What a ride! It certainly fit Rune's definition of beautiful (ie. difficult to call it fun). Phil, Rob, Cathy, Sharlene, DNA and Betsey rode the 100K, Rick rode the 100M, and Paul, Rune, Laura and I set out to conquer the 135M route. We also discovered that Tom A. rode the 100M as well, but all the Armstrongs headed out after riding, so we didn't get to hook up.
Me, Julia and the boys drove up Saturday, reaching town in the evening. We'd stopped at the Shasta Caverns tour, which was actually pretty good. I was surprised to learn that about half of the tour was through caverns not discovered until the 80's (19). There weren't any really spectacular formations or anything, but it's a pretty darn good cave even so.
That night, we ate at the much-anticipated Piedmont restaurant, an Italian diner that probably serves the same menu that it started with in 1940. I loaded the pasta in, saving just enough room for the pre-ride ice cream. The first night, we delighted in the quaint sound of locomotives tooting their pastoral horns at the 5 crossings in Mt. Shasta -- just outside our window.
Early the next morning, I rode over to the start to meet Rune, Laura and Rick. Paul was going to start much earlier, but didn't, after he saw a bear wandering about in the dark the night before -- instead he started at 5:20 from Weed, so we didn't catch him for a while. The rest of us started at about 5:45 from Mt. Shasta.
The beginning is a gentle decline and rise around Weed and up to the foothills of the first peak. Then we discovered that although none of the climbs was extremely steep, they were steep enough to make a 1.5 or 2 hour climb a real grind. The terrain is interestingly different than the Sierras, because it's volcanic, and the hills are relatively gentle -- the road had no switchbacks. The beauty was remarkable.
The first climb was on the narrowest road, and as we got near the top, the first descenders started coming down. Rune and Laura, ahead of me, had the bad experience of watching someone else have an even worse experience: This guy, coming down (about 1/2 mile from the top), hit a pothole just in front of them, doing a head/faceplant into the pavement. I'll spoil the suspense by mentioning that later in the day, a ranger told us that the guy was ok. By the time I got to the fallen rider, it was gruesome: A potentially dead guy, crumpled around a smacked-up bike, with liquid spreading onto the pavement in a circle from his head. He wasn't moving. I rode around Laura and didn't even see Rune, who had both stopped, and rode up the hill, warning descenders that there was a crash on the road. At the top, the radio man called for help, and drove down to the crash.
The crowd at the top was very subdued. The view was really nice, with a bit of a chilly breeze coming across the pass. The food that I remember was Payday bars and banana bread -- pretty good really. I think mostly ate Paydays during the whole ride. Incidentally, I drank water mixed with Berry flavored Propel, and, for whatever reason, had no cramping at all, and drank lots of water. All hail kid's stuff.
This descent wasn't much fun, as everyone was thinking of smooshed heads, and we kept having to pull off to let ambulances, police cars, and fire engines go past. It's interesting to note that since the climbs weren't steep, in order to get great altitude gain, we had to ride miles and miles, thus the descent was very long, and we could look off into the distance to see the valley we were descending into as a little speck.
Next, cross back over Weed, and Mt. Shasta. I think it was about 40 miles of up and down before we got to the next climb. This one turned out to be the deal-breaker. The first half was gentle and nice. At the half point, there's a break, and Cathy surprised me by calling my name from the back of a tandem bicycle. I didn't see who was steering, but they claimed later that Rob was there. Much to my great dismay, the "super" riders didn't get to turn around a this point, but were required to continue riding. The road exchanged its insistent medium grade for a grueling steep grade, with few dips or shallow spots. Somewhere at the point where I was contemplating the last 1" of water in my bottle, it leveled out, and we came to the tent at the top. More Paydays and water. Mmmm. The road here was better than the first climb, and the descent was much more fun.
