We pre-registered and got the last minute scoop on the ride. Everyone said "BEWARE OF THE WALL". It is an unbelievably steep climb at about 80 miles. I thought, "okay we'll see." I mean everyone was talking about this climb. A little worried, I asked the registration guy, "Well how steep is it?". He said "It's so steep that when you stand up, the pavement is 6 inches in front of your face!" Now I'm thinking, "How are we going to manage to climb this on the tandem?" He said "We did it on a tandem two years ago and had no problem, just don't snicker to loudly when you pass all the singles riding gearmashers struggling to zig zag up the grade!" So with all this wonderfull information we went off to find some dinner and to wonder what was going to greet us the next day.
The next day we awoke to cold temps and cloudy threatening skies. We packed the rain gear on the bike and off to the start we went. It was going to be a mass start! So here we all are, about 500 cyclists, ready to go, and there are lots and lots of road setup mountian bikes. Now I'm thinking, "What did I miss?". I ask the guy next to us if he had ever done the ride before. He said he had done it the last three years and had come all the way from Wisconsin! So I carefully asked, "What's with all the mountian bikes?". He said "You gotta have the gears, Dude. The climbs are totally gnarly!".
On the mark of 7:00 am the whistle is blown and we're off and riding right into a downpour! It rains pretty good for about the first 10 miles. The pack thinned out quickly. We worked our way through lots of little towns here and there. Mostly lumber mill towns. Rio Del, Scotia, a couple of very large mills in Scotia.
We arrived at the first reststop to somewhat clearer skies but still very cold temperature. Down the road to "The Avenue of The Giants". On the road winding our way through 1000 to 2000 year old giant (300 or more feet) Redwood trees . Quite a humbling experience! These trees are truly massive! Some as large as 20 feet in diameter. Big Basin Redwoods look like toothpicks compared to these monsters. The riding on this road was truly amazing. There were people around, yet it was totally quiet. No one was talking. I think everyone was caught up in absorbing all there was to see.
Reststop #2 came and went. We didn't stick around to long because of the cold temps. Winding our way along rivers and Redwood groves, we ready ourselves for the seven mile climb to 2700' Panther Gap. Not a bad climb at all except it rained a little and was freezing cold. The descent was extremly steep and not at all enjoyable. Tight turns, wet roads, and cold hands make for some pretty trecherous conditions.
We survive and make it to the lunch stop at mile 63. A light drizzle broken with patchy sunshine accompanied us at lunch. We put on our rain jackets for an extra layer of warmth and that helped alot. Getting ready to leave, we discovered we had a flat tire, rear of course. Fixed that and we were off again. A nice little 300' hill greeted us for a warm up after lunch. The wind had picked up considerably as we got closer to the coast. Rollers up and down and we found ourselves on the coast heading directly into a gale force headwind . I mean "grit your teeth go nowhere headwind"! This torture goes on for 10 miles!
About halfway there we got our first glimpse of "THE WALL". It doesn't even look like a road! It looks as though it really goes straight up from sea level to the sky. There is a reststop right at the bottom of the grade. People warned us not to stop there so we didn't. Into the granny gear and prepare for blastoff. They advertise the grade at 18-22%, for 1 mile, so you get the idea. Were talkin' off the "Axtell- meter". Slowly but surely we grind our way up the Beast, passing a few zig zaggers. The pitch eases slightly about 3/4 of the way up. The really steep part is about a mile but the climb is about 4 miles total, averaging about 10%. I was definitely impressed with it's severity.
We top out on this and blaze down another unpleasant downhill to reststop #6. We stop in for a refueling and look up at the "ENDLESS HILL". This thing looks like a real gem. I can see at least 7 switchbacks and it looks real steep and real long. So I enquire how long it is only to find out it's a 10 mile climb! They say it lessens it's severity after the first 4 miles. I'm thinking "This is going to be fun!" In a strange sort of sadistic way. Well, we're at mile 87 and if we go 10 miles up that puts us 3 miles from the end, so we must go down like an elevator the last 3 miles. That sounds fun too!
Up we go. And up .... and up .... and up some more, the wind is side gusting us, making it difficult to ride anything resembling a straight line. The scenery is pretty nice, giving us something else to look at other then the road in front. This climb reminded me a lot of Alpine Road on the coast side. Lots of very annoying false summits. The road goes forever! I think out loud that they should change the name to "THE MURDERUOS HILL". Patience is starting to wear a little thin and running out of milage we start downward, only to be offended by a few more rollers before the elevator ride down.
Down we went in a hurry, steep, tight, and dangerous; my favorite kind of downhill. The downhill ends about a half a mile from the finish. A nice slow crank toward a large congratulatory finish-line crowd. Were done!
What a ride! Difficult beyond belief. I think because of all the hard climbing at the end. We saw 8400' elevation gain. With 5000' in the last 20 miles! I would agree with the advertising statement about this ride being one of the toughest century rides you'll ever do. The ride will punish the arrogant into submission, torture those that don't heed the warnings to save some for the end. But the rewards for those who ride smart and conservative are phenomenal! A wonderfully difficult ride made even more rewarding because we did it on the tandem. People through the day said we were insane to do it on a tandem. But if we didn't try we would never know. I would not do this ride on my single bike mainly because it doesn't have a triple!
Do it again next year? I'll have to think about that one for a while. Thank you, Judy, for an excellant job as stoker.
Looking foward to Davis Double next weekend.