Sue's back tire slid out while on a turn with wet pavement, putting her on the ground before she knew what happened. Her glasses took the scraping on the pavement, but ended up cutting her cheek just below the eye. She also had a few scrapes on her thigh, knee, and fingers.
After first checking on Sue, Alan left to go get the car, while the rest of us stayed to help take car of Sue while we waited. Sue was starting to shiver, so she ended up wearing about eight windbreakers, and had Jennie and I on each side of her to try to get some body warmth.
Cars coming by were very considerate, asking if they could help, but we kept saying that everything was ok, we were waiting for Alan's car. Finally, it was decided that maybe we should find a truck and get Sue on down the hill, meeting Alan as he came up. Less than a minute later, and a pickup came by. The driver was very willing, and so Sue was in the cab quickly. Jennie climbed in the back to go along to make sure the transfer went ok.
Then the ride continued, as is told below by all of the separate parties. -Don Axtell
When you get dried-off & sorted-out, let me know how the ride evolved.
I hope Jen & Karl found some of you guys & rescued some of the survivors.
Dan Pappone, Karl Schilling & I held back @ the scene on Page Mill. By & by we separated, Dan chasing to San Gregorio. & Karl & me descended toward Moody to meet Jen. We found her near Moody & reascended Page Mill. We thought we'd take a shortcut to San. G. by descending Alpine/Portola. But as we crested the Alpine ridge, rain was peppering the road & sheets of rain were visible to the northwest & southeast. We were demoralized & determined to minimize the risks of a sloppy ride. We turned-about & descended Page Mill /Moody oncemore. We were surprised to encounter Jimmy Baker dauntlessly climbing Page Mill. Be sure he gets some ride credit!
By the time we reached McKenzie park we were partly air-dried. Jen & Karl endeavored to caravan back along the route to rescue three or four of you wet puppies. I bailed, not having a roof rack. I hope they made contact.
Meanwhile, it turned into a pleasant, dry afternoon over here in the valley. Were things on the coast as bad as they appeared to us? Did Dan catch-up to yous? Was the pot belly stove glowing @ the San G. cafe?
They say we've had only 10 inches of rain so far this season. I think that most of the rain has been on Saturdays. I recall so many wet rides this year that I begin to forget about that el nino year.
Let me know about Sue if you can. I'll be so glad to see her again, soon. The care, support, & comfort that you gave to her are appreciated by all of us. You make it happen for us, Donny. We're all reassured by your presence & assistance on the rides. I know that I ride much more confidently when I know you're counting, watching, & aiding us @ most times. Hang with me Donny, I know the day may come when I'll need one of those emergency PBJ's or a bungy-pull for my very survival!
First, I called Sue and Alan on Sunday morning to see how they were doing. Everyone is ok now. Alan and Sue connected up at Moody and Page Mill. Alan then took Sue to the hospital, where she got her cut cleaned up and the rest of her checked out. Sue now has a sore shoulder, possibly from the tetanus shot, and also a black eye from the fall. Sue says we might see her on the Mt. Tam ride this weekend.
Concerning the rest of the ride, it went pretty good. After I left you Dan and Karl, I went and caught up with the others. They were attempting a regroup at Sky Londa, but I moved them all down the road to San Gregorio to wait for you guys and Jennie there. Good thing, too.
The last few miles to the store, it started drizzling and looked like it could get worse. Either I was feeling pretty strong, or we had a tailwind, or both, but I was cruising at 25 to 30 mph for that last few miles, towing the last of our group along with me. Dan caught up with us on the downhill, so he was now back with our group. The pavement was dry when we got to the store, but it very soon got very wet.
The fire was going in the stove, and they had a guy playing live music. So we were all very comfortable just hanging out. It was sprinkling pretty good now, so we were in no hurry to get going again. We were also still waiting for you guys, but then started to expect that you all would not have come down the hill in the rain. A few bikes did come in while we waited, and they were pretty wet.