It was at about this point that I noticed that the thrill of watching others climb a hill I'd finished had a restorative action. Since we don't ride too many out-and-back rides -- mostly loops -- I'd never noticed how the suffering of others feels so good. It's unfortunate to note that Rune admitted to feeling just this boost, every time he descended past me -- about an hour ahead of me.
Just at the base of the second climb, a special seven mile climb was indicated for the century and super century riders. I dutifully headed up. I rode with a fellow for a while who warned me that the first two miles were steep. This was true, though I thought the other five miles weren't a cakewalk either. Finally at the top, an amazing view (how beautiful!) and a little lake. The descent was awesome! It was pleasantly warm, the road wide and steep and in good shape. There were plenty of straining riders to pass and smile at.
Here I'll note that the other riders I spoke to were friendly, and I had a few conversations. It did seem like most people were interested in comparing how many extreme rides they'd done, rather than chatting about other stuff. I was told about 105F heat in Markleeville, and warned about the potential of lightning on top of Shasta.
After the third climb, lunch. As I set off, a strange rider identified himself as Paul Ries, which turned out to be true. I left, leaving Paul to pick over the lunch leavings. From lunch, the ride climbs steadily through Mt Shasta city, then up the side of Mount Shasta to the parking lot at 7500'. The total climb is about 4500', which is comparable to climbing Page Mill twice. It didn't feel like that, though -- it felt much more beautiful. The lower part was exposed to the sun, and baked out any remaining energy. Two hours from the top, Laura rolled down -- she'd gotten ahead by wisely skipping the third climb. About 90 minutes from the top, Rune flew by going down. Later, I looked over and saw David Armstrong looking at me from a car. I was too tired to do anything but stare and drool.
I really didn't want to keep going, but I did, and finally I got to the top. It was great! I sat in a deck chair in the tent, and ate some food (I don't remember what). I looked out at the view of the peak (7000' up) and the valley (5000' down). It was all very beautiful.
While I was at the top, the shadows got long on that side of the mountain, and it started to cool off quite a bit. I started my plummet to the base. The first 1/3 was in shadow, and quite chilly. The other downside was that by now, there weren't very many up-riders to give me an energy boost (many had passed me, and I assume plenty had bailed out, too). Finally, I came around the corner of the mountain, and it warmed up nicely. Although I think the road was suited for 50MPH descents, I held it to about 30MPH due to unfamiliarity.
The very best thing about this ride is that you roll off of Shasta, and into the park with the Start/Finish line. Julia, Leo and Simon met me there, and helped peel the salt-encrusted helmet off of my head. Everything was rigid with sweat -- to an even greater degree than after the Death Ride. We were all impressed that I'd finished the whole thing.
Then, a quick trip to the hotel, a fast shower, took Paul to his hotel, then over to the Cornichon's Annual Banquet in Weed (at the cabin rented by Rune and Sharlene). What a fun dinner, especially since I didn't have to do anything but sit and eat and drink. It was really nice to have a big group of the sour pickles hanging out. The word of the hour was Languid, and there was plenty of it going about. It was great to sit there on the deck, and look at The Mountain in the cooling evening.
After dinner, we held an awards ceremony. Rune was awarded the Tough Rider trophy, me, the Hummingbird award, Phil the Deer Revenge trophy, and Rob and Cathy won the Natural Environment Riders (Senior Division) award. Cathy noticed that they have some recruitment to do if they want to be able to get rid of their trophy.
Somewhere around 10pm, my energy totally ran out, and we disappeared back to our hotel. I don't remember the trains, but I'm sure they were there.
Rune thought that this ride is harder than the Death Ride. The next day, I was tired, but not too sore. My odometer was mixed up, so I don't know about total ride time and so forth, but it was just less than 13 hours of wall-clock time for me -- I figure about 11 hours of pedaling, because I took a lot of unscheduled breaks to breathe (on the last two hills). By now -- four days later -- I'd do it again next year. It couldn't have been _that_ bad. :-)
Congratulations to all the riders!
David
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