I think I can: Skyline 200k Permanent (4/5/09)

For several months I had followed the practice of scheduling a permanent the weekend before a longer "official" ride. This served two goals: it made sure I had at least some miles on my legs before the bigger event and it also (usually) allowed me to check off another month on my way to the R-12 award in case I failed to finish the longer ride.
I was one week away from riding my first 400k, which would be the longest distance I had attempted so far. I therefore had scheduled a hard permanent, but one of my favorite courses: the SCR Skyline 200k. This ride features 8000 - 9000 ft. of climbing of the sort I like, where you work hard to gain your elevation and get rewarded with spectacular views and awesomely long downhills. However the extended climbing in the first half makes it a challenge to get to the second control before the cutoff time. I was hoping my legs were up to the challenge.
I headed south from Santa Cruz towards the first control in Freedom, once again annoyed by all the traffic lights which insisted on turning red just as I was approaching them and trying to keep my speed up so that I had a bigger time cushion for later when the climbing started. This wall muralis on Soquel Avenue on the last stretch past Aptos and is always a good marker for getting out of town (or coming back into it).
I made it to the mini-mart in Freedom in pretty good time and then headed inland towards Eureka Canyon Road, which would begin the climbing up to the ridgeline of the Santa Cruz Mountains. The lower part of Eureka Canyon is gorgeous, with lots of redwoods shading the road, and some of my favorite ferns.
I noticed after I took this picture that my camera battery icon was blinking and the "Low Battery" message came up. Whooops - maybe I should have charged it?
Sure enough, on the next attempt at taking a picture the camera indignantly shut down. Grrrr....back to the cell phone for pictures. I resolved to add the camera to the list of things which needed charging the day (or night) before a ride. For now I was doomed to carry it another 95 miles.
I continued up Eureka Canyon, enjoying the views. There was a brief break from the climbing as I went over the ridge separating Corralitos Creek from Soquel Creek and got onto Highland Way. The creeks and streams were flowing well and this little waterfall was too cute to pass by without another picture.
The views had opened up by this point. The sky was not really this hazy; it's just cell phone camera quality.
I was now in the stretch which always seems to take a long time; I've done enough climbing that I keep expecting the top any moment, but instead the road seems to keep going up. Finally Highland Way topped out near the 2000 foot mark and the downhill run to the Summit Store started.
Now I know that the key to finishing this ride successfully is to minimize the stops between controls 1 and 2, because that includes most of the climbing (as in, slow slow slow). However business is business and I hunted for food and drink and made use of the porta-potty in the parking lot before heading out again. Still the stop probably took no more than 10 minutes, and the weather was still good; nice and cool.
I started the long pull of mostly climbing; this would take me over 3000 feet in elevation, with several short but steep sections and lots of longer not-so-steep pulls. The terrain was ever-changing, with houses, fields, redwoods, vistas of the valley, christmas tree farms, and a llama ranch showing up in succession. Finally I had the long pull past Castle Rock State Park up past the highest point of the climb, and felt a bit more relaxed on the descent to the Highway 9 junction, as I was still doing okay timewise.
The next section was basically rolling, with short to medium length descents interspersed with short to medium length climbs. I knew the general trend was downwards, but it still seemed like the climbs went on longer than they should have. After a brief pause for a picture of Silicon Valley
I soon reached the final downhill run to Skylonda and lunch!
As the weather was so nice all the fast cars and motorcycles were out having lunch.
I had a nice stop, with my legs feeling rather tired and sore, but knowing that most of the trip from here on was easier.
After a quick downhill run towards the coast I turned onto Stage Road, which parallels (sort of) Highway One but features a few hills to make it interesting. At least I got a view of the coast every now and then.
Some amount of grunting and groaning later I cruised through Pescadero, then took Cloverdale Road and Gazos Creek Road back to Highway One.
This was almost the home stretch - there was still the painful detour on Swanton Road (with a nasty climb) to do...but it was nice to ride along the coast in good weather, after all the rainy/foggy trips earlier in the year.
Surprisingly the Swanton Road climb, while tough, didn't seem as long as I remembered, and soon I zoomed down the hill and stopped at the fire station to answer the question on my brevet card for the penultimate control.
Now I was really in the home stretch. The end of Swanton Road runs practically into Davenport, and from there it's only 10 short miles (with the usual tailwind) back to Santa Cruz. Another beautiful sunset helped to wrap up a difficult but very nice ride.
I felt fairly ready for the 400k the following weekend, and resolved to charge my camera battery immediately.

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.

Heavy Weather - SCR Moss Beach 200k: 3/1/09

Another rainy day ride. In fact it was a stormy day ride. But thanks to my attempt at the Moss Beach Permanent two weeks earlier, I had skewed expectations of what bad weather was.