Finally it was about time to go, so we went outside and checked. It was still raining, so we went back inside to wait some more. Mylo got some garbage bags that alot of the people put on. Ten minutes later we went outside again. Now it looked like it might be stopping, and so we decided to go ahead and do the normal route.
So we all turned left and went up Stage Rd to the top at Hwy 1. The drizzle had pretty much stopped now, so things weren't looking too bad. Then we turned around again and headed towards Pescadero. It sprinkled a bit on the last climb, but then in Pescadero the roads were still dry. We stopped for our real lunch then. We sat outside. No sunshine, but no rain either.
Starting up Pescadero Rd we finally came across Jimmy Baker. He told us he saw you guys going back down Page Mill, so that confirmed that you weren't out there trying to catch us. The fast guys then went on ahead, not to be seen again, while I stayed with the last group of 6 or so, making sure that we all got back ok.
We had another reststop at the Portola Park junction, where the sun had finally come out. It felt good to get some sunshine again. The sunny section of Alpine was even quite warm. It felt good. We got back to the cars around 4:30.
Coming out of the San Gregorio store, we were thinking that it might be rain all of the way back home, but luckily it had stopped, and the rest of the ride was good.
Yesterday I went on Lucie's Capitola Ride. Lucie wasn't there, due to her broken ankle, and so Pam was the ride leader. The odds were wonderful on this ride. We had 13 people total and 8 of them were women. The weather started off iffy, but then the roads were dry on the Santa Cruz side, and the sun came out. I was able to wear my tank top for the last half of the ride.
We missed you and Karl for the balance of Saturday's ride -- we waited at Sky Londa and San Gregorio but figured you "bailed" when the rains came. I know Sue really appreciated all your support and help. I saw Sue and Alan today -- Sue was healing real well and seemed in good spirits. We really appreciated your Jennie "cakes". They were delicious. Pedro and Danaroni ate theirs and then wanted mine! I was able to salvage a few bites. Thanks for your thoughtfulness.
-Giuseppe
When I said that I would 'ride back up Page Mill', it didn't dawn on me just how long that might take! I was feeling really bad about making everyone wait so I was glad when I heard that ya'll had rolled along to San Gregorio. I really expected to see Alan about 1 mile or so as we headed down Page Mill. But we kept going down and down and down. Never realized how twisty and rollery Page Mill was! I could have sworn that the driver must have thought he on the Indy track...but I'm sure I was just feeling the effects of moving down a windy road while facing backward! Pretty soon, we were at the top of Moody Rd. We pulled off and waited there for Alan, not knowing whether he would race up Moody or Page Mill. Within a few minutes, we heard screeching tires coming up Moody and knew that it must be Alan.
After a quick transfer, they were off the hospital. Sue said her head was feeling a little better and she seemed to be more aware of what was happening...that was a good sign! I started back up Page Mill and then decided that I would try to flag down the first pick up I saw and hitch a ride back to the top. After several cars (Mercedez, Accords, etc...the kind who wouldn't want a dirty bike and smelly cyclist in their car!) I finally saw an old pickup and flagged it down. I then realized that the pickup was full of construction type material. The passenger spoke no English but the driver spoke some. I asked for a ride. They were only going to the preserve but I said that I would go however far they were going! I piled in on top of all the stuff in the truck bed and realized that I was sitting nearly a foot and a half off the bed bottom. Oh well. Soon, however, the driver got worried that a policeman would give him a ticket for letting me ride back there. So I climbed out, thanked them anyway, and began riding again. Probably a good thing 'cause I most likely would have bounced out of that truck during the ride.
Further up the road, I heard another truck and flagged them down. It was a nice big truck, with a huge bed, and a king cab. Yeehaw!! The two men had quite the perplexed looks on their faces when I asked for a ride to the top. They were probably thinking 'you have no business being on this road if you cannot RIDE up it!' I briefly explained what had happened. They lifted up the truck bed cover to reveal a nice large truck bed with tons of space...only a couple of small packs were there (they were heading up to Skyline for a hike). I put my bike in the back and was about to get in the cab when lo and behold, I see Karl & Guy!!! What a huge surprise!
