I'm Mobile!

Today I went for a longer ride.  3 hours was the plan.  I'd scoped out a nice looking route on mapmyride.com which I knew had a few hills in it but was also mostly out of the built up areas.  I did it backwards - not the best idea as it meant a huge amountof climbing early on and a strong headwind for most of the 2nd half... live and learn.  I went that way because I knew the roads in that direction for a little way.

When I started out just before 9am it was freezing cold (I already had armwarmers and gloves on and went back inside to put my merino vest on!) - the fog was pretty thick and it even looked like it might rain.  It actually stayed pretty cool for a while so I wasn't too overdressed.  After about 20 minutes on the flat I turned towards the hills and then went up and up and up - the 27 tooth was meant to be a bail-out gear but it's already had a bit of use!  The streets are pretty steep - up to 15% (marked on the maps) and I went the wrong way about halfway up, all residential streets.  After stopping to ask some locals for directions I got back on the route and continued climbing.  Eventually I got to one of the main roads I would be on called Wild Cat Canyon Road (nope, no kittys) and came to a lookout where a lot of people were getting ready to run and a bunch was meeting to ride.  I joined them for the ride down the other side of the hill but they were off in a different direction not looping back to anywhere I knew so I continued on.  It was nice to meet some other riders though.

From there things stayed kind of hilly - I think I might have discovered what are referred to as 'heavy rollers' - basically they are hills!  There were a lot of other riders out, about 90% of whom were riding in the other direction - d'oh!

My next turn off was Grizzly Peak Road which was a bit flatter.  The roads were similar to what we get at home, a bit rough.  There were ranches every now and then with HUGE houses and I went through a few very small towns before coming to a slightly bigger onewhere I took wrong turn #2 (also the last one).  While looking for the next street I needed I came up to a cyclist and he put me back in the right direction - hey, it was 50/50 I'd get it right (typical).  On the map it didn't look like an intersection so I hadn't written down left or right.

After that I was in to the wind and it was pretty strong and quite cool.  My arms are a bit burnt so they feel the cold at the moment (arm warmers and gloves came off just over an hour in as the fog had lifted).  Most of the ride up til this point had been quite nice and scenic but I was heading back to freeway territory so it was pretty bland.  More climbing in to the wind wasn't much fun... I made one quick stop to get some coke and check directions (there are a lot of streets with the same name around here!) and was on the home stretch on a main road through a bunch of small cities.  I ended up around 3 1/2 hours, which I thought was pretty good given my capacity for getting lost even with maps and directions :o)

I haven't had much opportunity to take any photos yet as I've done all the touristy stuff a couple of times before, but I may head in to the city tomorrow for a look around if it's a nice day as I have a Bart card with enough left on it for that.  I'll get some of the car too - it's already got some Vorb and Maxxis stickers on it :o)