Gregory Raye arrived very late on Monday. On Tuesday, the three of them rode over Ebbetts Pass from both sides, turning around at Hermit Valley. 62 miles, 6500 ft.
Don and Diana Axtell arrived in camp early Tuesday afternoon. No riding for them that day. LeRoy saved them a spot in the traditional campsite (#21), while David and Gregory were set up in two other nearby campsites.
On Wednesday Diana drove over to Carson City for the day, while the others rode their bikes over Carson Pass from both sides, stopping for lunch in Kirkwood. On the way back, they were caught in a thunder storm and waited it out at a store near Woodfords. 60 miles, 5200 ft.
Back in camp, it was discovered that nobody's tent was spared from the rain. The water had run down the sides of the tents, onto the ground cover, then under the tents, finally seeping into blankets and sleeping bags. The afternoon was spent drying stuff out and doing some grading work under the tents to keep the water from coming under the next time.
LeRoy didn't fix his tent on Wednesday afternoon like everybody else did, but later found that the stuff in his tent was also soaked. On Thursday LeRoy spent most of the day drying his stuff out and doing major earth moving under his tent. Everybody else just took it easy this day. The only bike riding done this day was Don and Diana riding once around the small lake. 2.4 miles, 30 ft.
The rain came again on Thursday evening, arriving at 6:00 PM and staying for the next 3 to 4 hours. It was pretty dreary, but not too cold. Dinner was cooked under the beach umbrella that Don had luckily brought to camp. Dinner was eaten inside the tents, then everyone retired for the night.
Jennie Phillips and Ron Tsuromoto arrived on Thursday evening, luckily after the rain had stopped. Jennie set her tent up next to LeRoy's while Ron slept inside his coffin (the back of his pickup).
Friday was bike cleanup day. Again this year, LeRoy spent the most time cleaning his bike but only took four hours this time, cutting an hour off of last year's time because he switched to a spray cleaner.
Around noon, Don left to take Diana to Reno to catch a plane back to San Jose. He arrived back in camp just in time to join Jennie, David, and Ron on a little last minute Death Ride training. They rode over to Woodfords, then did a 10 mile loop from there, fighting a very strong headwind all the way back, and not too sorry that this loop was not part of the Death Ride this year. 25 miles, 2000 ft.
Jeff Coe was the last to join the campout, arriving Friday afternoon. He joined David in his campsite.
Bears ... did I mention that we had a bear in camp this year? For the first time in all the 10 years that I've been coming to this campground, we had bear(s) - at least one, but maybe not the same one each time. The first night I heard dogs barking in the middle of the night, but didn't pay any attention to it. The next morning we found that the dumpster in the parking lot was tipped over and the trash scattered all over. They said it was a bear, but I didn't really believe them because we had left our food in the campground and it wasn't touched. The next night, just to be on the safe side, we put all food inside the cars. During the night, I heard something going through the stuff in camp and peeked out with my flashlight to see what it was. It was a skunk, so I was happy that it went away without giving any trouble. Later that night, I again heard noises, and again peeked out, this time expecting to see the skunk again. What I saw was much bigger, and it was a bear, going through LeRoy's stuff. I yelled out to LeRoy that it was a bear, and the bear ran off. LeRoy came out to check on his stuff, and then I saw that the bear was hiding behind the tree. LeRoy managed to scare the bear off. Each night after that we left a lantern lit all night long, and that seemed to keep the bear from coming into camp. Almost every night, the bear would come back and get into the dumpster.
I rode from camp, and left the start about 11 minutes early. Ron and LeRoy were somewhere ahead and I left Jennie and Karl Schilling waiting for Mike Ash at the start.
Monitor Pass went as planned, without too much trouble. Very fast downhills, and a little bit warm coming up the backside. I didn't get passed by anyone while climbing the front side, but ended up paying for it a bit on the back side. Once back up to the summit, I forced myself to stop and eat, and it took me 23 minutes to eat a PBJ sandwich. I stopped and ate one after the first climb also, but it went down much quicker.
Climbing Ebbetts, I tried to maintain, and I did pretty good. I was still able to pass more people than were passing me, so I was happy. Erin McCarty caught me at the summit, and I told her that it was probably last year at the top of Ebbetts Pass that I saw her last. Mike and Karl were at the top when I got there, and LeRoy and Jeff rode by while we were resting.
Heading down the backside of Ebbetts, I first saw Karen Langeman then saw Jennie about a minute behind her. I figured that they were about 40 minutes ahead of me at this time. Karen stayed at Sorenson's and got an early start. Jennie left the top of Monitor just as I was starting my epic sandwich eating, so had increased her lead on me even further. Soon after I passed them, it started to sprinkle.
I felt good when I started down the backside, so at the bottom I just turned around and started back up. The climb up felt pretty good, and I passed alot more than were passing me. The gentle rain kept it cool while climbing, so I didn't mind it one bit, as I have done this hill before when it was hot. Once back up at Ebbetts Pass, the rain turned to a downpour. I met Karl and Mike standing under a tree. The lunch stop was at the bottom of the hill, and I was pretty sure that the rain was just at the top, so without delay I headed down, followed quickly by Karl and Mike.
