Sunday, August 8, 2010

Bike Adventure 1 of 2

As expected, the weekend held a bit of everything. Saturday's ride did not disappoint in the least. I will share it first. Tomorrow I'll post Sunday's adventure, which had more than its share of problems, but was a good ride nonetheless.

A 2:30pm start time made for some toasty weather - 95F when I rode past the bank in town and headed out through the orange groves.

Beneath these striped rocks is a stream that I followed for miles. Kids were playing in the pools and there were a few times I thought about joining them to escape the heat.

I liked the trunks of these pink flowering trees all lined up in a row. Seemed artistic to me, not sure if the picture captured it properly...

Part way up my climb I found this. I've never seen a more beautiful bright red bulldozer. Seriously, don't tell me some of you men out there don't want to call this your own?!

Quite possibly one of the best general stores I've found on a ride in a while. The pay phone is necessary because cell phones don't work up here. The carved bear bench was quite comfortable. One good thing about climbing up above 6000ft is that the temperature drops the higher you climb.

It took me about 1.5 hours to climb 3,500+ feet. And 15 minutes to descend it. The views were worth every minute of it.