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Or is it Tour of the Unpaved Valley?
Or maybe Tour of the Unknown Pavement?
Dick Kiser, Jim Taylor and I (all from our Redwood City store) did this
ride on an absolutely beautiful day...temps ranged from mid-50s to
mid-60s, spectacular visibility (you could view the Coastal Range,
Sierras, Mt. Shasta and the Sutter Buttes, all at once...a very impressive
sight!) and very, very few cars. Ride support was very
good...frequent rest stops, good food, well-marked roads. As for the quality of
those roads,
well, read on.
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| It all starts out innocently enough, as you leave the bustling
metropolis of Maxwell, CA and head south on old highway 99. |
Moving towards the coastal range, we have no idea that this is to
be the last really nice road surface for a very, very long time! |
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| And here's why I call this the Tour of the Unpaved Valley!
This ride probably had over five miles of gravel roads. |
Here's the big climb, Leesville Grade. On a hot day, many
wouldn't make it to the top of this one. Fortunately, temps
were in the 60s. |
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| This picture says everything you need to know about
Leesville Grade, and it's not even taken from the top! The two
prior photos were taken from spots shown in this picture. The
view is absolutely incredible, and, maybe, makes the climb worth the
pain. |
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| This is from the upper valley, between Leesville and Lodoga, and
yes, this is yet another stretch of dirt & gravel. At the
left are the remnants of a crashed cement mixer. |
Aren't pacelines wonderful? Especially when you're trying to
admire the view (that's snow at the top of the mountains in the
background), take a photo and ride straight at the same time! |
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| Climbing up to Grapevine Summit. Seems a lot more than a 600
foot climb, but...it's not gravel! |
Incredible views of the valley from the top of Grapevine Summit. |
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| More climbing than we'd thought there'd be! |
The last big descent, heading towards Sites. |
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| Somebody said Sites used to be quite the happening place; today,
it looks like maybe 15 people live there. At most. |
See those boxy-looking blue, red & orange things?
Those are freight cars from trains! Why they're on a farm,
miles from any track... |
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And the final run into Maxwell, which is about
six miles off into the distance. Also, just to the left of
Dick's head (the guy wearing the Chain Reaction jersey) are the
Sutter Buttes, the world's smallest mountain range.
The last 20 miles of the
ride had relatively decent pavement, thank goodness. Even though it's only a metric century (62 miles), your tail
end just won't stop talking to you, and what it's saying isn't
especially pleasant!
(also
check out our 3/7/04 ride, when we did the 100-mile version) |