The day dawned gray and cloudy, with forecasts of rain and wind, but initially the rain held off. I had gathered my rain gear the night before, and my booties were benefiting from a dosing of silicone waterproofing spray, in the hopes that any rain would be held out that much longer. Additionally, given that the temperatures were supposed to be fairly warm (high 50s to low 60s) I threw my light fingerless gloves into the rack pack. For the definitive post-ride touch I had extra socks and sneakers in the car.

Breakfast and dressing went fairly quickly, followed by the 20-minute drive down to Santa Cruz. I had considered riding to the start, but decided I might regret that decision later if I ended up cold and miserable at the end of the ride. Having the car there turned out to be a good idea, but not for the reasons I originally thought.

I parked near the end of the ride, then hopped on the bike for the quick trip to the start at the Santa Cruz Surfing Museum, where the day's riders were gathering and signing in with Bill Bryant and Lois Springsteen of the Santa Cruz Randonneurs. Scott Brittle was there also; he was going to run SAG for the day. I had started with my full gloves and liners, but the morning was so warm I decided to switch to my light half gloves. I also fiddled with my cell phone; I had a ziplock bag to help protect it from the rain and decided to see how pictures looked taken inside the bag

vs. outside.

The bag definitely softened the images compared to no bag.
I decided I would use the bag whenever it was raining significantly, as a new cell phone wasn't in my plan for the near future. I'm hoping to pick up a weatherproof camera for future rides, perhaps an Olympus Stylus 1030SW, but for right now the cell phone will do, since I carry it anyway.

One more shot of the start:
After the usual informative pre-ride meeting we headed north under gray skies with light rain. As usual, I worked my way towards the back of the field with grim determination. The route used for today's ride was the reverse of "normal", with the outgoing leg being pretty much a straight shot north to Moss Beach via Pescadero, San Gregorio, and Half Moon Bay, whereas the return leg digressed to La Honda and rejoined Highway 1 via Haskins Hill.

After exiting Santa Cruz proper we passed by the usual collection of coastal farms, most looking forward to the later days of spring and summer.


No strawberries available today, but lots of green everywhere, along with ambitious flowers.

We quickly sailed past Bonny Doon Road, where just two weeks earlier the pros of the Amgen Tour of California had ridden up into the Santa Cruz Mountains to be welcomed by large crowds of people and medium-sized crowds of hail, then onward past Davenport.



A couple miles later brought the sight of Scott Creek, then after crossing the ridge paralleling the Swanton Road loop we dropped down by Waddell Beach (forgive the water spot on the lens) and the slide zone just south of the San Mateo County line.

So far the rain had not been too bad, and the wind was still pretty light (and from the south), so no worries.

Gazos Creek Road was pretty with all the recent rain, and the creek seemed to be rushing along as fast as we were going in the opposite direction. No broken spokes today!






After navigating the bumps on Cloverdale Road I stopped at the first control in Pescadero. I went into the usual market to get my receipt; however the front register was not open and it turned out that the register they used in the back gave receipts which not only had an incorrect time stamp but also didn't have any names identifying the town. I toyed with the idea of asking them for a store stamp, but decided since the time was incorrect anyway I would just pick something else up at a different store. The next store was perfect; properly labeled receipt and correct time stamp. I resolved to use this one for Pescadero from now on.

Next up was Stage Road to San Gregorio. I usually encounter this on the way back, but with today's "reversed" route it was actually nice to navigate with fresh legs and enjoy the views. (Sorry my bagged cell phone camera doesn't do it justice.)

Soon enough San Gregorio came into view, then the climb up the last part of Stage Road back to Highway 1. There I caught my second view of a cyclist pulling a trailer. I had passed him on Highway 1 shortly before turning onto Gazos Creek Road and I waved and we exchanged greetings as I pulled ahead again. I found out later from Alfie's pictures that his name was Brock Tully and he was riding on a personal mission: a kindness tour.

I rolled on with increasing traffic, now that we were getting close to Half Moon Bay. The rain was still not too bad overall, and I was still pretty dry; a far contrast to my last attempt at this route where I was pretty much soaked within four hours of starting. At one point I was spied upon by a bunch of birds on the wires.
The miles to Half Moon Bay rolled past, then it was onwards to El Granada with the big golf ball sticking up over the coast.

Finally I reached the turnaround at Moss Beach, where Alfie, Lisa, and Scott were welcoming randonneurs with food & drink, and Alfie was taking pictures of every bike and rider that rolled up. Here Alfie is busy snapping shots of my bike, while an unknown rider hangs out next to Lisa and Scott. I refilled my Camelbak one more time and snarfed a banana, then headed back south to Half Moon Bay, now pushing into the wind.