I usually feel good when coming down Ebbetts Pass, as all of the tough long climbs are now behind me, and I am always sure that I can finish the whole ride by this time. Since this year they were leaving out both the Diamond Valley loop and Luthor's Pass, I felt really good. After a quick lunch stop, I snuck out ahead of Mike and Karl and headed towards Markleeville. I stopped at Monitor junction to wring out my socks and to take off my windbreaker, as the weather now looked much better.
I made good time through Markleeville and Woodfords and up Woodford's canyon, passing lots of people on the uphills. While going up the canyon, I saw Jennie coming back down. I first thought, wow she's doing real good, but then realized that she was too far ahead to have done the whole ride. It turned out that Jennie turned back at the top of Woodfords canyon because both of her legs were cramping up. She limped back to Turtle Rock Park, getting there around 2:30. Jennie was still about 45 minutes ahead of me when she turned back.
At the top of Woodford's canyon, I found that the water stop was changed into a full reststop, as the Luthor Pass reststop was just moved down the hill. It was good, because I needed a rest to eat some food. I finished the last of my 4 PBJ sandwiches that I had brought.
Starting up Carson Pass, it was sprinkling, so it was not hot, and I could see that it had been raining. About half way up, I saw Karen coming down. She was still about 45 minutes ahead of me, and I think that she was the fifth place female. Karen was having a good ride. Karen was dressed in a garbage bag, and had gotten rained on at the top. She had missed the rain on Ebbetts Pass, so this was the only rain that she got during the ride.
Further up the climb, LeRoy passed me coming down. He was about 20 minutes ahead of me. He had been keeping his reststops very short, and almost non-existant. I couldn't do that, as I was not eating while riding, and so I needed my reststops so that I could eat.
I found Jeff at the top of Carson Pass. He was very grateful for all of the advice that I had given him, as this was his first Death Ride, and he was depending on my experiences to help him get through it, and it seemed to work.
On the way down, I passed Mike and Karl about 20 minutes behind me, then Ron about 40 minutes back. Down in Woodfords canyon I saw Guy Neenan coming up. He was near the end of the people, but I think he could have still beaten the cutoff time.
I got back to Turtle Rock at 4:56 PM, feeling pretty good. I was happy with my ride. My average speed was only 13.1 mph compared to 13.9 from last year, but I expected that as I was in better shape last year. When comparing my times with my predictions, my travel time was 6 minutes slower while my rest time was 7 minutes faster, so that my total time was actually just 1 minute faster than my prediction. I could live with that. I ended up with 134.3 miles and 15,300 ft of climbing, starting and finishing at camp. That would make the regular Death Ride about 123 miles with 14,400 ft of climbing. I don't know how they came up with the advertised 16,310 ft of climbing. Just a little bit off.
The first one finished from our group was David. He rode from camp, leaving about 5 minutes ahead of me, and got to Turtle Rock at 3:10, so he was about 1:45 faster than my time. Karen was second, about 45 minutes ahead, then LeRoy was next, about 20 minutes ahead, then Jeff about 5 minutes ahead, then it was me, then Mike and Karl about 20 minutes behind. Roy Sueda came in just after Mike and Karl. Roy was very happy as this was his first complete Death Ride, after 4 tries. He got caught in the rain on Ebbetts, and so wasn't too sure about his chances, but was able to shake it off and keep going. Ron came in about an hour behind me. Ron was happy with his time, as he was also not in the best of shape this year.
Gregory did just the first 3 passes. He just missed the cutoff for going down the back of Ebbetts, they say because he spent to much time talking with the women that he met alot the way.
Other people from the club that I saw were Jim Molinari, John Blaine, Steve Novelli, Ellen Atteberry, Ann Nelson, Mike Aber, and Les Malecki. I also saw Roy's friends that were with us on Sierra-to-the-Sea, Beth, Anaka, and Shawn. Roy's friend, Janine did not do the ride.
At the finish, most of us skipped the after-ride dinner as the line was almost 2 hours long. Instead we went back to camp and fixed up a big dinner using everyone's leftovers.
After dinner, Jennie wanted to do a short walk to try to get her legs to feel better, so we all ended up doing the traditional after-dinner hike up the hill to the lookout point. It was getting dark when we were just starting out, and so was very dark by the time we got back down. Even though this hike was tradition (we did it every evening last year), this was the only time that we did it this year.
After the hike, we all sat around the campfire (also traditional) and tried to use up all of the remaining firewood. Big fire. Good end to a good day.
At breakfast, the pancakes were huge, being about 10" across and maybe a half inch thick. LeRoy managed to eat two of these, plus lots of potatos, plus the other half of my omlette, as for some reason I couldn't find room in my stomach for another bike. I don't think that LeRoy got filled up.