It’s time to admit that we’re training for a tour this summer. The last two have been cancelled (2019 due to a bike frame crack we couldn’t fix in time, 2020 due to covid). I didn’t want to jinx it by talking about it too much.

We’re planning to do a tour very similar to the Cascades tour in Oregon in 2013, in early June. Our recent rides have been to get in shape for it.

Today was the first fully loaded training ride. Anne has been updating our pack list, and yesterday we collected everything and put it in bags. This will be the first tour with the tandem and no Chariot. We bought more bags for Anne to carry on the tandem, for the stuff we packed in Max in the Chariot.

For riding loaded I use a front rack. My bike doesn’t fit on top of the car with the front rack installed. Rather than reinstalling the rack before every training ride, the rest of our training will mean rolling out from home.

So we did a Calaveras out and back. We’ve done this ride in various incarnations. A loop. A loop in the other direction. An out and back. We generally prefer loops, but make an exception here. The return would otherwise be through mostly flat city streets, which isn’t very exciting. Returning means more time on the beautiful (and usually quiet) Calaveras.

After routing through Newark and Fremont, we rode through Niles Canyon. The road has a mix of nice shoulder and zero shoulder. And it’s a busy connection to Sunol and beyond. In the morning it was pretty quiet, though.

We stopped briefly at the train station in Sunol for restroom, food, and a Mother’s Day call to my mom. Then it was on to Calaveras.

Calaveras spends some time pretty flat, past a quarry, a tree nursery, and a regional park. Then the main climb begins. But the slope never gets much past 5%, enough to work but not enough to really suffer.

We stopped midway up at our favorite lunch turnout. I had secretly (maybe?) packed Mother’s Day gifts with the luggage, including a pot holder and card that Ruth made, and some river otter socks from me. Max couldn’t wait and gave his gift (a card and a collection of things that represent what he’s thankful for Mommy) days ago.

Then back on the road, to finish the main climb, and the rollers after. We stopped just before the descent for The Wall, which is a challenging climb in the other direction. We snacked, passed the trailer back to me, and also swapped the kids. Max would ride the tandem for the second half, Ruth in the Hase trailer.

We can easily adjust the seatpost on the tandem, but the Hase is harder. So Ruth would need to cope with too-close pedals. I asked her to help me with the uphill parts of the rollers.

And she did, helping to make the short climby bits not to painful. But the return is mostly a long slow descent.

On the last few uphill bits before Sunol I started having a hard time. I got my second covid vaccine dose two days ago. Yesterday I felt pretty miserable, but felt a lot better today. Between that, the bags, and generally wearing out, I was running out of steam.

We paused in Sunol. Anne said she was feeling pretty good, so took the trailer back. Everybody likes being with Mommy better anyways.

Niles Canyon was much busier than in the morning. Many drivers were not interested in waiting for an opening to pass, so just played chicken with cars in the other lane. But on the plus side, the return is mostly downhill, so it’s pretty fast. And the scenery is still lovely.

As always, the last few miles dragged. I was doing a bit better without the trailer and less climbing. But of course we made it home. And since we didn’t drive to the start point, we could just roll into the garage and start our evening.