Amber, Edgar, and I rode the Sam Woo route yesterday. We were really lucky because we normally ride on Sundays but we decided to ride on Saturday this weekend. We saw signs everywhere that the bike path and several of the roads we use were going to be closed on Sunday for the Orange County marathon. That would have been a pain.
The weather was perfect. Clear skies and bright sunshine with light winds about 10mph. Temperatures ranged from 60F to 75F. We really could not have asked for better weather.
This is a moderately hilly, 90 mile route and I have just installed a 13-29 cassette so I was keen to try the 29 tooth on the hills.
About 5 miles into the ride I realized I was hungry and starting to bonk. It had been three hours since I ate breakfast and I should have been OK for a while, but you listen to your body so we stopped while I ate a Pro Bar. It took about ten minutes to kick in. One advantage to being a randonneur is you know you have to do these things.
Riding the bike route through Laguna Beach is very hilly and I'm pleased to say the 29 tooth cog did take the sting out of the hills.
We got to Dana Point just before noon and ate, as usual, at the Brig. I was hungry again so I scarfed down a cheese omelet with hash browns and toast. I've never had a bad meal here.
We got to the second rest stop at Sam Woo and found they are permanently closed. I've been eating here for twenty years. They've always been busy. Such a shame! There's a Ranch 99 market next door that sells Koran pastries so we grabbed some of those and some Boba drinks and that went down just as well.
So I need to rename the ride "The Ranch 99 ride". We bought a gallon of water at the 7-11, refilled our water bottles, and set out on the last leg of the ride.
We had a moderate headwind as we returned to the coast and Edgar was struggling a bit so I pulled. Thank goodness for aerobars. We have a new route that uses Cliff Drive starting at mile 70.4. This avoids the dangerous turn on to PCH and a few miles of heavy traffic.
Once we got back on the SART we had a lovely tailwind so I pulled us home around 17 mph with less that 100 Watts of effort. We got back with an average of 14.1 mph which is above my target for a ride like this.
Other than Sam Woo going out of business, this was a lovely ride.
I figured this was going to be a post about the route had become unsafe due to increased traffic or such. When it turned out to be that the establishment after which the route was named had gone out of business, my mind was immediately recalled to the first ever NC perm-pop, "Howling Grits," which was named for a (rather over-priced) restaurant / cafe in Pittsboro that served as CP #4 (third intermediate control). However, that place closed less than two years after the route was created, so the Pittsboro control became an "open control" with people usually stopping at the gas station / c-store on the way out of town (but I know that at least once some stopped at some other eatery in that town).
ReplyDeleteI don't know if anyone has re-submitted that route, and I don't care to check. (I have no interest in riding that route again as the climb up to Carrboro / Chapel Hill is rather steep and I felt as if I were a target for the automobile traffic on that climb. Also, the route leaving Carrboro / Chapel Hill was rather busier than I prefer.)
...Martin