Keep on moving - SCR Greenfield 300k Brevet: 3/21/2009

With spring just about officially here, the days were getting longer, but not yet long enough for me to have any chance of finishing a 300k ride in daylight. At least we didn't have to start in the dark.
Although there was a chance of showers later, the day started off fairly bright and clear. As the randonneurs gathered around, SCR's Bill Bryant gave us the last minute updates on the course and weather.
Whereas the 200k route had headed north of Santa Cruz, the 300k headed south into the Salinas Valley. I had ridden part of the route before, on the Chualar Ramble permanent, but had not gone south of Chualar before. The turnaround for this route was Greenfield, three towns south of Chualar.
One disadvantage of riding south from Santa Cruz was having to get through all the traffic lights in the Santa Cruz/Aptos/Soquel area. Eventually we emerged into farm country, then headed down on Highway 1 through Moss Landing. I saw a huge mass of sea lions hanging out in the harbor
along with a sea otter showing off its favorite pose.
A few miles later we entered Marina, our first control for the day. At the 7-11 I once again came across Brian Schaeffer, who had helped me in the finish of the SCR 200k.
We headed out into the Salinas Valley together, but my pace was still slower than his so after a while I drifted back, trying to make sure I didn't push too hard. I didn't know most of the roads ahead, so I had no idea where the hills were. As it turned out the roads heading towards Greenfield seemed to be filled with rolling hills. Although the valley itself is very flat, River Road and it's brethren were bouncing around the foothills west of the Salinas River; an area apparently much favored by wineries. I was not happy about this, however; although I had done several significant rides since the beginning of the year I still didn't really have my climbing legs, and it seemed like a lot more up & down than there actually was.
Finally I reached Arroyo Seco Road north of Greenfield. Arroyo Seco Road headed up the (what else) Arroyo Seco and climbed over the 2000 foot elevation level before dropping into the Carmel Valley. Luckily we were only going a few miles up before turning around and heading into Greenfield ; my legs were protesting loudly at the little climbing they had to do. I did start to see some of the faster folk on their way back from Greenfield
or coming down from the Arroyo Seco turnaround point.

After a bit more very slow climbing I also reached Scott Brittle manning the control on Arroyo Seco.

This was a very welcome sight; it meant I could now do two much anticipated things: 1) coast downhill, and 2) head for lunch in Greenfield.
Since I was now going downhill it was much easier to take pictures of stuff I had seen on my way up. First was a vineyard with what appeared to be a guard tower - guess they're worried about the grapevines escaping.
Then there was someone's blatantly self-promotional sign.
Halfway back down the view of the Arroyo Seco opened up nicely.
Finally I got to the junction of Elm Avenue and headed over the green bridge towards Greenfield.
Once I got into town, I turned left onto El Camino Real, as it looked like that was the direction of all the businesses. I cruised along looking for the Subway and almost stopped at a little Mexican restaurant but decided to stick with my first plan and kept going. Eventually I realized I was running out of town; where was the Subway. With the help of Google Maps on my cell phone I realized I should have turned right onto El Camino Real instead of left and saved myself 10 minutes.
A quick U-turn put me back on the right track and I pulled into the Subway where Brian was just finishing up his lunch. I grabbed a sandwich/chips/drink and bought some more stuff to restock a bit for the trip back. I was a little worried about having to fight the Salinas Valley headwind as we headed back north, but hoped that the showery weather would prevent that from being too bad.
As it turned out the wind wasn't much of a problem at all. I did encounter a few rain sprinkles and a pretty nice rainbow.
I was still riding slowly and pulled into Marina well after dark. Here I made the mistake of not getting anything caffeinated. I thought I was the last one headed back but just as I was getting ready to leave a couple more guys pulled in. Mark and John had apparently taken a wrong turn coming back from Greenfield and ended up in Soledad, then had to backtrack to pick up the right route. I hung out for a bit waiting but started to cool off too much, so I told them I was heading out, figuring they would catch up with my slow pace.
As it turned out they never did, even though I stopped a few times and waited for several minutes. By this time I had realized my mistake in not getting caffeine; I had not gotten enough sleep the week before the ride and it was really catching up to me. Luckily there was a gas station north of Moss Landing which had soda machines outside (the convenience store was already closed), and I happily retrieved a bottle of Coke and slugged it down over the next few miles north.
Eventually I pulled into Santa Cruz and made it back to SCR central where Bill took my victory picture.
I was really looking forward to getting home and sleeping, but a little worried about the upcoming 400k and 600k, which were longer distances than anything I had ridden before.

