Final Stages of my Tour of California

Stage 4: Mt. Figueroa (a.k.a. MFer)

I think the elevation chart says it all.  In case you can't read the units on that graph... the violet represents > 8 % grade.  And the elevation starts below 300 ft and ascends to a lofty 4,400 ft.  Very nice.  Pete, Jim, Heather, and I headed out together on this one... but Jim and Heather sadly turned back early.  H was still dealing with The Plague and J was "plum wore out" from his 110 mile effort the day before.  That left Pete and I to take on the cattle guards, packed dirt, endlessly twisting ascents and descents together.

The climbing starts with a vengeance (first round of violet).  I pulled the iPhone out of my back pocket and turned on the iTunes... a "Burn" playlist that is heavy on the Green Day and Nickelback.  Thanks to the awesome speakers on that little dude, Pete and I could sing along (if in fact there was breath left to do any singing with).  All the way up the mountain, we chased the music.

At times, we cursed the sun, the wind, the steepness of the grade, our quads.  But, for climbers like us, it was exhilarating to climb for that long that high... a total of 7,000 ft if you count the rollers back to Buellton.  Sheesh!

Hoor-ray!  The Top!

Parting shot: the fields of wildflowers on the descent.  Beautiful.

Stage 5: Los Olivos and back... very easy day.  Took the commuter bag and picked up some wine for The Artiste Tasting Room then swung around to the sandwich shop in Los Olivos for a curry chicken salad sandwich with craisons and apple chunks in the chicken salad.  Yum!

Stage 6:  The Century that wasn't.

It was a good idea.  Capping the week off with a 100 mile ride through wine country.  Establishing a pace we all could handle and just enjoying our last day in the sunshine.  But the weeks toll took.  First Heather and I had to overcome really bad, lingering colds that I still have a "productive" cough from.  And also, Heather, feeling better than she had all week and ignited by Pete's and my report of the epic climbing on Figueroa, took to the hills yesterday.  Meaning, her pedals had a little less power behind them.  For the record, Pete felt like a rockstar!

So, it was that at mile 40 of our out-and-back (still going out), we stood beneath a shade tree squinting at the road ahead and staring longingly at the road behind.  After some deliberation, we turned around, stopped at the only market for miles to refuel with Pepsi (for me) and Gatorade, and cycled back along the butter smooth Foxen Canyon Road.  We decided to take a "short cut" through Cat Canyon (instead of Alisos Rd. back to Los Alamos) on the way back to mix it up.  The guys had ridden it two days ago and said that it was beautiful.  They failed to mention the epic climb up to an oil processing plant on a plateau, leaving one to wonder what exactly was "beautiful" about the ride.  We renamed it Cat2 Canyon.  And we still had Drum (Dumb!) Canyon... a quad-busting climb over unevenly paved roads and a descent that would rattle the bottom bracket out of the frame.

We eventually made it back to Buellton... it was a metric century, and more!  And we felt good at the end, which is always a pleasure.  Thus ends a fun week in the sun, riding bikes.  I felt a little like a kid again (albeit one who gets to drink alcohol!).