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2003 Sierra Double-Metric Century
(Saturday, June 7 in Plymouth, CA)
See also my photo album from this
ride.
After a long and traffic-filled drive east from the Bay Area, Sarah and I
arrived in the tiny gold rush era town of Plymouth on Friday evening. We had
a little trouble finding exactly where we were supposed to park, but soon
after driving around the Amador County Fairgrounds, we found a volunteer who
set us on our way. We parked on the lawn and headed over to registration, and
were quickly and efficiently processed, and walked away with a bag of goodies.
We set up camp next to the car and walked around to try to find somewhere to
eat. Our dining choices were a diner or a BBQ joint - Sarah suggested the
latter, and I'm glad she did - Incahoots was a fun funky joint with absolutely
HUGE portions of meat, meat, and more meat. There were a bunch of "No
Casino in Plymouth" signs, which I found ironic, given that Plymouth's
original name was "Pokertown" :-) We went to bed early and were disturbed by
loud toilets and a very squeaky bathroom door. We woke up at 5:20 to a foggy Saturday morning and went to the
registration building to get some
pins for Sarah's rider number and to see if there was coffee (there was -
yay!). I hit the road at 6:07, while Sarah stayed behind to see if she could
find Denise and Ralph, as she was "just" doing the 100km route, and had more
time to spare.
It wasn't too cold, so I set out with knee- and arm-warmers and a light vest
for extra layers, knowing it would be plenty warm later on. There were a lot
of riders on the road as I headed towards Ione on Old Sacramento Rd. at a fast
pace, passing many riders. This first section was mostly downhill, so I made
excellent time, averaging over 21mph for the first 20 miles. It was foggy,
which was great, as it kept the temperatures down, and unlike the coastal fog
I'm used to, it wasn't a cold fog either! I flew into Ione on the tail of a
tandem and, after a few zigzags, arrived at the Ione rest stop (20.7mi)
shortly after it opened. At the rest stop, I realized that I knew the folks
on the tandem from the HP Death Ride team. I didn't stay long at this stop,
just quickly mixing up a bottle of Sustained Energy and Hammer Gel and
removing my vest and armwarmers.
From Ione, I headed northeast on Plymouth Highway and Sutter Ione Rd. into
the cute little town of Sutter Creek. After cruising through downtown, it was
on towards Volcano on Sutter Creek Volcano Rd. This proved to be a gorgeous
road winding through a forest and along gushing, burbling Sutter Creek. The
sun started to show itself through the fog as the road gently climbed. I
pulled off at a picnic area to switch into my dark lenses, as it was getting a
bit bright. There were by far more riders than cars on this road, although
there were a few too many clueless riders riding on or over the centerline, I
don't know why. It made it unnecessarily difficult and dangerous to pass
them, that's for sure! I'd driven this road once before en route to the Black
Chasm cavern, but it didn't seem familiar at all until we turned left on Pine
Creek Volcano Rd. and pulled into the teeny town of Volcano, the second rest stop (43mi).
Volunteers carried trays of snacks
so we could eat without having to park and walk over to the food tables - very cool! I had a
tasty garlic potato. The town was completely overtaken by cyclists, given
that it has perhaps a few dozen residents and there were well over a thousand
cyclists passing through! I removed my kneewarmers, did the usual liquid food
mixing, and had a V8. As it was warming up, I also started taking Endurolytes
at this point. As I prepared to leave, a butterfly landed on my Camelbak, so I
had to get a few pictures of it before brushing it off so I could depart.
The first major climb of the day, Rams Horn Grade, began almost immediately
after leaving Volcano. It was fairly steep and rather warm, but had excellent
views and the lovely sierra smells of mountain misery and pine trees, so the
cilmbing passed pretty quickly. At the top of the first ascent there was a
water stop with ice-cold water, which I soaked my sweatband in and poured on my
head - yeah! There was another steep and exposed, but mercifully short,
climb to the top of Rams Horn Grade, then a rolling ascent on Shake Ridge
Road, which I did remember from driving in the area late last year. Its a
lovely road, and like almost all of them so far, barely trafficed at all. I'd
heard its a fun ride into Fiddletown, and I soon got to find out when I turned
onto Fiddletown Rd. Fun, indeed! Other than a couple minor rollers, its
nearly eleven miles of downhill, some of it rather fast, and all of it
absolutely gorgeous! It was major fun, and it actually lasted for a while.
Definitely one of the (many) highlights of the ride for me. When I talked to
Sarah after the ride, she agreed that it was one hell of a fun descent. All
things must end, and eventually I rolled through downtown Fiddletown, such as
it is, and pulled into rest stop
#3 at a park (60.1mi). There were a lot of people here, probably because
this stop was on all 4 routes (50mi, 100k, 100mi, and 200k). I spent a little
longer, stretching deeply, taking Endurolytes, mixing my fake food, and
munching a little on solid food. Riders' fear of the upcoming Slug Gulch
climb was palpable, and was the subject of nearly all conversations. I kept
hearing banging popping sounds and thought riders' tires were blowing out, but
it was actually some balloons popping from the hot air.
