We awakened to reverie (remember we were on an Army base) at 6am, although Mike and I were already awake because 9 hours of sleep was plenty for us. We rode to breakfast after loading up our gear to the gear truck, had a nice warm breakfast of eggs, bacon, pancakes, etc. Soon we were on our way back to Carmel Valley by way of King City. Yes, King City. This is the ride where we get to go over "Quadbuster" in the opposite direction as well as cross the "skinny dipping bridge", in the opposite direction.
Roger, David & Scott pose at the top of Quadbuster (in the other direction!)
Skinny dipping bridge from afar...Soon we were at the 2nd rest stop, where we fueled up before the major climb of the day- an 11 mile climb up to Cahoon Summit, and soon after a drop back down on Carmel Valley road into town. But first, I noticed that I was now only 3 miles from rolling over 22,000 miles on my odometer--- yet another stop and photo for celebration! (wasn't it only last December when I rolled over 19,000?)
The climb up to Cahoon Summit starts out long and slow, and you don't really feel like you're climbing except for the fact that you can't figure out why you can't pick up speed. Plus to add insult, there was a bit of a headwind now so not only was it boring and long, but also windy.
As you can imagine, this was not my favorite it part of the ride, so I'm gonna gloss over it--- I rode it, made it very slowly to the top, had Yoichi massage my neck and shoulders (because I had a raging headache, but my friends wouldn't let me sag downhill!) and headed back to our starting point in Carmel Valley. Afterwards we ate yummy burritos and headed home.
I think I'll do it again next year--- but come better trained.
Hey MB, let's go climb Diablo....
