Steve's Mountain Bike Page
Turlock, California

Annadel State Park, Santa Rosa, CA
May 24, 2008

Today I met some of the May By The Bay folks at Annadel, where I had not ridden for about 18 months. I'm way too slow for the speedsters but I like to ride much longer than the people my speed. So I planned to say hi to a bunch of people I hadn't seen in a long time, and then to do the traditional 25 mile slowpoke ride with Cohenfive. It was a very cold and wet morning and about the time I got there Cohenfive called to say he was bailing because of the rain. So after saying hi to everyone I headed up Richardson and South Burma, down Lawndale, up Schultz and Ridge, back down South Burma and upper North Burma, across Live Oak and Rough Go, and down Cobblestone.

Cohenfive did the right thing, it was a cold miserable day and the temperature never got out of the 50's. With the exception of the last half hour it rained nearly continuously. After riding in temperatures literally 50 degrees warmer within the past week, it was quite a shock, and I certainly wasn't that well prepared for it. This was real hypothermia weather and every time I went downhill the wind chilled my soaked body to the bone. I hesitated several times going down Lawndale because I knew I'd be committed to a long cold ride once I reached the bottom. But I've never quit on a ride so I pressed on up Shultz and Ridge. My skills have rapidly deteriorated since coming back from knee surgeries and I walked quite a bit of stuff I've made scores of times before. I used to love climbing up that rocky Schultz and bombing down Rough Go, but today I found the former quite difficult and the latter quite scary. I came close to doing several endos, probably because I was going too slow.

Despite being a very frustrating, tedious, cold and damp ride that seemed to last forever, I finished in five hours. I realize I need to gain more endurance and leg strength, and to somehow regain my confidence before setting out on some planned road trips this summer. Nice to meet everyone! I only took the camera out a few times when the rain let up a bit. Below are a few photos.

Impy

Aosty

GuruAtma

Ridge Trail

Ridge Trail

Ridge Trail

Ridge Trail

Ridge Trail

Ridge Trail

South Burma

North Burma

North Burma

Live Oak

Rough Go

Rough Go

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