Wednesday, March 18, 2009

SoCal

I really needed a break from science for a couple of days, so I took a trip to Southern California to visit old friends from college. I awoke on Thursday feeling under the weather from allergies, and having the day off, I decided to just sleep in and do a ride locally before heading to Los Angeles. The drive was uneventful and boring as ever. It actually made a great race drive preview, as I passed towns like Madera and Coalinga. I crashed at Chris and Lydia's place, after dining on some really great pasta. Their cats seem to like playing on me, but eventually I got to sleep.

Chris and I rode up highway 39 with the intention of hooking up to highway 2, taking that back to Pasadena. Overall, I think that would have been a fairly long ride and would have rivalled many of the big climbs in Bishop for elevation gain in one shot. I really wish I had brought a camera on this ride. The road snakes in and out of steep canyons that have been scarred and reborn from fires, and best of all, it's closed to traffic due to poor conditions at the top. We did encounter a few Caltrans trucks bombing down the hill, but they were few and far between. The climb starts in the desert and slowly transitions to pine forest, finally dumping you into high alpine territory. We started passing snow above Crystal lake. At some point, a snow blower had come along to clean up the huge drifts, but the steepness of the hillsides must have made that difficult. Finally, near the top, we were stopped by a huge drift that even Caltrans couldn't handle. We had to scrap our plans and did the Glendora Mountain Road loop instead, making for an equally good ride. I did get to witness some kids getting busted for pot before heading back down the hill.

The next day I rode with Jim and his tri buddies. OK, I think aerobars are dorky, but the company was worth breaking some important rules (actually, some of the TT bikes there made me drool.) We hammered around San Diego for about four hours. Got to hang out with Tony and some of his friends and really experience a M3 on one exit ramp before heading out for a midnight ride in one of San Diego's many canyons. That was eye-opening for me. Here in the Bay Area, it's impossible to go night riding without breaking some kind of law (on trails) and they use radar guns on the trails to ticket speeders. I've never heard of such a thing, and I think it really indicates something's wrong with the type of people that congregate here, which I guess includes me now.

Monday I had an epic drive in front of me, so after fixing my AC, I hit the road. I got in an hour on the bike up Old San Marcos in Santa Barbara before arriving home at 1 am, ready for work the next day. All in all, a very satisfying trip. This weekend is Orosi, the first RR for the year for me, and I hope all this rain riding and long rides pay some dividends.

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