Good day sunshine - Chualar 200k Permanent: 3/15/09

This was my preparation ride for the SCR 300k, which was the following weekend. I woke up to a misty wet morning up in the mountains, but was happy to see that down in Santa Cruz where the ride started it was still dry. I headed south and east out of town, but started noticing more ominous creaking noises from my seat. After the destruction of my seat pivot bolt and quick release in the SCR 200k I had received and installed new parts from Rans Bicycles, but it was apparent that there was still a problem going on.
I snapped a couple of pictures of the farm scenery off of San Andreas Road while stopping every now and then to fiddle with the seat. First was some kind of flower or herb farm.

Shortly afterward marked the beginning of the descent to the Pajaro Valley, featuring the latest edition of Strawberry Fields Forever.

With more seat creaking and adjustment I got to the final downhill at the end of San Andreas Road.At this point I had figured out what the problem was. The original hardware for my seat had a bolt which the seat pivoted around (for angle adjustment) and a quick release to clamp it in place at the chosen angle. The new hardware now enclosed the pivot bolt inside a sleeve and the sleeve was slightly longer than the distance it spanned between the seat brackets. This meant that when I tightened the nut on the seat pivot bolt it was compressing the sleeve instead of clamping the seat brackets against the seat post, hence lots of ominous creaking noises and a high chance of shearing through the sleeve and the bolt. I knew there was a hardware store in Buena Vista (my first control) and made a conscious effort to take it easy on the seat until then. Luckily the weather was fairly nice for March in the Monterey Bay, and I was happy to have a ride where my main concern was not how long I would stay dry.
I finished working my way onto Highway 1 and cruised through Moss Landing, checking out the Elkhorn Slough on one side...
and the harbor on the other.
After a bit of zigzagging on roads mostly used to access farms (including artichokes)
I got onto River Road, which heads south along the west side of the Salinas Valley.
A couple of miles later I reached the Buena Vista control and restocked at the food mart, then popped in to the Ace Hardware next door. With some help from one of the salespeople I picked up a couple of different sizes of washers. The largest washer fit over the sleeve and allowed the nut to now compress my seat brackets against the seat post. Hurray! We are eternally grateful! (Random movie reference there...)
From Buena Vista it was a short 10 miles or so to the approximate halfway point in the little town of Chualar, where I only had to mail a postcard. While I was filling in my arrival time on the postcard I noticed that the fire station just down the street seemed to be having some kind of fire truck driving practice.
The fire truck would head down the street and turn right, then apparently make a U-turn, come barreling back along the side street, make a left turn and end up between the cones as shown above, then make another U-turn and repeat the whole thing.
I didn't stay to watch long, as the Salinas Valley is notorious for a predictable northwest wind which can easily hit 20 mph in the afternoon, and as I was now heading back north I would have to fight it for some miles before I climbed out of the valley. At least the spring flowers were out to help distract me.
At the north-east end of the valley I started climbing up Old San Juan Grade (towards the town of San Juan Bautista).
The temperature climbed 20 degrees F during the first 10 minutes or so, from the 60s into the 80s. Spring was definitely around the corner. Near the top I took a farewell shot of the Salinas Valley
and a few minutes later snapped a welcome shot of San Juan Bautista.
I was ready for some tacos at this point, and after a typically bumpy and twisty descent (this is far from the smoothest road in the world) I reached the Windmill Market which was the control for San Juan Bautista.
Three yummy tacos later I headed out for the climb into Aromas, passing by several examples of one of my favorite roadside flowers
and heading through a grove of Eucalyptus trees near the top of the Carr/Anzar road climb.
Along the way between Aromas and Watsonville I came across a sheep farm which featured several lambs, including this brand new one trying to figure out how to get some milk from mommy (the lamb is all black just to the left of the mommy sheep in the foreground).
A few more short climbs made the way back into Santa Cruz interesting, but fairly uneventful and in due time I was back at the car.
Between the general lack of other training rides and the fiddling with my seat during the first half it hadn't been as fast as I had hoped for, but I had finished withing the time limits which is all a randonneur can ask for. Hopefully I would do the same next weekend at the SCR 300k.