out of the ride, even though it was a short route of 30-35 miles. In the end, it was just me and two other guys.

We headed out on Soquel, then up Rodeo Gulch. On the initial flat part, I took a picture. After the road started climbing, the big guy dropped back, so I continued with the fast guy up Rodeo Gulch, down Mountain View, encountering a few other cyclists on Branciforte, up Granite Creek to Scotts Valley, finishing off the climbs for the day. From there, we headed out on Glenwood, then turning back on Bean Creek, which, being under tree cover, was wetter than most of the other roads, which were already drying. There was a group of cyclists in black, red, and yellow jerseys headed the opposite way on Bean Creek. Back in Scotts Valley, we headed down Glen Canyon back to Santa Cruz.