Sunday Road Ride

As usual, we went out for our Sunday Road Ride. It was one of the first road rides in quite some time where we weren't miserably cold by the end of the ride. It sure looked cold out, but was actually quite pleasant.

FBC rider Todd joined us today, and this was his first ride on his new Fuji Roubaix. It was also his introduction to road riding too!

We began the ride from the bottom of Kingsbury Grade, and rode a few miles along Foothill Road, a pleasant, gently rolling road along the base of the Sierras. Once into California, we began our ascent to Woodfords. The group split up at this point. Some took the more scenic Carson River Road, and others took the steeper Emigrant Trail Road.

Once we regrouped at the Woodfords store, the group split up again. Some headed for Diamond Valley, and my group headed for Markleeville, a cool little mountain town. The snow started to get deep as we started our ascent, but the roads were completely dry. This was my first time on this road on the bicycle. The slower pace offered me time to enjoy the alpine scenery. It just seems to go by too quickly in the car.

We stopped at the entrance to Turtle Rock Park before beginning the descent into Markleeville. Turtle Rock Park is the start and finish of the world famous Death Ride, a ride that includes 129 miles of road, and 15,000+ feet of climbing! We split once again, Kristy and Amy heading for Diamond Valley and Genoa, Me, Todd, and Jeff P. heading for Markleeville. The descent into Markleeville was a blast, losing a lot of elevation quickly over three miles. About 3/4 of the way down, I started thinking, "You know, Jeff, you're going to need to climb back out of this when you're done!".

We took a little break in Markleeville, and then made the climb back up to Turtle Rock Park. It wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be. I was glad to have a triple chain ring for sure. Once at the top, we made our way for Diamond Valley. There were several miles of downhill all the way back to Foothill Road, a nice change from all the climbing we had been doing. About a mile from the staging area, we met up again with Kristy and Amy. They had already been to Genoa, and were coming back to see what was taking us so long! Once back at the cars, we wolfed down some of Amy's scones and Kristy's cookies. We spent the rest of the day in R&R mode...