This year, thanks to Pamela Downs, I was going to attempt my first Climb to Kaiser. And also thanks to my wife Diana for letting me have one more weekend away to do my bike riding. Pam had done Climb to Kaiser last year, and so she talked it up so much that she convinced both me and Deborah Lefferts that we had to come do it with her again this year.
After dinner, we went to the ride check-in at Letterman Park. We all got our rider packets and T-shirts or jerseys, depending on what we ordered. I was #133 and Deb was #130, as we had sent in our registration about the same time. Then Pam showed us her number. She was very proud to have that number, and I asked her who she had to sleep with to get it. It was a variation of Pam's "Jewelry Joke". Pam, for some unknown reason, had managed to get #1. Pam had sent her registration in early, but she didn't think it was that early.
After check in we headed off to find a 7-11 to buy some stuff for the morning. On the way, a pickup truck changed lanes, cutting us off. Pam honked. The truck then changed lanes again, cutting us off once more as we had also changed lanes. It appears that the guy had never seen us either time. Anyway, we are now both waiting in the left turn lane, and we notice that the pickup has a Climb to Kaiser poster stuck in its back window along with the words "The Cookie Man". The light turns green, and the pickup goes and pulls into the 7-11. We pull in behind him, since that was where we were going. But now we notice that the pickup decides to just continue on through the parking lot and out the other side, seemly now afraid that we were following him to get even for him cutting us off. We figured that we would see him at the Tollhouse reststop the next day, but we never did.
Back in the motel, Pam and I made up our peanut butter and jelly (PBJ) sandwiches for the next day. Pam had 4, I had 5. Deb also had 3 made up already. Then we started in on a 500-piece jigsaw puzzle that I had brought along, being leftover from the Death Ride Campout. We got about half way through then decided to call it a night.
The temperature was about 70F this morning, so no extra clothes to keep warm were required. I just had my tanktop, with no extra tshirt or windbreaker. At 5:30 sharp they let everybody go. There were 193 people signed up for this ride. I let most of them go on ahead, and so was riding very close to the end, along with Pam, Deb, and Keith. The 4 of us were to stay together for most of the way to the first reststop. We had police guarding all of the traffic lights on the way out of town, so all we had to worry about was riding our bikes. This was going to be a great day.
It was a very unusual sunrise this day. The sun started to pop up, but it didn't really look like a sun. It was a solid orange color, and had no brightness to it at all, so it was easy to stare at. We had our own little peloton forming now. Pam and I were leading, and we had Deb and Keith. We also had about 8 other riders hanging on. I told Pam it must be her #1 - everone wanted to ride with her.
About 15 miles into the ride, I heard a ping, and knew right away what it must be. I broke a spoke just a few days before, and so I knew that this was another one breaking. The good news was that it was on my front wheel and I was packing a spare spoke, so I stopped and had it replaced and my wheel trued in just about 5 minutes. During this time, the others had gone on ahead and I think all the stragglers had also come on by, so I might have been last in the ride by this time. I had thoughts of having more mechanical problems and then of being off the back for the whole day. But I tried not to let it worry me. I headed off.
The flat roads were finished by now and I knew it was a good steady climb up to the first reststop. Before too long I started to catch the others, who were all spread out by this time. I checked in with Deb, and told her to have a good ride, thinking that I might not be seeing her again for a long time. Then I caught and passed Pam and Keith. I would wait up at the reststop.
Pam was in and out of the reststop while I was still there. I was her domestic, so I filled her water bottle and got her food while she remained on her bike. I followed a few minutes later.
Just a few small hills and rollers before the 2nd reststop at Tollhouse. Here we were met by Alfred Wong. Alfred is now living in San Jose and is a member of ACTC, but he did live in Fresno, and was last year's vice president of the Fresno Cycling Club. So Alfred was helping out his old club by helping to staff the reststops. Pam was in and out quickly. I hung out a few more minutes. Just as I was ready to go, I noticed Deb arrive, looking good and fresh. It looked like she was going to have an OK day.
