The group sometimes spread out along the way. It split with the doing-the-tour people hanging back while the ride-up-only people went off the front. Finally they got it out of their system and for most of the rest of the way we all rode along together.
We arrived in Columbia at 5:30pm, which was just a half hour behind schedule. When we rolled into town, we noticed that people were already walking to dinner, and found that the dinner time had been moved up an hour. We made the decision to set up our tents and shower before going in to dinner. We waited for everyone to be ready, then we walked over to dinner. Surprisingly, we all got a round of applause when we entered the dinner hall, presumably because we had ridden our bikes from San Jose.
Camp was a bit crowded and rocky. All of the later camps would prove to be much better. Being the first night, I didn't get much sleep, and my back was a bit sore the next morning, but tried to hide it, as I didn't want to be slowed because of it. Luckily my back was recovered by the end of the day and wasn't ever a problem after that first morning.
Once at the Caverns gate, we found that it didn't open until 10:00am, which was still an hour away. So we decided to skip the caverns and just continue along on Sheep Ranch Rd. Kiwi was an "M" pace rider and didn't really know what he was getting himself into. Kiwi tended to be dropped on every hill. Luckily for Kiwi, I decided that I better stop and make sure that he made it to the top of each hill. On one of the downhills, Kiwi had the first of three flats, all due to poor rim tape. The group all hung together and together we managed to finally solve Kiwi's problem and got him through. We found out later that another rider, Larry, had come along on this same road, and had a flat problem, and ended up having to walk for 12 miles before getting a ride into camp. Kiwi was very grateful, and ended up buying us a watermelon a few days later.
We had lunch at a market in Mountain Ranch, as the flat tires had slowed us down enough so that we didn't want to wait until getting to San Andreas. At Pardee Reservoir, we stopped in and had root beer floats. There were still about a dozen riders left out and hanging around where we were. We got into camp just at 5:00pm, and I was able to jump in the swimming pool before it closed.
Lisa and Jennie had ridden with Brian & Judy, Alan & Sue (also called the two married couples), and they had gotten in at 2:00pm. The rest of the tour was to be the same. The two married couples were usually early into camp each day, while my group was usually a few hours later. Each group was doing what it wanted.
After dinner in Jackson, we went on what I called "A 3-Bell Tour" walk, but in actuality, it turned out to be a 5-bell tour. We managed to find (and ring) 5 different large bells in Jackson. Our little group would usually go on a short walk each evening during the tour.
I wanted to ride with Jennie and Lisa Curran today, and so I told them so. I was willing to change my route and/or schedule to suit them, but they both said that they wanted to ride with me, and so we had a good addition to our group. At lunch we met up with the two married couples, who waited for us, so we all then rode out together. We also had Peggy Abelite along in our group for the first time. I counted 15 people total, all rolling down the road and having a good time. These others all took the shorter option, leaving ten of us to go into Coloma. We had me, LeRoy, Phil, Paul, Jennie, Lisa, Ron, Miguel Aznar, James Benningfield, and Phil Weiss. Miguel lives in Santa Cruz and is a member of ACTC. James was from Texas, and always rode with a small teddy bear in his pack. Phil Weiss was the bike mechanic for our tour, and we called him "Wrench Boy" to tell him apart from the other Phil(Yee). Wrench Boy was very lively and added greatly to the spirit of our little group. Miguel and Wrench Boy would remain a part of our group for the rest of the tour.
In Coloma, it was a bit warm, so we all just hung out on the grass under the trees for a long time. When it was time to go I mentioned that we should all go jump in the river. A few agreed, and so off we went. It was great. All but a few jumped in, and it was very refreshing. The river swim was to be a high point for all that did it.
Our first goal was to be the last ones out of camp. We accomplished this, leaving by 7:30am. We had a big group for alot of the way. We caught up with the two married couples, and we then stayed together much of the way. They were with us for both the Old Sacramento stop and the Davis stop.
In the afternoon, we stopped for a photo-op at "graffiti bridge", which is an old bridge that is very brightly painted. The Davis Double goes over this bridge each year, but Jennie said that she didn't remember it.
This year the tour stayed at Solano Lake Park, about 5 miles past Winters. The restaurant who used to cater both our dinner and the next day's breakfast did it again this year, bringing it out to the park. This change from staying at Winter's High School is an improvement. I hope that they stay here again in future years.
We were in Davis Double territory now. It felt good to be climbing up Cardiac Hill without the thought of having 150 miles left to do. We caught up with Peggy and we rode together for awhile. Peggy would now be converted to become a member of our little group.
At Ink Grade a tradition was started which would continue for the rest of the tour. To help pass the time while going up the hill, Lisa, Peggy, and the two Phil's all started singing. It seems that they all knew the words to the same songs, as they all happened to be 35 years old and listened to alot of music. So here they were singing away (and not too badly either) while they were climbing the hill. I was too shy to try to join in, and besides, I quickly found out that I was from another generation, as I am ten years older and never heard of some of the songs that they were singing. This singing made it look like we had a rolling party going on, which is pretty much what it felt like. Our group was always happy being right where it was, and so was never in any hurry to get to the end of a ride.
On the Silverado Trail, we pace-lined all of the way into Calistoga. I felt good (frisky) so I led the paceline. Every so often I would ask if Peggy was still on, and the word would be passed back down the line. Then the word would be passed back up that Peggy was still hanging on. Peggy was our pace-setter this day, and my goal was to keep our group together. Our paceline soon caught and passed the Scott & Sandy Campbell tandem. We arrived in Calistoga at 2:00pm, right on schedule, and then I took everybody on a quick bicycle tour of the town before people split up to go to their motels.
