More Lemmony goodness

Last Saturday (yes, I know this blog post is late) we met up again for ride #3 of the Lemmon Squeezy ride. Today's destination was Rose Canyon at Mile 17. Now, I don't know who keeps saying "up to Molino is the worst part," but whoever it is is on crack. Because Mile 15 (actually 14.5 - 15.5 but we'll round to 15) is where you actually climb the entire mountain. Everything before that might as well be classified as a "hill." I had been tooling along at 8.5 mph. Then past Windy Point at around mile 14.5 the fun started. I the road pitched upward, I looked down and saw 5.5 mph and tried to keep moving forward. Because if you stop, you may roll down the mountain backwards. Adding even more joy to this part of a ride was a freshly dead skunk in the other lane. So I'm sweating to death, trying to stay on the road against the force of gravity trying to pull me down the mountain, and now I can't breathe due to the stench of dead skunk. Oh, and the sight of a buzzard feasting on innards was a bonus.

Zac was ahead of me at this point, but the road was so curvy I could see him disappearing around every corner. It felt like I was in a Dali painting. Finally the road leveled out around mile 16-ish and went back to rollers. I rolled up to the Mile 17 sign and proclaimed "I'm not going any further." Goal met for the day...extra credit means nothing.

The 7000 ft sign. Why is this significant? Because just 16 miles ago we were at 2800 ft!


Photographic proof I was there. You don't realize how large those signs are until you get up right next to them (meaning no, I'm not an elf).


Zac (dork).


Johnny had plenty of time to rest while waiting for me. That's a SINGLE SPEED MOUNTAIN bike he's riding. So he's less aerodynamic, has more rolling resistance, bike weighs more, and he has one gear. And he still goes over 10mph up the mountain. He's the man I hope to be one day.



On Sunday I headed back up the mountain (in the comfort of my Jeep this time) to run Bear Wallow Rd. Yep, my weekly torture-at-elevation workout. This had better pay of at Snow Valley. It was quite humid and cloudy, as a storm was rolling in. About half the time I had to take my glasses off as they were fogging.

I got back to my Jeep just in time to hear thunder overhead. Ok, time to go! I hit fog at Mile 21, then torrential rain at Rose Canyon all the way down to Windy Pt. Lots of passenger cars were pulled off on the side of the road in the rain, but I figured the more one waits the more water there will be down the mountain. Besides, I was in my trusty Jeep. Ha! Take that passenger cars! Gas prices be damned.

View of the storm from Windy Point.

LOTS of water on the roads from the drainage, which turned all of the valleys into huge waterfalls. I felt bad for the cyclists that were at the higher elevations that would have to ride through this on their way down.

The day before, this was a peaceful-looking roadside waterfall. Now it was the waterfall-o-death, just waiting to take a passenger car away.

So the schedule worked out well. Saturday was a good day to ride, and Sunday was a good day to run.