Before tackling Slug Gulch, there were some 17 miles of rollers (some on the
large'ish side) to negotiate. I met a nice gal from near Lake Tahoe (lucky
her!) on Bridgeport School Road, and chatted
with her, which made the miles melt away. The roads were narrow and poorly
surfaced, but there continued to be virtually no traffic whatsoever, and the
scenery continued to be lovely as we rode through farmland and forest, then up
Mt. Aukum Rd. There was a final water stop on Fairplay Rd., 5 miles of
moderate climbing/descending on Perry Creek Rd., then the dreaded left turn
onto Slug Gulch Rd. Slug Gulch wasted no time, climbing steeply past a
vineyard in the warm sun. It was a somewhat frustrating climb, as it didn't
look particularly steep at all, but it was, as evidenced by hordes of
riders silently grinding up the hill. Happily the grade was inconsistent, so
the stretches of 18+% grade were broken up by relatively easy sections. It
actually wasn't as difficult of a climb as I was anticipating, but my cadence
dropped to the mid-30s as my heart rate climbed to the mid-170s, so it surely
wasn't an easy climb by any means! There were several folks stopped in the
shade, and I passed a couple of folks walking their bikes (at least I was
going fast enough to pass them!). They had signs on the side of the road, but
they were far enough apart, and I was going so slowly, that I'd forgotten what
the previous sign said by the time I got to the next one! Before too long, I
passed a sign saying it was just 2.5mi of easy climbing to the top, and whaddya
know, it was! I was pleased that not only did I not have to walk, but I never
entertained the thought of stopping either. Any fears I had about missing the
2:00 cutoff for the 200k route were vanquished when I pulled into rest stop #4 at Omo Ranch (83.1mi) at
1:40. I got my "I Tamed Slug Gulch"
pin (though at times during the climb, it wasn't at all clear what was
taming what!) and picked up the 200k route sheet (the Sacramento Wheelmen had
a very effective way of enforcing the cutoff to the 200k route - it wasn't on
the route sheet given out at the ride start, and if you weren't at the rest
stop by the cutoff, they wouldn't give you the route slip for the 200k
route!). I didn't stay long here either, since the cutoff was the departure,
not arrival, time.
The 200k route continued climbing on
Omo Ranch Rd. through a lovely
forest. There were very few riders around on this stretch of road, but I
enjoyed riding along peacefully. The next 10 miles were nearly all uphill.
Never steep, but quite warm and very tiring. A few riders passed me, and one
shadowed me for several miles to a water stop. I was a little worried that I
was at the tail end of the ride, but the folks at the water stop said they'd
had 140 or so riders come through already, and knew of 40-50 behind me, which
was a bit of a relief. It was also a relief when they said that virtually all
of the remaining 30 miles was downhill! I filled up a bottle with water to
pour over myself and continued on my way. In a mile I came to Hwy 88 and then
enjoyed 3 miles of mostly fast downhill before turning on
Shake Ridge Rd. On
the descent of Shake Ridge, I felt some water on my back, first a few drops,
then a torrent - ack! I pulled over to find that the hose had pulled off of
my camelbak bladder, and I'd emptied nearly 2 liters of water onto myself!
Fortunately I had a little water left, plus a full water bottle, so after
reattaching the hose (and making sure it was very secure!), I continued the
lovely shady descent to Fiddletown Rd. I normally despise re-using roads on
long routes, but it was a pleasure to get to do this wonderful descent into
Fiddletown twice! It was again a blast (although the small uphill rollers
hurt a whole lot more this time through!), and since I'd ridden the road
earlier in the day, I knew what to expect on a couple of super-fun sweeping
corners. I took a couple of pictures of "downtown" Fiddletown as I went
through to the rest stop at the park
again (112.1mi). There were few people here, and I didn't stay long, just
topping off my bottles for the final 10 mile ride back into Plymouth.
I rode out with a few other riders, and we soon turned on Ostrom Rd. and
endured our last climbing of the day up out of a vineyard-covered valley. It
wasn't terribly steep, but the going was slow, as we were all pretty tired by
this point, having climbed about 10,000' over the past 112 miles! We
eventually rejoined the century route on Shenandoah Rd. and flew down that,
then Shenandoah School Rd., then Shenandoah Rd. again into Plymouth. There
were quite a few riders on the road here, and it was easy to maintain a 25mph+
pace. Less than 30min after leaving the Fiddletown rest stop, I pulled into
the fairgrounds in Plymouth at 4:33. I found Sarah at our tent, had a beer
(many thanks to Sarah for getting beer while I was out riding!), washed my
face, and we broke camp and headed up to my family's cabin near Arnold to
relax.
This was an excellent ride - I'm glad I finally got to do it! Its usually the
same weekend as the more-local Sequoia Century, but in the future, given the
choice, I'll do the drive for this ride! The support was outstanding, with
well-marked roads, abundant foods (including hot-weather and long-ride
luxuries like ice water, V8, and boiled potatoes), ample portapotties, and
helpful volunteers. It was a pleasure to ride on such low-traffic roads, and
all of the quaint little gold rush towns we passed through made for an
interesting ride.
Related links:
Ride Stats:
| Distance: |
123.8mi |
| Total Time: |
10h 26m |
| On-bike Time: |
8h 48m |
| Average Speed: |
14.0mph |
Average Speed
(including stops): |
11.9mph |
| Maximum Speed: |
42.8mph |
| Total Climbing: |
~10,000 ft |
| |
| Rating (out of 10): |
| Difficulty: |
8 |
| Support: |
9 |
| Food: |
9 - I rarely eat rest stop food these days, but they had everything |
| Route: |
8 - not necessarily picturesque, but wholly beautiful |
| Overall: |
9 |