There is nothing like a Memorial Day ride to get the blood pumping.
There were several plans afoot. At first I thought is would be Deer
Creek. When that fell through, I figured I would just do Golden Gate
State Park by myself. Since I really don't like to ride alone, I figured
I hook up on the Carol ride at Mt. Falcon. Little did I know that
Carol's ride meant a lot of work.
Arriving at the lot, I could see we were in for a crowded day at the beach,
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Not a single spot to be had and it didn't look like a whole lot of bike
racks either.
When Carol shows up she says that it will only be one other, her friend
Eugine. Her description of him says that he's a good rider. Uh oh!
Looks like I will be riding with two racers today. That usually means I
will be suffering on the uphill.
We start up Mount Falcon, a death march climb that I immediately fall
behind on by 15 minutes.
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It's kind if sad when hikers are passing you, but I make the best of it
with some photo ops.
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Once at the top we head out onto Parmalee. This was my first time on
this trail. I just never thought there was anything else other than
climbing and coming down. Wow, was I wrong. What a fun trail! Great
flow, in the shade, and awesome vistas.
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It seems like all the time I gain on the downhill and catch up to the
other two is lost on the climbs. Oh well.
I figured that after Parmalee we'd be heading down Falcon. For some
reason I thought Parmalee was part of Lair o' the Bear. Wrong!
We bomb down a paved road into Evergreen. By this time I am very
disoriented. How did I get from Mt. Falcon to Evergreen? I didn't even
think they were close. I guess I still have a lot to learn around here.
We head onto Lair o' the Bear.
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Another fun trail with more downhill than uphill, but by the time we
reach the peak before the last downhill I am wasted. We're almost all
out of water now and I can't feel my legs as I pound down a goo. Back
to some downhill, then a ride along a people invested creek trail to
Route 74. Now, this is the part that scared the [censored] out of me. Doing
40+ miles an hour as cars are whipping by me on this very twisty
downhill mountain highway was not what I bargained for. The other two
took off like bats out of hell on there 1.9 nearly semi-slick tires,
while I shrugged along as fast as I could on the 3.5 Kenda Minions.
They are not kidding when it says "Super Tacky" on the tire.
We meet again in Morrison and then it took every ounce of energy I had
to get back to the car. When I got home I fell asleep.
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