2021 Rides

Mother’s Day Calaveras out and back

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.

2021 Rides

Fake Tierra Bella

We had intended to do a loaded ride leaving straight from home today, but didn’t get our act together with getting bags and my front rack ready. So we decided to take advantage of our laziness and do another ride a bit further from home.

We’ve done a version of this ride as the supported Tierra Bella ride. In fact, it was the capstone of our training for the West Coast tour. So it was nice to revisit it.

Anne moved the start point north a few miles, shaving off some relatively boring from the beginning and end. It still took the form of a pair of loops in the east and west hills that makes the valley Gilroy sits in. First off was to the west.

The climb along Roop was challenging but not too bad. We stopped for a quick snack near the top, and ended up walking the bikes a bit further up to find a flatter bit of road to launch on. Near the top is a series of switchbacks. I had hoped the last one would mark the top, but no such luck.

After a false summit there was more climbing, though much shallower. The road narrowed and mostly had heavy woods to our right and overlooking canyon on the left. Traffic was very light, making for a lovely ride.

Near the (real) top, we stopped and switched Max over to Anne. By now the terrain shifted to meadows and rolling hills. We got our reward for the earlier climb with a swift descent back to the valley floor and started heading for the western hills.

We stopped for lunch in a pullout that formed part of a driveway for one of the many farms and vineyards. As we were getting ready to roll out again the proprietor came out to chat and offer us some bottles of wine. Evidently he had bought the place recently and was getting all the paperwork and licensing in order. The wine he had could not be legally sold, but it could be gifted. Unfortunately we had no place to put it, so had to decline. But I can certify the folks at L&M Winery as very friendly.

We swapped positions so Max rode on the tandem and Ruth rode in the trailer. The tandem is easy to adjust for size (quick releases on the seatpost). The Hase is harder though, so we didn’t. Ruth is quite a bit taller than Max, so she couldn’t comfortably pedal. But she did it anyways.

Our route to the western edge of Gilroy took us up Mantelli, a housing development with unreasonably sized houses on a straight steep hill. Anne and the kids ended up stopping to walk pretty early. Without a trailer I was lighter and could keep going for a while. But then when there finally was a curve I could see it kept going for too far and I lost the drive to continue. I stopped to catch my breath, and when the other bike caught up I walked with them.

After the descent, we had a different unpleasant ride along Watsonville Road. The road was busy and with very little shoulder. Most drivers were courteous, though.

The climb along Uvas Road was easier than Roop. Traffic was higher than Roop, but much lighter than on Watsonville. One we got up along the edge of the reservoir it changed into rolling hills generally up. We stopped at a state park parking lot to use the restroom, and I took the trailer back, along with Max. We continued around, eventually hitting the final major summit for the day.

Looping back around and then south to the car went pretty quickly. The last ten miles of most rides can drag. But this one came with a slight downslope and a tailwind. Those combined for a 19 mph cruising speed, quite fast for us with trailers and gear and such. I was starting to wear out pretty good, but the road carried me through.

We parked along a playground, so once the kids helped get the tandem in the car, we let them go play while finishing loading the car. We stopped at a gas station for some snacks (and gas), then headed home.

Overall a nice ride, though the first half was definitely nicer than the second half. Maybe next week we’ll get our ducks in a row and do a fully loaded ride.

2021 Davis Overnight, 2021 Rides

Davis Noncity Loop (sort of..)

The last time we did a Davis overnight, we did a figure eight, with two loops starting both starting from the same hotel. We weren’t yet confident in actually hauling everything with two kids — and Max was only 18 months old at the time. For the regular ride, we ended up spending a long time going along flat farm roads, a little bit of hill, then a long flat ride back.

We wanted to do something with more hills this time, so we drove out to near Fairfield and started the ride from there. It’s a bit of a strange overnight bike trip with two loops from different starting points, but that’s what happened.

There was rain in the forecast for today. In fact, we planned this so last minute that there was rain in the forecast well before we booked anything. But why let a little water get in the way? We’ve done plenty of rainy rides. Though this would be the first rainy ride with Ruth exposed on the tandem, rather than safe in an enclosed Chariot trailer or the Hase in green torpedo mode.

We went straight for the green torpedo for Max (his first time in this configuration). He was quite amused. The rest of us suited up, with assorted jackets, pants, gloves, waterproof socks, booties, and helmet covers, to the preference of the rider. What gear we chose not to wear I stowed in my bags. Max started out with Anne.

As we got started, it was overcast but not especially rainy. We rode north along the foothills, before turning onto Hwy 128 and the first climb up to Monticello Dam, which forms Lake Berryessa. The climb had some steep parts, and we ended up walking for a bit. While stopped, I took off the rain covers of my bags, and joked that, of course, taking off rain covers is the best way to make the rain properly start.

Shortly after we remounted, I was proven right. The hills we were riding between channeled strong winds, and brought with it a sprinkling. We finished the climb, rode along the lake for a bit, then got a enjoyed a short descent.

Before the next climb would start we decided to stop for lunch. We found a pull out against a hill that would provide some shelter from the wind. As we ate, the rain picked up. We decided to get moving so we could warm up again before the rain became too punishing. I got to pull Max for the next segment.

The wind and rain continued for a bit, but then let up as we started climbing again. This climb was longer but shallower than the first. It was through the hills, so we couldn’t see too far ahead. I kept hoping that each turn would bring with it the peak, but most of them disappointed me. Still, we kept inching along and eventually made it. We paused to adjust gear (climbing is hot, descending is cold). Ruth was unhappy about her wet gloves, but kept trucking along.

Down down (and cold cold) we went, to all too quickly start the third climb. This one was shallower still. Shallow enough that we could hold a bit of a conversation. The kids played “plenty questions”, our road game variant of 20 questions without limits. Max chose the giant spider from Harry Potter. Ruth chose Niles Canyon.

The next top was tricky. I was expecting a long descent with some uphill sections. Instead I got more climbing with some downhill sections. The grade wasn’t too bad but I was looking forward to less pedaling. I called for a pause for a snack the next time it leveled off. When we got there, Anne announced (with the help of her bike computer) that we were at the peak for the day. My long descent was still in the future.

Ruth lost it for a few minutes. She was cold, but had been bottling it up. Anne took off her arm warmers and gave them to Ruth (Ruth’s had been forgotten at home and she had declined mine already). But what really turned things around was Max announcing a victory song. It sounded like a bunch of raspberries being blown. Silly Max got everybody laughing and we continued.

The rain had largely let up, but still made descending tricky. Both brakes and the road surface are slick. Max often likes pedaling madly on the downhills, for More Speed! But I told him not to today, since I needed to control our speed pretty closely. We still had fun.

The downhill brought us eventually into the edge of the burbs in Fairfield. By now the sun was out (mostly). Traffic was heavier, but at least there was a shoulder to ride in. There were more short climbs. Anne recognized that I was starting to wear out so she pulled us over and took Max for the last few miles. We rode along a frontage for I-80, and made it back to the van. Fortunately, the end of the ride was dry enough that none of the gear was dripping wet by the time it was ready to be loaded.

All in all, a wet but successful ride. I talked to Ruth about it after, and she agreed that it was fun overall, but hard. The arm warmers did their job and helped her regain good spirits. I think she’ll still ride with us.