So, Kim and I arrived late on Wednesday March 9 and I spent Thursday getting the bike operational. I usually ride with Claremont Senior Biking Group (CSBG) but they do not have a regular Friday ride. What I usually do in such cases, and did this time, is start to ride up Mt Baldy. Don’t worry, the emphasis, as you will see, is on START. I keep the bike at Claremont Lodge Motel which is down near the 10. So it is an hour ride up to a normal CSNG redevue at Von’s on Foothill and then another 1/2 plus up N. Mill to the Mt. Baldy Road turn off. This first Friday I only made it to Padua Ave and then came back to Claremont Lodge. Good start for the legs.
Saturday, CSBG was going for a longer ride. I looked at the map and could have cheated a little and kept the mileage below their advertised 60 but I decided to woose out and just work on Mt Baldy again. This time I made it up to my normal turnoff onto Shinn road. I had to walk 3! times. Once last year I even explored a little above Shinn road but that was the first time I had felt strong enough to do that.
Sunday was a family day. We took Thomas to the Train museum in Pasadena and then the merrygo round in the next park. A nice family outing and I enjoyed the day off!
Monday was my first regular CSBG ride. Monday and Wednesdays are the “hard” days. Tuesdays and Thursdays a long but fairly flat run out to Victory Garden and back. I leave the motel about 7:15 so that I am assured to be the first one at the 8am meeting point up near Foothill and Towne. The riders mostly have seen me before. Their faces are familiar to me but 80% of them are either Tom or Bob. This Monday ride involves a leisurely snake through neighborhoods, a tough too thin crossing over a pedestrian bridge and then up. First fairly doable and then a last diabolical pitch. I always get dropped and am afraid I will not find them but did. They take a rest at the top and are joined by other riders who have come a less strenuous way.
At the 8am meetup, I am always anxious to find out who the slower riders are and be sure they know I want to stay with them. I pick one person and then try to glom onto his wheel and not lose him. The group is famous for what I call deviations. Someone pulls off the goes another way and I never know if that person is looking for more hills or an easy way around, so I have no idea who to follow. The key is to identify a rider that I can keep up with and then not lose him!
Last year this ride proceeded from here to a dirt? road up to a reservoir. That loop was new last year and I was glade to learn that we would not go that way today. The route now transverses over to Bonelli park. The crossing is stressful in that I have to race to be sure I am not separated from the group or more importantly my chosen slower rider at a red light. Once over, we start up the long killer hill of the day. I just get behind my chosen, get in my lowest gear and stay as close as I can. The goal is to stay close enough to not be a burdon on the group and at the same time not put myself into a red zone of distress. When distressed, I pant breath and the sight of a 75 year old pant breathing quite reasonably scares the group. I try to use this judiciously to allow them to feel a little sorry and slow down.
There is a right turn off about 3/4? of the way up this hill and my elected guide took the turnoff and then came right back to warn me that this was not the way I wanted to go. It. as I knew, involved yet another killer hill. I was able to double back and at the top of the hill a group was waiting for me. From there on it is not terrible. I know ways to skip some of the hills and thought I could not keep up with them I did arrive at the breakfast place before it we too late.
The group has breakfast, me just a toasted english muffin with no butter and then ride slowly home. I talked to a couple people and then asked after the woman I had ridden with last year, Aron. She was sitting right there! I just had not recognized her. She had a new bike and helmet! Anyway, was nice to reconnect with her. Last year it had been easy for me to see that she was becoming a much stronger rider than I was. She was nice and stayed with the old men but this year she had a new bike and everyone now recognized that she was one of the strongest riders.
I followed the group back to Claremont village and then went onto the motel. The next Wednesday and Monday where the CSBG also uses this breakfast spot, I took a different way home that was a little more dangerous, too much traffic, but significantly shorter.
I’ll have to break this itinerary somewhere but might as well put a couple more rides in here. Tuesday’s ride starts for me at Von’s supermarket on Foothill. The meetup is at 8am so I again leave the motel at 7:15 and have about a 30 minute ride to Von’s. People gathered and we were off. We often pick up a couple more riders in about 3 miles and then the total ride is about 12 miles to Bad Ass coffee. There is a stop near the coffee where Doug? takes a group picture. At this breakfast stop I have a muffin. There is a bike path that takes us home. Some riders go off and do a couple hills, but not me. The bike path is hard in that it crosses streets very often, maybe 30? Each time there is a “crossing” button that needs to be pushed but even worse there is a 2 foot? opening that needs to be negotiated to prevent anyone from driving onto the path but wide enough to allow bikes and baby carriages. The problem is that I have poor bike handling skills and at each street I have to get through 2 of these obstacles without hitting a post!
Other riders all peal off and take different streets home. This Tuesday I stayed on the path all the the way to Claremont but then found a bridge was out. I was very close to Claremont so it was easy to work my way around and only one homeless person camped out on the sidewalk had to move their legs so I could pass. On the bike path and indeed on all street crossing where there is a light, the CSBGers go to the button and push it. I think such is a very California thing to do. I think of myself mainly as a driver and hate to sit and watch pedestrians travers. Whenever I am walking, I just watch for openings and get across on my own. I usually can do the same with my bike. But of course as long at a CSBGer is along and racing forward to push the button, I never mention my illegal tendency.
Wednesday is another bad hill day to Bonelli Park. No killer hill in Claremont, we just ride over to the park and do some minor climbs before ending up on the same long hill as Monday. This time Aron and a friend of her’s, Bob, were waiting for me at the top. I was able to go with them. Aron took us on some reasonably hard stuff but all I had to do was hang behind Bob and I knew I would be ok. We went through the trailer park that I have written about before. Other years they would lead me down into this warren of lanes and lose me and I would be riding around yelling to anyone I saw, “how do I get out of here”. No such event with Aron and Bob. We proceeded uneventfully to the breakfast spot. I think this was the day they sang Happy Birthday to Aron and as I have said I took the busy road home instead of riding with them into Claremont.