| The general idea is to get in a fun ride and be back
in time to not get in trouble, since you're probably expected to
help with the Thanksgiving Day food rituals. This is a
rain-or-shine event, never cancelled but potentially shortened if
the weather's really bad. This year went very nicely, with
everyone getting back no later than 11:30am. |
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| 7:45am and we're beginning to collect
riders. Eventually, we ended up with 10 or 11 cyclists
willing to take the risk of running into nasty weather in order to
make some room for the afternoon's Turkey. The weatherman
(or should it actually be weatherperson?) said we'd have rain
overnight, turning to showers by morning and clearing in the
afternoon. Fortunately, the showers had abated just before
we hit the road! |
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| Regrouping at the top of King's Mtn, you can see
that it had been pretty wet, and was still a bit on the icky side
(that's the tech word for weather like this- icky). |
This picture almost looks as if it could have
been taken in the Sierras, but it's actually on the descent down
84 into La Honda. |
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| Here we find Helena working her way
up West Alpine road, one of the absolute best climbs on the
peninsula. A narrow twisty road that very few cars find their way
onto, with great views of the ocean and surrounding mountains on
the way up. Kind of steep in the middle, but well worth it. |
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| West Alpine approaching the intersection where a
left turn takes you to Skyline, and heading right goes down into
Portola State Park. |
This one's a keeper. Classic West Alpine
scene, and a great view of the rather unsettled weather. A
really, really nice day to be out on a bike! |
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| Skyline Blvd heading south from West
Alpine (turns into Page Mill on the east side) towards Highway 84
(Sky L'onda). One of the nicest things about riding on
Thanksgiving Day is that there are far fewer cars than normal...
and so few motorcycles that the only one that did come by kinda
caught me by surprise! |
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Heading towards Tripp Road on 84, in
Woodside.
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Olive Hill & Albion Road in Woodside, just
half a mile from the end of the ride. |
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| About 44 miles, great group of
riders, pretty nice weather (although you did have to be careful
about traction, since most of the roads were still pretty wet and
there was quite a bit of debris), classic peninsula climbs and fun
descents. What's not to like? The only question is-
Where were you?
--Mike-- Other Turkey Day rides from the
past are on our website too! Check out the 1999
version, and the considerably more
challenging 2000 ride! |