The place to find people in Calistoga is at the laundromat. After setting up camp and taking my shower, that is where I went, even though I wasn't going to wash clothes as I had brought enough for the whole week. Everyone was there. After their clothes were done, Lisa and Peggy invited us over to the pool at their motel. We ended us trying to learn some syncronized swimming moves that we practiced in the pool. It was me, Lisa, Peggy, Wrench Boy, and Miguel there for the lessons. Phil, Leroy, and Toni joined us later. Great fun, when the water wasn't going up my nose.
It turned out that my addition was part of the Terrible Two route, so that both Jennie and Paul had been over it before. It basically took Geyser Rd into the hills north of the Jimtown store, and didn't get back to civilization until Cloverdale, 27 miles later. Jennie said that it was alot like Hwy 9, while Paul said that it was pretty tough. I think that Paul was more correct, as I was deffinitely glad that I now had a triple chainring on my bike. Everyone else wished that they also had one. It was a pretty brutal climb, but once we were done with that, the rest of the route was great.
We found a good deli in Cloverdale, where we stopped for lunch. As expected we were behind all of the other riders, and the sag vehicles were already gone. We got into Duncan Mills at 4:30pm, just passing up the last riders from the shorter route. This option would make a good addition to the tour.
By doing the "Donny" option this day, we all missed the wine and cheese party, but it turns out that none of us were into that, so we didn't really "miss" it. At dinner that evening, there seemed to be alot more noisy, happy people around, as they all had a bit of wine.
After breakfast, we headed to Valley Ford and on towards Dillen Beach. Toni was in our group today, and her wish was to be able to ride with "the big boys", even though she was an "M"pace rider. On some of the rollers she would drift off the back. I came along and gave her a push up the hills, which she accepted. Then when it came time for one of the longer hills, I convinced her to let me pull her up with the bungee cord. She agreed. Toni was very impressed at how strong I was, and so wanted to buy me lunch in Tomales.
After lunch we went out on Chileno Valley Rd. I again pulled Toni to the top of the small hill. From there, her brother Miguel helped her to paceline behind him, so I was free to ride how I wanted. By this time the others had gone way off the front. I felt good (frisky), so off I went. With a nice tailwind, I was moving along at almost 30 mph, and so just reeled in the riders one by one, then charging on ahead to go after the next one. Before the next junction I had caught them all. Then I stopped to wait for Toni to catch back up, making sure that everyone made the turn. Then I rode with Toni, hooking the bungee cord on when the hill started. We were gaining on Peggy, but she knew that we were chasing, and so worked harder to stay ahead of us.
After a good stop at the Cheese Factory, the group split into two, with some choosing the more direct route to Olema, with the others going for the more scenic route through Nacasio and Samuel Taylor park, with a stop for ice cream. We got into Olema at 4:30pm, after another fabulous day of riding.
We had ten people in my group, me, Jennie, Lisa, Peggy, LeRoy, the two Phils, Miguel, Paul, and Ron. We started out at 7:30am for the one hour ride, knowing that the restaurant opens at 8:00am, but won't seat people outside in the patio until later. We got there just in time to be seated outside. I counted 25 people at breakfast who were on our tour, so this was a very well-attended unofficial option.
Just as we started up the Panoramic Hwy after breakfast, we happened to be at the same place and time as the start of the DipSea running race. It was fun to be riding bikes up the road, slowly passing runners. The climb is a very doable 3.6 miles with 1400 ft of climbing, much like a Hwy 9 grade, with very little traffic and great views first of the ocean and then of the whole coastline.
After the reststop at the park headquarters, the group split into those going directly to San Francisco, and those wanting to add a climb to the top of Mt.Tamalpias. We had 5 in each group. The climb up to the summit and back is well worth the trip, as the views are fantastic. The five who went to the top were me, LeRoy, Miguel, Lisa, and Paul.
This last group was across the bridge and at the finish by 1:00pm. At the finish, everyone from the tour was busy getting their bikes all boxed up and bags loaded. We only had to worry about eatting our lunch and saying goodbyes. Wrench Boy introduced us to his wife and 3 kids, and showed his wife who he was hanging out with all week. He was very impressed at how we looked out for each other as a group, as was glad to have been a part of it.
After about 15 minutes, the rest of the group finally arrived, thankfully. It turns out that just after we had stopped, they had turned off to check out Fort Funston, but that information did not get back to us, so we just went riding on by. They didn't notice us going by, and so lost a few minutes going back to check where we had been. They then figured that we had gotten ahead, and so came on up. It is real easy for a group to get split up if not everyone is paying attention.
We were all starting to get a bit tired later in the ride. We stopped in at the Chevron gas station as planned, but then also stopped at the store in Woodside plus a gas station at Homestead and Foothill. We made sure that we all stayed together for the rest of the ride. The group finally split up at Stelling and McClellan Rds, with some going each direction. I finally got home at 7:26pm, so we made good time.
Ron Tsuromoto had agreed to take many of the riders bags home with him, so alot of us happened to meet up again at his house. Me, Karl, Jennie, and Phil went out for some Mexican food, and then I didn't get home until about 9:30pm.
I had a good night's sleep on both Saturday and Sunday nights, going to bed early and sleeping late. I found that I had some sore muscles on Sunday afternoon, and that I was just basicly tired. I gained about 2 to 4 lbs during the tour, but don't seem to be any bigger, so it must have been fat switching over to muscle during the tour.