Pam had a good headstart, but coming up was the 7-mile long Tollhouse Grade so I figured that I had plenty of opportunity to catch back up again. Before long I was caught back up. I would often go on ahead then stop and wait while I had a half PBJ or stopped to pee.
All of the roads so far have been with very little traffic. We headed out of Clovis on Shaw, then took Watts Valley Rd, Burroughs Valley Rd, and Tollhouse Grade so far. Next up was a long section on Highway 168. Here there was almost a constant stream of cars, so that we had to remain single file at all times.
After the 3rd reststop at Church of Christ, we got down right next to Shaver Lake then finally turned off of Hwy 168 onto Huntington Lake Rd. No more traffic and it looked like a newly repaved road. We had a 3 mile downhill just ahead, the first long downhill of the day. We had so far climbed up to 5600 ft, but were going down to Big Creek at 4500 ft.
At the water stop in Big Creek, the road was going to turn seriously uphill. Pam showed me a trick she tried last year to keep cool in the heat. She got some ice and filled her sports bra up, going from a B-cup to a D-cup. It worked for me. I decided to hang with Pam the rest of the day. Just joking. I really didn't even notice.
Half way up the next long climb, the road goes around a switchback, with a side road coming in. Easy to make a wrong turn here, so I waited for Pam to catch back up. Then it was on up to the top and lunch not too long after, right on the shore of Huntington Lake. I came very close to jumping in the lake here, but decided that Pam's advice was best. We would get up to Kaiser Pass before we took any detours.
We left lunch a good half hour behind my schedule, even though I thought it felt like we were making good progress all along. I figured that it must be because lunch was at 7000 ft elevation and so we had all of that potential energy saved up. A few good downhills and we'd be right back on schedule. That never happened.
Climbing up to Kaiser Pass, we kept a lookout for Jennie and Karl coming back down, but we never did see them. Too much of a lead. Finally at the top, now maybe an hour behind schedule, we were both happy just to be there. Pam and I didn't really worry about the schedule. After about 20 minutes we headed back down. We now kept a lookout for Deb, but didn't see her. We did see some other riders who she should have been close to Deb, but no Deb.
After coming down from Kaiser Pass, the road goes around Huntington Lake, but never gets close to it like at lunch. Then it did a very long downhill on Hwy 168 back to Shaver Lake. Pam was still agreeable to a short swim, and I was now looking forward to it, so I was glad. We found a great spot and went in for about 15 minutes. It was well worth the time. Very cool and refreshing.
Just a few miles after the swim we were back at the church reststop. Alfred was now manning this one. He was in charge of the clipboard with all of the times for each rider. He looked up Karl and Jennie. They were through about 3.5 hours ago. Wow! Then he looked up Deb. She was close to the end of riders who came through the first time, but he said that Deb was still looking good.
Back on the road again and heading towards Auberry Rd and the last reststop. It was very much downhill which was good, but it was also getting back down into the heat. Lucky for us we were now almost 2 hours behind schedule, so the hot part of the day was behind us. We were now starting to check if we would have enough daylight to finish with. From the last reststop at Millerton Store it was only 15 flat miles on into the finish.
I checked with Pam and she was willing to paceline behind me for the remainder of the ride. Up to this time, I had let Pam set the pace and do all of her own work. But now it was time to get this puppy over with. I headed out, and arranged with Pam that she would tell me to either slow down or speed up, depending on what she could handle. We ended up cruising at about 19 mph. Then towards the end, we picked the pace up a bit, and Pam felt stronger so she also took some pulls at the front. Then towards the end we were keeping 21 mph and passing up people along the way. We caught and passed Keith just a quarter mile from the end. We pulled back into Letterman Park at 8:13 pm, for a total time of 14 hours 43 minutes. 15 minutes later it was dark. Jennie and Karl had finished still 3.5 hours ahead of us.
My stats were 156.1 miles, 12.9 mph, MB- pace, 80.6% ride factor.
