Big June Ride

Since we couldn't make our usual June big ride in the Sierras (the Summer Solstice Century, in Quincy) this year, we decided to take a do-it-ourselves approach. We had planned to go up to Downieville for the weekend anyway, so we headed up Thursday night to leave Friday for riding, in advance of the weekend tourists on the roads.

I came up with a nice route - up hwy 49 from Downieville, through Sierra City to Bassett's, then over Gold Lake road, down to Hwy 89. Right on 89, left into Clio, then over the hill to Portola. There's a little side road from Portola that avoids an unpleasant stretch of Hwy 70 for a couple miles, then a brief stint on 70 before turning onto A-23 road and crossing the Sierra Valley. Right turn onto Calpine road, which intersects 89... Left on 89 for a few miles, then right onto Hwy 49 for the climb up and over Yuba Pass. Then zooooom, downhill all the way back to Downieville! Round trip: 95 miles, about 7,000 feet of climbing. Here's the route map and elevation profile:

Anna also found this cool website where you can map out your intended route, and it will tell you the mileage, which we used in advance to make sure we weren't biting off more than we could chew!

I took a turn too early going into Clio, which sent us on a slightly different road than intended -- so we came out onto Hwy 70 a bit west of Portola, rather than coming into town from the south and avoiding one more stretch of 70... but it was a scenic detour, and left us something to explore on a future ride. Anyone contemplating this route should note, that most of the Clio-to-Portola route is on dirt; the roads were in great condition, no problem at all on a road bike with skinny tires, but don't be thinkin' it's all perfect pavement if you choose to ride it.

Speaking of which -- the pavement on the Sierra County portion of A-23 is atrocious!  The cold winters and hot summers of the high Sierra valley conspire to tear the road apart, and (like in most of California) the maintenance has bee "deferred" for many years. The result: cracks running completely across the road, every 20-40 feet, 2-4 inches wide. At car-speed, they give an annoying but rhythmic thump; at bike-speed, your wrists and posterior take quite a beating for about 15 miles. It happened to also be blowing a pretty good headwind on that stretch, as the usual afternoon cumulus build-up brought cooler air but also some considerable wind.

The pavement going over Yuba Pass, and down the other side all the way to Sierra City, isn't much better. Climbing, you can avoid the worst, and roll through the holes you can't avoid... but descending, it's painful at times, and sometimes borders on dangerous. Neglected infrastructure, it seems, is most evident when experienced on a bike.  There *was* a patching crew at work on the west side of Yuba Pass, so perhaps some of the worst spots will be fixed soon.

Nimue and Grandma Linda got to have a fun day of quilting, playgrounds, and trips to the store for treats... Saturday was Downieville's annual Gold Rush Days, with stagecoach rides, wild west shootouts on main street, and other fun in town. We cooked burgers with Dorr and Ethan, then went to see "Paint Your Wagon" (Clint Eastwood singing...) in Downieville's little theater.

Sunday we finished up a few chores, and headed on home. We had thought to go watch Lance and Levi and Chris Horner mix it up at the Nevada City Classic race, but realized that (a) the crowds would be huge, and (b) we wouldn't be able to watch the race and still get home at a reasonable hour for small children... we bought strawberries at our favorite organic roadside stand instead.