My Tour of the California Alps

This is the report of my actual ride. My thoughts in review are here.

Setting the stage

There were three families camped out at Grover Hot Springs. and three more solo riders sharing the sites with us. The family camping and the soaking in the hot springs is a significant part of the fun, and Rob Hawks' and my families have got to know each other from previous trips to Markleeville and from the family rides.

Monitor

On the actual day I rolled out of the campground at about 5:25 a.m. with Rob Hawks, Jack "Puzzleman" Holmgren, Shelley Rothenberg and Yehuda Ben-David. Gary Goodman overslept, and I missed my chance to wake him. So then there were five. As we rode down the hill towards Markleeville, Rob told me that he was not sure he was going to be able to keep up with me. I told him that I was going to set my own pace, whether it was faster or slower than him, or at the same pace. He modestly suggested that he would have difficult keeping up with me. Hah! As soon as we reached Markleeville and the climbing towards Monitor Pass started, he and the rest dropped me as I kept to a pace that I could sustain.

As I continued up Monitor large numbers of riders passed me and I passed one or two. At the top of Monitor I had to stop to give my digestive system a break. Then it was a beautiful and controlled descent to Topaz, where I did not stop except to turn round.

Monitor

As I started back up Monitor I met Michael Kahn and Susan Jeiven. I rode with Michael for a bit, but eventually decided to not force myself to keep his pace. My stomach was still a bit queasy so I stopped at the top of Monitor again, where I saw Shelley who was just a few minutes ahead of me. After getting my internals settled I started down towards Ebbetts Pass and enjoyed just how well the new bike handled. That descent is always a dream, and it's wonderful to feel comfortable and in control at speeds of around 45 mph.

Ebbetts

At Scossa's at the bottom of the climb up Ebbetts Pass, I caught up to Shelley again, and stopped to enjoy the smoothies that were one of the best things about the ride food. Again, Shelley left ahead of me, but I found someone who was climbing at the same pace. I continued to control my effort and used the HRM to make sure that I didn't push too hard. I know that my aerobic threshhold is 145 or 146, but not 147. At the top of Ebbetts I just continued down without stopping. Rob called out as he was climbing while I was descending.

Ebbetts

I stopped at Hermit Valley for a bit and fairly soon Emily Kenyon, David Lipsky,and Ed Wesley rolled in. We hung out for a bit and then all left at about the same time to climb back up Ebbetts.

The top of Ebbetts comes quite suddenly and a lot sooner than the other summits, so I decided to press on, because it was all downhill to the lunch stop. Unlike my previous attempts on descending Ebbetts I limited my speed. It was a lot easier because there seemed to be fewer riders to pass than the last time I attempted it.

When I got to the lunch stop I met Susan again, who very kindly gave me a couple of pads to help prevent blisters in the new shoes. I settled down to eat and asked a couple of riders what time the cutoff at Woodfords was. When I heard that I hed less then an hour and a half to make it, I left most of the food behind and made a dash for the bike.

Markleeville, Carson Pass

I was in a short-lived pace line some of the way into Markleeville, and made it to Woodfords with about 20 minutes to spare. Not really enough time. David and I left for Pickets Junction at the same time and I was hoping to ride with him, until the chain fell off the granny gear. So I rode slowly up Hope Canyon into the headwind. You have to have the headwind here for a real TCA experience. I found my pal from the Ebbetts climb was on my wheel again, and that was good. The comments from some other riders about my leading the world's slowest paceline were less welcome. Especially as no one else took a pull.

I would have loved a good long rest at Pickets, but again had to leave abruptly to avoid missing the cutoff. The first part of the final climb is almost flat, but once the climbing started I found that I didn't have much left to fight the wind and the grade. Normally being passed by cars doesn't bother me, even when there's no shoulder, but I found it alarming on this climb. I was out of gas and my judgement was going, I got off the bike and walked a few yards to a wide gravel pullout and laid me and the bike down to rest. To my surprise Shelley called out as he was making the final climb. I had passed him by not stopping on Ebbetts. After about 10 minutes I got back on my feet just as a SAG motorcyclist rolled up to tell me I was about two miles from the final rest stop and the last 1/4 mile was downhill. This gave me just about enough oomph to start moving again, and hearing someone (actually Jack Holmgren) yell out "Go Phil" as I was slogging out the assault on Carson Pass gave me enough encouragement to complete my turtle-like ascent.

Hearing Rob's voice as Shelley and I rolled up to the final rest stop was one of the best things that happened all day. He had waited there for about 45 minutes, and I'm glad we were able to give him the satisfaction of seeing us make it. He wisely left shortly after we got there before it got even colder.

Shelley and I sat in the first aid chairs and ate our ice cream. Before long we noticed that they were taking down the canopy as the rest stop was closing. Time for David, Emily, Shelley and I to get going again. The descent from Carson Pass was cold and I had a hard time making the bike go straight for the first few miles. After that I enjoyed going down Hope Canyon a good deal more that I had enjoyed going up. After Woodfords Emily and David offered to give me a pull back to the finish, but I couldn't hang with them, so off they went. I finally rolled in to Turtle Rock State Park at 7:30 for a total time of about 14 hours. I think I've put the ghost of my crash in 2000 to rest.

It's interesting to note that of the six of us who were camped at the Hot Springs the four that completed all five passes were exactly the same four who carpooled and rode the Davis DC a couple of months earlier. That says something about being adequately prepared.

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