Pam's stats were 154.8 miles, 12.2 mph, M+ pace, 86.1% ride factor.
Now we just had to figure out where Deborah was. We checked the list of finishers and Deb was not checked in yet. They had dinner for everybody at the finish, so Pam and I tried to eat a bit while we waited, but we were both still pretty wound up from the ride to be able to eat. We then decided to take the car out and see if we could locate Deb coming in, as it was now dark and she only had a taillight. We drove 5 miles back along the route and passed small groups of riders coming in, but none of them looked like Deb. We turned around and came back to the finish.
Back at the finish we got word that the last four riders were coming along, escorted by two motorcycles to provide lights. Deb was one of them. Good, now we knew where she was. Now I didn't have to worry any more. Pam and I waited at the finish line with the others. Finally, at 9:21 pm, they all arrived. Deb was leading them in. Deb told us later that she couldn't get the other riders to speed up and so she finally took over the lead. That made them speed up.
It was Deb who had the big adventure. She spent about 3 hours being on the wrong road. Back at that hairpin between Big Creek and Huntington Lake, where I waited for Pam to make sure she went the right way, that was where Deb made her mistake. She took the side road and didn't figure out that she went the wrong way until about 15 miles later. She ended up having to miss the Kaiser Pass section but got more miles on her own option, so she actually ended up with about 15 miles more than the rest of us.
These were all records for Deborah for most miles, most climbing, and most time on a bike. Deborah felt good all day and finished strong. I asked her if RAAM would be next.
Now that we had Deb, we loaded her up and drove back to the motel. It was now 10:00 pm, but the hot tub stayed open till 11:00, so that was our destination. We also had 3 bottles of wine that were supposed to be for celebrating the end of the ride, so we managed to finish them also. It was 12 midnight when Deb and Pam finally kicked me out and I went back to my own room.
A list of finishers can be found at http://www.fresnocycling.com/kaiser/ctk2000results.pdf
I am still feeling very good. A little tired, but still very high. I had a great time. I am trying to bring the high down slowly, as not to crash.
P.S. I found 3 spots to get wet (no swimming hole) on my adventure. Very pretty. I guess I have been hanging out with Donny too much. I am always looking for a swimming hole.
I talked to several of the Frenso Cycling Club, next year a cone will be there.
Deborah
Hi Donny!
Yep, Pam told me about Deb's grand adventure. I'm not surprised...each year I've done it, I remember coming up to that right hand turn on Kaiser and wonder if I'm going the right way. They really should have the road marked, or at least have a cone at the turn to keep you from going left. Even when you turn left to start the initial climb up Kaiser, you're uncertain. Karl & I actually stopped to double-check the map before continuing. We looked for ya'll as we came down off the pass.
We had a good ride but the furnace blasted us (and everybody else) coming down into Auberry. Karl pulled nearly the entire way from the long descent to the Millerton store. Then the heat caught up with him big-time. We spent about a half hour there...he was able to get a couple bottles of water down him and cooled down some with cold towels...and stuck his feet, shoes and all!, in that wading pool. He was a bit nauseous but was able to recover after a bit of time. We just kept a steady, easy pace for those final 15, brutal, hot miles. I love that water tower at the finish! What a beautiful sight! We finished at 4:45. Laid on the cool, shady grass for an hour before we could even think about eating, and even after that, we ate slooooooowly. Hung around at the park until 7pm. Showered and hit the road by 8pm. Stopped in Los Banos at Foster's Freeze for burrito and ice cream!
Was exhausted when I got home (11:15). Too tired to sleep. Finally took a couple of advil at 4am and dozed off shortly thereafter. So, yes, I was sleepy yesterday and still am today!
Glad that Deb had such good spirits Saturday. That had to be disappointing for her not to do Kaiser Peak (was someone able to snag a pin for her anyway?). And yes, Pam said that the two of you were already ready to sign up for next year! Animals!
See ya! Congratulations!