Next Full Moon

Sunday, May 3rd Full Flower Moon

07 April 2013

release a burst of fragrance

Enough duff dragging.

It was time for the annual Condor Tour. There was a lot of back and forth via email. People signed up, people declined, people reneged, people learned how to use the "reply all" function.With my gourmet knowledge and intelligence, I signed on for a short time tour (2 days & 2 nights), whilst the other 3 show-ers opted for the full ride of 6 days.

I got off work Sunday evening and headed straight for the Sav-Mart, where they got the cases of Hamm's for $12.99.


Yep. There's a whole case in there.



Day became night as I pedalled out to meet the fellas. They'd ridden from Bonny Doon to the campground, around 100miles. I was only riding 50, but a case of beer is heavy, so I stopped a few times to lighten the load. It occured to me I could go even further in that regard:


 So I strapped the backpack to the front rack and swerved my way along the further reaches of CV. That was a lot better. When I got to camp, I brought the pouring drizzle. We all sat in the dark and drank beer while saying stuff to each other. Then we slept. I was  (per usual) stuffed up under my tarp, tentless. _ick and _odd had some slick tarp tent action, while _in_er just laid in the wet.


 He woke up wet. Soaked. Him and all his gear.





One of these days I'm gonna get my tarp situation dialed. But these bike camping trips keep coming in the meantime and I'm damned if I'm gonna not do something fun because I don't have the perfect gear (that's for losers) so for now it's shantytown...



My friends make fun of me, but I am dry. Ish.













 It's a real nice place to be.










It has been my experience that sunlight is a strong disinfectant, hence the chamois on the outside of my pack. Wear one pair of bibs while the other is subject to the burning rays of purity.



Again with the incredible flowering.









 There is a fair amount of climbing along there. You can see the road as it winds past _ick's head.




 This rainbow was just hanging in mid-air.





That rainbow was lurking in the mist along the near ridge. I've never seen anything like it.




The slide is well packed right now. Later in the year it will be dry, scary and loose .








That is a staged photo. The grade is actually quite nice, but it looks better on film to grimace. More serious and PRO.



 And speaking of PRO, we stopped at the swimming hole on the other side so's _in_er could hang up his gear (all of it) to dry while we swam and had lunch. That water was...bracing.



 People's set-ups varied. Set-up shoot-off:


versus

 versus

 (open and closed)

I have no pictures from the rest of that day which we spent riding bikes. There was the big climb at the end, and we were all so shelled (my wife says we cyclists have too many euphemisms for extremely tired) that we opted to skip the grueling up and down 5 mile section out the ridge to the proposed camp spot in favor of the close and hidden spot. Plus, it is behind a gate which keeps out the autos.

It is a real nice spot for an evening of drinking beers around a small and carefully/safely managed campfire. Camp there was set-up in the settled fog, and revisited the shantytown motif for me. The other guys had their tarps set up real tight. So tight that getting out of them for a midnight pee was tough. One fellow asked for help the next morning to avoid contacting the wet underside of his coffin-like tarp shelter. "Can you open a corner for me?"  So.

The fog settled during the night and we awoke to clear skies and the prospect of another full days worth of riding. I love bike tour.

We headed out the ridge and then dropped down towards the Pacific,


which descent always gives me the stomach flutters but was even more nervy with the road tyres. When we reached HWY1, the fellas turned South to continue their epic while I headed back North towards home and a shower. I wished I was continuing on with them.

It was a strong group, and the pace was necessarily brisk to cover the amount of mileage planned. I had no problems keeping up, and that is satisfying. I felt strong even on the final leg, so I opted to climb up Old Coast Road from Molera and drink the last beer in the redwoods before returning to the coast at Bixby and hammering out the last few miles.

Thanks for the Good Times, boys.

7 comments:

Freewheel said...

The last photo is awesome.

blackcatbicycles said...

it was a good time.
too bad you couldn't make the whole tour. next time.
the road through the santa barbara mountains was pretty unbelievable.
3-4 hour climbs way out there...

Juancho said...

I like the looks of that yella bike.

Anonymous said...

Ditch that last photo ...never cry wolf.

reverend dick said...

Respect due, Anonymous. I been thinking about your comment, because it confuses me. Are you implying that it is fake somehow? Staged?

I'll leave it where it is.

Anonymous said...

Your words:

"those who know don't tell, those who tell..."

The end of a ride can be anothers beginning

reverend dick said...

...yeah. Still don't get it. If you recognize that spot, then you know. If you read the post, then you can tell there's no mention of the location of this (legal) trail, either. So there it is.

Ride your bike.