19 January 2009

Eureka Canyon

Corralitos It was a day off for MLK Jr, so I went on the club ride. It was sunny, and warm in the sun, but chilly in the shade. I headed off to Jade St to get started. We first headed out to Corralitos, where there was a new structure across the street from the market. Then, we headed up Eureka Canyon. It was cold in the shade at the bottom, but as we gained elevation, it got warmer in the shade. The initial descent of Highland was still slightly chilly, but quite a bit warmer than I expected. The collapsed road due to the slides had been repaired with new asphalt. We stopped at the Summit Market for lunch. I got a sandwich. It was sunny and warm outside. My eyes were watering from allergies.

After lunch, I continued west on Summit with part of the group to Mountain Charlie, then continued solo on Summit to Bear Creek. This was my longest ride in months, even though it wasn't a particularly long ride. Nonetheless, I was starting to feel weak, even though I had eaten plenty. I must have lost endurance by only doing short rides over the last couple of months. I headed down Bear Creek to Boulder Creek. It was warm at the top, but at the bottom, it was chilly and parts of the road were wet.



Buzzard Lagoon and Eureka Canyon I headed out of Boulder Creek on Hwy 236, then turned up Jamison Creek. After having ridden 56 miles, it was much harder to turn the cranks than the last few times, even though I was in my lowest gear. A disappointingly long 30:13 later, I got to the top. I continued feeling weak on Empire Grade, and did not recover after the descents, so instead of hammering by UCSC as usual, I coasted.