28 March 2009

Solo ride

It was the first warm weekend in months, a beautiful day to be outdoors. I headed out for a low-intensity ride up Branciforte and Glen Canyon to Scotts Valley. It was the first time I rode without leg warmers and a wind breaker in months. I headed up Bean Creek and Mountain Charlie to Summit and over Hwy 17.

It looked like there was some renovation going on at the Summit Market, but it looked like it was still open. I continued down Soquel-San Jose, then over Laurel Glen to Branciforte and back to town.

At Ocean and Water, there was a giant motorcycle pack doing their version of Critical Mass, with a few of them corking the intersection, while the rest ran the red light.

21 March 2009

Empire Grade

It was mostly cloudy and the forecast was for rain in later in the afternoon, so I hoped to get out and back before the rain started. I headed up Empire Grade up to the Lockheed gate. I turned around and headed back down.

At Pine Flat, I turned right, and headed down to Ice Cream Grade, which came up sooner than I expected, then down Ice Cream Grade to Martin, which I missed and had to turn around for. On Martin, it started raining, and I was about 45 minutes from home. I didn't expect it to start raining this early. It was wet all the way down Bonny Doon, so I took the descent quite conservatively. There was a bus on its way up Bonny Doon Rd as I descended, which was a first for me.

Fortunately, it was dry on Hwy 1, so I got to dry out before getting home.

14 March 2009

Saturday harbor ride

It was overcast and cool. I got up pretty late due to the onset of daylight savings time and the lack of sun, so I ate quickly and headed out. At San Andreas, as usual, I wound up at the back of the pack. The pace faster than the last few times I was on the ride. I moved up on the outside once, but after sitting in the pack for a while, I was back at the back.

There was a decent sized group going up Hazel Dell. Heading up the steep part of Mount Madonna, the leaders went really hard splintering the pack, so I stuck with the third group. After the top, I had a little more juice so I pulled the group up to a couple other riders, forming a nice little group heading up the climb after the bridge. A couple more riders took off on the climb. I just stayed with the rest and eventually got shuffled to the front. Approaching the summit, one guy led the group by me, going pretty hard. I was too cooked to follow, so I took the descent solo. Eventually, a group of 3 came by and I latched on for the rest of the way to Corralitos.

There was a group of 10 or so headed over Hames, Day Valley, and Valencia, that I joined. Riders dropped off at various spots on Soquel. Headed into Soquel, I was left solo in the headwind the rest of the way home.