On the way to Half Moon Bay I passed one of those signs that make it obvious you're in California.


I stopped in a Starbucks for a turkey sandwich and a double espresso, but the line for their restroom was slow, so I popped next door to the completely empty Subway where I bought a bottle of juice and then, enjoying my new status as a customer, made use of their restroom.

From that point on it was pushing south into the wind, which wasn't too bad at this point. I made the turn onto Stage Road, zoomed down to San Gregorio, then turned uphill on Highway 84 towards La Honda. Arriving at La Honda I had a sense of deja vu; once again it was a gloomy rainy day, my gloves and shoes had begun to soak through, and I had to dry my hands off on newspaper to avoid smudging my postcard. However it was much warmer than the last time, and I was on the homeward stretch, so no worries.

I headed down Highway 84 to Pescadero Road and began the climb up Haskins Hill. I caught glimpses of another cyclist in front of me and near the summit I noticed he was walking. I was briefly distracted by my seat squeaking, and decided it needed a shot of cooking spray between the pad and the seat pan when I got back home. In retrospect I should have remembered that whenever my seat had squeaked before, it meant the seat pivot bolt had sheared off and I was stressing the quick release. (The ultra-wide, ultra-comfortable seat on my bike is held on by a pivot bolt and a quick release which allows changing the angle easily.)

I was just about to catch up to the other rider when I heard "Bang! Ping...ping...ping...". Great, now what's wrong? I pulled off and checked out my seat. Hmm....the seat pivot bolt is missing its bolt head...and the quick release is missing the nut. Both had sheared off, probably the seat pivot bolt first and then the quick release bolt once it had had enough. I was 40 miles from the end of the ride and my seat was flopping back and forth and side to side, essentially unattached.

After examining things for a couple of minutes I removed the cam washer from the quick release (making the remaining portion long enough to reach all the way through the seat brackets) and stuck it through the quick release slots in front of my seat post (instead of through the holes in the seat post). I secured it with a couple of zip ties and electrical tape (good things to have). Gravity, my body weight, and the remaining half of the seat pivot bolt held the seat in more or less the right position as long as I was careful not to stress it too much. I decided to take it easy from now on, since I would rather make it back late than not at all.

Surgery complete, I finished the climb up to the summit and snapped a couple more shots for posterity, looking inland
and towards the ocean.

I could see the clouds were clearing way off over the ocean; perhaps this meant an end to the rain. At any rate, I was on the home stretch, zooming down the hill, through Loma Mar, and on towards Butano Cutoff. But now that I was pointing south the wind decided to have a say in the matter. It was blowing probably 20+ mph, making progress on Cloverdale Road extremely slow across the flats. I was very happy to get to the couple of hills marking the junction with Gazos Creek Road, but was dreading the return to Highway 1. At least the rain had completely stopped; I was even drying out my gloves in the wind.

Towards the end of Gazos Creek Road another randonneur came up behind me on a classic Miyata, downtube friction shifters, etc. This turned out to be Brian Schaeffer. I told him my sad story of broken seats and broken hearts, and as we got to Highway 1 he told me to tuck in behind him and he pulled us for about the next 10 miles into the wind, till we crossed the county line and I dropped back to take a sunset picture.
I figured that was work enough for him, and I'd owe him a beer the next time I saw him. I pushed on, knowing there wasn't much left to go. A little while later I noticed the glow of a rider's helmet light near an emergency call box. I though maybe it was Brian waiting for me, but as I pulled over I realized it was a different rider, actually Phil Magallanes, who had had an epic day for flats and was out of working tubes. I offered him one of my spare tubes, and then on second thought gave him my second one. I wasn't too worried about flats with my tires, but he apparently needed all the help he could get. It turned out he ended up using both of them.

I continued on south, leaving Phil to finish fixing his tire, and had just passed Davenport when a rider caught up to me. I figured it was Phil, but no, it was Brian again. He had made a pit stop in Davenport, which allowed me to pass him. Once again he took the lead and pulled us the rest of the way into Santa Cruz, with no further mishaps. Now I owed him two beers.

At the finish we signed in and chatted about the day; apparently many riders had had multiple flats from all the debris. I mentally kissed my tires, thanked my abused quick release for good measure, then headed for home. The weather had been bad, but not as terrible as two weeks before, so I considered it a fairly nice day except for the wind at the end. Now I had two weeks to get things fixed on the bike before my next official ride. I took a shot of my emergency repair job.
Notice the small hole to the upper right where the seat pivot bolt is MIA. Randy Schlitter of Rans Bicycles is sending me replacement parts for everything cracked, sheared, etc., so the bike should be better than new by next week. Now there's just the little matter of lining up some nice weather for the next ride...