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I couldn't have asked for a better weekend! I took Thursday and Friday
off of work so the family and I could drive to Redlands, CA for this
Saturday's "Ride Around the Bear" hosted by the
Orange County Wheelmen. Our plan was to hit the "Pharaoh" theme
and water park on Friday. Annette, Danielle and Jacob were going to hang
out at the hotel to swim and relax on Saturday and we'd drive back
Sunday. On the drive over Annette noticed the huge outlet mall in
Banning and suggested that we stop there on the way back - DOH!
But in a moment of absolute genius I suggested they hit the mall on Saturday
(saving me from that activity)!
I asked the hotel clerk about the Pharaoh theme park when we checked in, but
she had never heard of it. Hmmm... Not a good sign! We brought Annette's
new Dell laptop and used the hotel's free wireless internet to check the
website again. Turns out the Pharaoh theme park is similar to Castles and
Coasters in Phoenix, not at all what we expected! So we changed plans
and decided to head over to Knott's Berry Farm for the day on Friday. We
thought the first roller coaster we were going to go on was the "Jaguar"
but somehow got into the line for "Montezuma's Revenge," a high speed
loop roller coaster. It slingshots the coaster's cars out with an incredible
acceleration, goes through a loop and straight up to a stop, then sends
you back through the loop and up the other side. As we got closer to the
front, Jake's eye's got bigger and bigger as he watched the coaster's
cars race by. He opted out of the ride and I have to admit that was a
good decision. I enjoy a good roller coaster, but that one was a bit
much for me. IMHO, the best ride in the park is the Silver Bullet,
another high speed roller coaster with a lot of loops and corkscrews.
But it's so smooth you can't help but laugh during the ride. Danielle
and I went on it and the picture was great, so we bought a couple
keychain pictures.
Anyway... This is supposed to be a ride report, so on to the ride!
Adrian Stingaciu (the guy who did the unsupported, ultra-lightweight
solo ride across the United States) saw my name on the registered riders
list and decided to do the ride too. He sent me an email before the ride
and we decided to meet at my hotel early Saturday morning and do the
ride together. Adrian is what we in the cycling community affectionately
term a "weight weenie." He tries to minimize weight on the bike and made
a number of customizations on his bike to save some weight here and
there. I, however, am affectionately referred to as a "Clydesdale"
(someone who weighs over 200 pounds) and don't care too much about a few
(or a lot of) extra grams here or there as long as I'm comfortable on
the bike and confident that I have what I need to complete a given ride.
I typically do longer rides with a rack trunk overloaded with food and
extra clothes that I almost never use. Adrian made a couple
modifications to save weight that I wouldn't have chosen (like replacing
his brake lever shifters with down tube shifters), but then I'm
not a weight weenie! ;-)
We rode over to ride start from the hotel to get registered. I had a
t-shirt and jersey waiting with my registration packet that would have
been a problem, but Irene, a very nice lady at registration, set my
packet aside so I could pick it up at the finish. The Orange County
Wheelmen did another great job again with the ride start, so Adrian and
I didn't have to wait at all to check out of the start area. We had a
nice warm up on the slight ascent out of town and a fast descent through
some farmland before the start of the climb. It was cloudy and quite
brisk before we started up the hill. Adrian chose arm warmers and I
regretted my decision not to wear them. I was worried it would start to
rain, but we got lucky. Adrian went to the front when we turned onto the
road leading up to Big Bear lake and set a pretty fast pace. I started
to get a bit worried when my heart rate got above 170, but I stayed on
his wheel. I hadn't planned to ride this fast, but if that's what
he wanted I thought I was up for it. Right when I was seriously debating dropping off he pulled
aside and I took the lead. I slowed the pace a bit, but not too much.
Just enough to keep me below my lactate threshold! I rode for a bit, but
when I looked back Adrian had dropped off. Man, was I relieved! The pace
we were setting was going to make for a long hard ride! I slowed
to more of an endurance or aerobic pace and started to enjoy the climb.
It was nice to actually be able to talk again instead of laboring for
breath!
Adrian and I rode together quite a way, but occasionally I'd ride my own
pace up the hill and stop at a pull-out to enjoy the view. There were a
couple spots after we got above the low clouds that were quite scenic. I
should have brought Annette's camera again! We stopped at each rest
area and enjoyed some fresh fruit. The climb had some good hard parts,
but overall it was one of the most enjoyable climbs I've done. This was
my last ride before my mid-year break and I wanted to enjoy it, so I
wasn't in a hurry and (I know some of you will have a hard time
believing it) actually took my time and didn't really push my pace. The
descent down to the lake wasn't too technical but was fun. I
slowed down next to the lake so Adrian could catch up and we rode into
the lunch stop together. I picked up a couple guys after the lunch stop,
but dropped Adrian, so I stopped after the Big Bear lake turn to make
sure Adrian didn't miss it. At the stop light in the town of Big Bear
Tom Conner from GD surprised me. Tom's a fellow bicycle commuter, but he
moved over to one of our other buildings on our work campus so I haven't
seen him in quite a while. I set a good pace and had a couple guys with
me, but I noticed Adrian wasn't, so I slowed again. Tom caught me on the
climb up to Onyx summit so we rode together and chatted about rides and
work on the way up.
Adrian wasn't too far back and we didn't stay too long. Tom was still
enjoying the Onyx summit rest stop when we left. There is another fast
descent after Onyx summit and I lost Adrian on the descent. There was a
cold head wind blowing and I got a bit chilled. Before we left I told
Adrian I thought it was mostly down hill with a few rolling hills, but,
in reality, there was one more significant hill I completely forgot
about, then more descending. I enjoyed the descent, but hadn't seen
Adrian for a while so I stopped at another pull-out and waited a few
minutes. I took the next relatively technical section
pretty fast but stopped at the last rest area. I don't think I've ever
stopped at every rest stop on a ride before, but did on this one.
I decided to enjoy the last descent and really got up to a nice fast
speed. Nothing quite like miles and miles of descending. At one point a truck and trailer passed with a group of riders
in its draft. They looked a bit on the dangerous side to me, so I stayed
back and watched them go on ahead. After the steep part was over I
pulled off and waited for Adrian. We rode together for a bit, but
traffic started to get heavy, so we moved to single file and Adrian
dropped off. But after I noticed, I slowed down and rode easy for a
while and we rode to the finish together.
Overall, a really nice ride. Just over 100 miles with 9000 feet of
cumulative ascent. I think our final time was 7:34ish, about an
hour slower than last year's time. This was Adrian's first "extreme"
climbing event and he actually did quite well. I think his mistake
was hitting the first section of the climb a bit too hard instead of
pacing himself for 20+ miles of pure climbing fun! But only hard
experience teaches you that and I've had plenty! Annette and the
kids had a good time at the outlet mall and noticed an Oakley outlet
store, so we actually did wind up stopping there on the way back. But I
picked up a nice new silver Flak Jacket with Fire Iridium XLJ lenses so
it was well worth the stop!
My first pair of Oakley's! Nice! :-)
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