Realizing that all 3 of us couldn't fit easily in the truck, I pulled my bike out and the 3 of us proceeded to finish climbing up Page Mill together. I jokingly told them that I would 'thank them later' for rescuing me from the restful warmth of the truck cab!! We had a 'nice' climb up Page Mill, wondering how Sue was doing and figuring out a way to intercept you & the gang somewhere in San Gregorio or Pescadero. It started raining on us the closer we got to Skyline. We had decided to go down Alpine and then hook up with Hwy 84 to try to cut out some miles. As we headed down Alpine, the rain became heavier and the temperature was slowly dropping (it was 47 at the top of Skyline). As we came through the top wooded part of Alpine, we stopped at a clearing where we could see pretty far up and down the coast: it looked miserable! And it appeared that the system was coming from the south and was doomed for hitting all of the roads we would be on. With none of us having any rain gear, we decided to just turn around.
We headed down Page Mill, Moody and back to the cars. I was wondering how everyone else was doing on the coast: I assumed that ya'll were getting dumped on and that some folks might have been as unprepared for it as I was. So figuring we each had room for 2 riders, we jumped in our cars and headed up Hwy 84. As we headed down Hwy 84 we saw Danaroni somewhere around where that big red barn is. By this time, the sky was looking much better, it wasn't raining, and things looked to be pretty tame in terms of possibly rains. Dan said that ya'll had bought trash bags at S.G. and that everyone was in 'good spirits'. We then collectively figured that ya'll were probably OK and that everyone would want to finish the ride. So Danaroni, Karl & I headed back to McKensie Park.
When I got to Danville around mid-afternoon, it was DUMPING! Guess that storm cell swirled from the south and then proceeded straight up the Livermore Valley. About 4pm, the sun came out and there was a lot of blue sky! Karl & I were kicking ourselves for not going down to San Gregorio but then again we realized that we would have been miserable. Guess we were in the wrong place at the wrong time: on Skyline during a rain shower!
Fortunately, Sue is going to be all right. We were imagining some pretty bad stuff: stitches, concussion, broken cheek bone, keeping her overnight for observation. Thankfully, our imaginations were just running wild! And you know Sue, we'll see her on the Mt. Tam ride this Saturday!!!
I wonder if Ken saw the two pieces of bread that I left for him and Pete. If not, then they probably flew off his windshield when he first turned on the wipers!
How did the rest of your day go? How many miles and goats to you want? I've heard from different sources that you and Karl and Guy attempted to go down Alpine but then turned back around to try to avoid the rain. Good choice. We managed to pretty much stay out of the rain, but that was because we had made it into San Gregorio just in time. But at that time it looked like it might be a wet ride home.
I talked to Sue on Sunday morning. Says she has a black eye now, but otherwise is doing ok. We might see her this Saturday for the Mt. Tam ride. Sue said she really appreciated all that we did for her. She said she felt like she was in an igloo, being sandwiched between you and me while waiting up on Page Mill. She said that kept her much warmer than she would have been. It was good for you to go with Sue until she met up with Alan.
I considered hanging back to make sure that you got back with the group, but then I found that Karl, Guy, and Dan were going to wait for you, and so I then went back to check on the rest of my flock.
We waited for you guys at the San Gregorio store, but then figured (correctly) that you wouldn't have come down the hill in that rain. Finally the rain stopped and we continued on the ride, having decent weather for the rest of the day.
Guy sent out a good report, which I have added to and sent out again. You should have gotten it by now.
-Donny
You’ve probably seen my other email now with a report of what happened on Saturday. I called Sue Saturday afternoon and she specifically mentioned how nice it was to be sandwiched between the two of us. Actually, it probably kept all three of us a bit warmer than otherwise!
By the way...we did 32 miles and 4700ft of climbing. Do I get credit for doing Page Mill twice? (ok, ok, I almost did it twice...fortunately, we had to stop at the top of Moody to see which way Alan would come up!)
--Jennie Roll Piglet