An interesting start to the ride today with Jerry and Judy installing a Power Tap in the parking lot! Dang, I missed getting a photo of that... The ride itself was cool and foggy during the first part; the forecast was for sunshine starting at 9AM, but the clearing didn't really kick in until we were 20 miles into the ride. Not to worry: once the clouds broke up it was perfect. As usual, the roads in Rancho Santa Fe were mostly traffic free and we threw in a new by-way: El Secreto... Nice little hill with a kicker at the end. The Caffe Positano in RSF was our coffee stop today and we even lucked out in having enough seating for the whole group. The ride also ended with some bike service at VV Park when a local rider stopped by to ask if we could fix the brake lever on his Schwinn comfort bike - Yes We Can!
This week's ridership: 14 Cyclists (5W / 9M) With a Welcome Aboard to Jill T (And thanks for supplying some great pix, Jill.) Next week we wrap up October with... A Bit Of Harmony Date: Tuesday October 29, 2013 Time: 9:00am Ride through northern Escondido into San Marcos; side trip into Harmony Grove on return to Escondido. And a reminder about the upcoming Borrego Five-O... check out the details here. Cheers, Steve
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Another big turnout for today's riding of the Highland Valley Loop... a record-breaking 19. And we made it around the loop in fairly good time, arriving back in RB by noon. Tough to do with a large group, but it helps when there are no flat tires (somehow we avoided the thorns, glass, and nails!) Weather was perfect too. New riders included: Eytan, Paul, and Kathy - sorry there was no coffee stop for their first VVV ride, but this route doesn't lend itself to it. :-(
This week's ridership: 19 Cyclists (6W / 13M) Next week we meander along on the... Rancho Santa Fe Ramble Date: Tuesday October 22, 2013 Time: 9:00am Explore Rancho Santa Fe's by-ways. Trees, hills, and mostly low-traffic! And here's the scoop for the upcoming Borrego Springs ride... Borrego Five-O Date: Saturday November 2, 2013 Clip-in Time: 8:30AM Start/Finish: Borrego Springs (Christmas Circle) Distance: 50 miles Elev. Gain: 4,600' The route hits Montezuma Grade after 1.5 warm-up miles. Climbing time on the grade (11miles) will be about two hours for most riders. At the top we'll regroup at the Ranchita Country Store, and then roll down to the turn-off for Hwy S2. There's a one mile climb on S2 before we start dropping down (about 10 miles) to Scissors Crossing. The next leg rolls down through the narrows of Sentenac Canyon and then onwards to Yaqui Pass Road, where we'll make another stop at the Tamarisk Grove campground. The final segment will go up and over Yaqui Pass (about 2 miles) and then drop (about 5 miles) to the edge of Borrego Springs, before ending with fairly flat run back to Christmas Circle. Plan for a post-ride Mexican restaurant stop. Drive time from the Rancho Bernardo area to Borrego Springs is about 1.5 hours. We'll probably be back to RB/Poway around 5:00pm Pix from previous BFO rides: April 2011 March 2012 November 2012 Cheers, Steve
Seems like the new Double Peak Challenge route was a hit: we had plenty of takers for the steep sidetrip, and those that skipped it probably will elect to go to the summit next time. While Double Peak is tough, it wasn't as bad as some of the maps make it out to be - most of our computers were reading grades between 15% and 20%. Too Easy!
We stopped at Yogurt Utopia Cafe in San Elijo Hills... uh, it was OK, but... running out of coffee??? Come on! Oh well, the word is that the old cafe location is going to reopen soon - fingers crossed on that one. Lots of discussion today about a Big Ride... either Borrego Five-O or a Mount Palomar ride. Look for news about one of those for the first Saturday in November. This week's ridership: 13 Cyclists (4W / 9M) With a Welcome to another new rider: Ed! Next week's ride will be a fun one... Highland Valley Loop Date: Tuesday October 15, 2013 Time: 9:00am Scenic riding on Highland Valley Road! Cheers, Steve
It was back to the 9am start this week and maybe that's a more popular time because there was a pretty good turnout for the ride. I think our total of 16 today is a new record. And maybe the weather also helped: it was flat-out perfect today. Gotta love those fall days!
Due to worries over the return time, not everyone did the full route today (which we were kind of making up as we went along), but as it turned out we still made it back to the park before 1pm. The full-route group made a coffee stop at Caffe Positano in Fairbanks Ranch, where we had the place all to ourselves - which was good because we still needed space for a bunch of bikes and riders! This week's ridership: 16 Cyclists (6W / 10M) Next week's ride will be tougher... Double Peak Challenge Date: Tuesday October 8, 2013 Time: 9:00am Out to San Marcos and then up and over Twin Oaks, with a sidetrip to the Double Peak summit. Returning on Elfin Forest/Harmony Grove. About 42 miles and 4,000'... but the Double Peak sidetrip is optional! Cheers, Steve |
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