7 June 2008

Solo ride

China Grade Since I was riding solo, I started later, near midday. I headed up Hwy 9 to Felton, then over to Zayante, and took Quail Hollow and Glen Arbor to Ben Lomond. Then, I went up Hwy 9 again. The James Dean mural on the Brookdale Lodge had been scraped off or painted over or was being restored or something. I continued on to Boulder Creek, then turned left at Hwy 236.

I continued to China Grade, which I hadn't climbed in almost exactly 2 years. The last time I climbed it was 10 June 2006, and it took 24 minutes. This time, I wasn't pushing too hard, but still did it in 21:29. There were bugs buzzing around, but they didn't get into my face. I kept expecting to be at the top for the last quarter mile, but it was longer than I thought. And then I was suddenly at the top, and it was shorter than I thought.

I descended to the park headquarters and took a break with a bar and got a coke from the store. There were lots of vacationers. After the break, I took it easy, heading up Hwy 236. There was a woman on a bike coasting down towards the headquarters in a ranger uniform with a guitar or something like that in a soft case on her back.

It was 2:07 when I turned right at the bottom of Jamison Creek. I had been taking it easy up to now, so I ramped up the intensity. At around 1.5, or a little before the 1.42 sign, a woman wearing pink or lavender was descending very cautiously on her bike. I guess she was going around 10mph, which was still faster than I was going. On the 1.33 sign, there was still the piece of skunk tail. There was also a little U.S. flag stuck on it. The flag did not look very new. I continued crawling up, thinking that a time around 28 minutes now would be mildly disappointing, but would have been really good a year ago, or even 6 months ago. At around 1/4 of a mile or so to the top, I saw a rider ahead of me. It's really rare for me to see another rider on Jamison when I'm riding solo. This would be the 2nd time ever, I think. The first time was some time around a year ago when some guy went by me between the 1.66 and 1.60 signs. This time, I caught up around 1/5 of a mile to the top. He said something about it being too steep for him. I wheezed out a chuckle. When I got to the top, it was 2:32, so I figured my time would be 25 and 1/2 minutes, like the last 2 times. It turned out to be 24:44, so I finally cracked 25 minutes.

I continued left on Empire Grade, recovering for the next 10 minutes or so. It was nice and warm. I almost finished the water in my bottle by the time I got home.