Ursa Minor

Yes a great ride Beachgrad ... thanks for your encouragement. The ride was longer than I thought it would be but it was super to meet people that I know from the BFs. As I told Beachgrad at the shack I achieved my goal of helping others feel good about their performance.

Charlie

Ursa Minor

Maybe I was being a little too oblique in my last post... "helping others feel good about their performance"
was just a nice way of saying I went up GMR really slowly.

Charlie

Beachgrad05

Key point is in bold.

TrojanHorse

Charlie you skinny rat! Are you even a clyde anymore?

Regardless... getting up GMR is a mental exercise. I assure you the next trip will be easier because you'll know it's possible. Next up - the village. Sounds like you have a pretty good climbing gear so maybe even the lifts are in order one of these days.

Well done!

Beachgrad05

Video of my climb up is ready. Hope you enjoy

jsigone

Looked like perfect weather for a ride up the hill. Congrats to all the virgins and to all the now called regulars.

Beachgrad05

It really was perfect weather

eja_ bottecchia

You guys were all having fun at GMR while I suffered alone in Long Beach at the Tour de Cure. Some friends you are.

TrojanHorse

Not me... 2 soccer games, a volleyball match, finishing touches on the pinewood derby cars and then THAT event.

No bikes for me today!

eja_ bottecchia

Hopefully you will be able to ride the Conejo.

TrojanHorse

I definitely will... which ride depends on whether my son makes his new soccer team and we find out tomorrow night.

eja_ bottecchia

Let me know and let me know what time you plan to start. I will ride from home to the start.

HunkerDown

Hi All:

I got to our meet-up point yesterday about 7:40 and met Charlie (Ursa Minor), who’d already been there for some time. Poor guy – said he got up at 3AM to make the trip from Santa Barbara.

Just before 8 Shawn (Beachgrad) and several more groups of ladies showed up. By 8:20 they still weren’t ready to roll so I told Charlie that I was going to head out. Charlie said he’d join me but warned me that he might be a bit slower than I. It turned out that, to my considerable disappointment, Charlie was right and we were pretty incompatible, pace-wise. Just a super nice guy and an interesting fellow and I’d been looking forward to sharing the climb with him.

My first stop was the road maintenance shack and I was anxious to see the Village and, hopefully, the Mt. Baldy ski lifts, too. I was surprised and a little intimidated to learn from a fellow cyclist that I had at least another 15 miles or so left to go.

I kept an eye on my Garmin to make sure my heart rate stayed below around 150bpm so I’d be sure I’d have enough left in the tank for whatever kind of terrain I encountered as I rode on. I was amazed by how few motorists or bicyclists I can across en route – between the split with the other Glendora road and Mt. Baldy Village I saw exactly one car, two motorcycles and one bicyclist.

The views were jaw-dropping and the one-lane road was in amazing shape, it was cold and breezy on the ridge tops, and I have to admit to having been just a little intimidated by being out there so far from civilization with just me, my bike, some energy drink and three Bonk Breaker bars.

One quick and fairly steep downhill and I was in the village. I parked my bike and had a nice, relaxing bacon and egg breakfast at the Mt. Baldy Lodge. I thought about trying the climb to the ski lifts for about a nanosecond before turning for home.

The one lane portion of the trip home was absolutely epic. Now that I knew what to expect I could relax and enjoy the incredible scenery of the snow-capped peaks and the ribbon of road in nearly complete solitude. The bottom section below the maintenance shack gave a rhythmic, sustained downhill that made for a perfect ending.

I was disappointed and I guess a little frustrated by the group’s casualness about our departure time – I’m not used to that from the other groups I ride with – and the different objective the others had for our ride. I’ll be planning another trip up that monster called GMR and next time will try harder to ensure I’ll have a partner for that daunting and very special experience.

HunkerDown (Matt)

Ursa Minor

Hi Matt it was great to finally meet you and sorry that I was too slow to keep you company.
Actually I found the weather to be rather chilly on the way down and thank god I had a wind breaker.
I guess that soon it will turn way hot on GMR.

Charlie
PS TH I'm close to being a non-clyde. I weighed 207 today.

Beachgrad05

This was a ride that my team was doing and as a courtesy we invited our Clyde / Athena forum friends. Never intended for everyone to climb at same pace as the disparity is fairly large in climbing pace. This was a casual deal and sorry you were disappointed.

Our team is not as hard core as most groups so rolling time is flexible especially on a non- shop ride that we are doing for fun even past Clyde - Athena rides didn't quite roll on time either.

Beachgrad05

Raw video of pretty much the whole descent from shack.

TrojanHorse

I just registered for the century, alpacas and all. I know you're doing the more alpaca-focused ride, so we'll have to meet up before, during or after. I think the two courses are almost identical for the last 40 miles.