-- stand at a traffic light with other people, no one jay-walks (definitely NOT NYC, Toronto, Montreal, Philadelphia ...)
-- eclectic selection of flatbread and whatever else at a little grocery store (is this the St. Lawrence Market ? NYC ? Whole Foods ? Whistler ? (no, not that expensive !))
-- the Spanish population, could be NYC, Miami ...
-- palm trees in the desert (not NYC !)
I could go on, perhaps the Carls Jr ?
I spent a lot of time in California when I was working, most of it in Los Angeles with only a couple of trips to this area (Walnut Creek / San Francisco). I was thinking that this was the first time here since my cross-country ride, but then I remembered the Bekeris wedding. I'd have to look back at my blog to see what year that was. On that trip we saw Alice & Peter as well as Dennis and Hal. When we were here for the ride, we saw Arlene in Mexico, Alice and Peter in Pacific Palisades, George in Peoria ... yes, we got around. that was early-blog-days !
I got out for a short ride, going to the ride start location which is just over 4 miles from here. I then checked for the recommended long-term parking, because I'd been thinking that it might be better to be closer to the start. Well, that lot is within 100' of here, a car-pool parking lot for Sacramento.
I'm going to have an early dinner with Bill Olsen by his motel. He found a fish-only place ... works for me !
Some people think that I'm overdoing it by planning 4x1200+ rides this year. Well, Bill is way out-doing me !
-- TX Stampede (TX)
-- Shenandoah (VA)
-- Gold Rush (CA, this ride)
-- Endless Mountains (PA)
-- Taste of Carolina (NC)
-- Big Wild Ride (AK)
-- Granite Anvil
-- Last Chance (CO)
Apparently his wife is letting him do this because he has a goal of doing every 1200 in North America this year. It wasn't too long ago that would consist of one ride -- Boston-Montreal-Boston.
It's too bad that our climate is such that all these rides in North America are squeezed into a few months. There are rides elsewhere in the world, again mostly in the Northern Hemisphere -- same issue. Yes, there have been rides in Taiwan, Korea, Australia ... perhaps someday one or more of those might appeal to me but I have more interests in those countries than riding.
Next year there are two rides that I'd like to do but will probably only do one -- the Colorado High Country and the Vanisle (Vancouver Island). I'll do the Shen, hopefully ... too early to think about all this !
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The ride ... the first 80-100 miles is flat, flat, flat. Then there's about 100 miles of climbing to the 6400 foot level. On the way back, of course, that's a descent. It should be interesting. I don't see any way of tackling it other than as 3x400k rides. Susanville, at 400k (250 miles) is the first Control with showers and the first logical night's stop. It's then another 400k from there to the turnaround point and back to Susanville. On the way back from Susanville there's a brutal climb to 6400 feet, climbing 2300 feet in five miles at a grade of 8-15% and a 0.1 mile stretch at 19%. There was a similar stretch in the Miglia, a real "grunter". The rider instructions say that many riders pack tennis shoes for that climb and drop them off at the next Control, because in many places walking is just as fast as climbing.
What I really need is to have someone transport my rack-pack from Susanville to the top and then I'll happily carry it down from there :).
The forecast has changed again with highs in the low 70's for Monday and Tuesday and "rain" changing to "showers" and "70%" changing to "50%". Who knows !
I've got 24 hours to ponder this. At that point the die will be cast as far as my drop bags go, since I will have taken them to the ride start location. I'll then come back to my motel, relax a bit and then ride down to the start and hang around awaiting the "gun" at 6pm PST.
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Back from dinner with Bill. I've probably had my last fish for a few days !
I'm still worrying over my packing. Once at elevation, the temps are very cool at night, like in the 40's. I expect that it's even worse than that at times. Perhaps it would be wiser to use that space in my rack-pack for my rain pants ? Uggh.
Nothing more is happening today, even though it's only 5:40 p.m. My body is feeling the getting-close-to-9-pm low. Last night I was more chipper but then again, I hadn't had dinner yet and I had gotten some snooze time on the airplane.
Onward ....
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