[CR]the REAL Mt. Baldy ride report this time

(Example: Framebuilding:Restoration)

From: <"brianbaylis@juno.com">
Date: Mon, 19 Dec 2005 09:11:36 GMT
To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
Subject: [CR]the REAL Mt. Baldy ride report this time

Mount Baldy Ride Report

Holy Mackerel! That was some ride. Something I wasn't quite ready for in sofar as my level of fitness and the lack of miles that I have. Certainl y the most continueous climbing I've ever done and probably the toughest 50 miles I've ever ridden, considering my condition and the weather.

I hooked up with Sterling Peters at at 7:30am, after a 4am rise to feed my noisey cat and begin preparation for the climb. Some oatmeal w/ rasin s and toast with PB&J and a slug of coffee. Stretching before that to he lp keep my lower back from hurting too much. Drop the kids off at the po ol, and I'm ready to hit the road. We drove for 2 hours and arrived righ t on time. The entire gang finally assembled (C. Andrews, C. Schmidt, S. Peters, C. Kostman, D. Jensen, J. Bissel, J. Morrison, Will, Steve, Joe , and Sam and myself. All vintage steeds amongst us, except one modern l ugged steel frame from an unnamed builder), we set off to conquer "the m ountain". The temperature at the start was cool, but no threat of rain o r snow (Yes, it does snow up there, just ask Chris!); but I figured it w ould get colder as we pressed further up the slopes. And oh how so VERY right I was. I wore two long sleeve layers on top and shorts and tights. The initial steep part of the climb, which only lasted about 10 miles, was warm enough as long as you were rideing and enough to soak my long t urtleneck undershirt with sweat by the time we stopped for the first tim e to regroup at the 10 mile point. There was still another 10 or 11 mile s of climbing before the summit. As we stood there for a while waiting f or everyone to come together; the temperature began dropping and there w as a wind blowing, a COLD wind. I had to don my final jacket to keep fro m freezing as we stood around for a few minutes. Once riding again I war med up, but not enough to take the 3rd layer off. As we got higher up it was getting colder and the few drops here and there made the wind chill almost unbareable for me. I've never been so cold in my life. Not until shortly after beginning the decent a short time later, that is. On the way to the summit I could see the "sunny side of the mountain", but we w ere on the shady (cold as hell) side with only small patches of sunshine in a few spots. I was maxed out and super cold, thanks partially to my soaked turtleneck. But by far the coldest parts of me were my hands and feet and nose, followed closely by my head and then legs. Fortunately my neck and torso were the warmest parts, which was just under the freezin g point. After about 15 miles or so of steady climbing I had to get off the bike and walk for about 2 or 3 hundred yards because my legs finally refused to turn over. I munched rasins and drank a little water as I wa lked, and when I got back on the bike I felt MUCH better.

Finally the top came up out of nowhere. It was beginning to look like th ere was no top to this damn rock. We again regrouped, and when all were present we dropped into Mt. Baldy Village and rolled right on past, as w e were all anxious to get down to civilization, some warmth, and some FO OD!! From the summit to the bottom is about 8 miles, I believe. That was by far the worst 8 miles of hell ( the part that froze over for sure!) I have ever endured. My hands were frozen to the bars and I feared that if I used my fingers to grab the brake levers my fingers would snap off like icecicles. I was right on the verge of shaking violently all the wa y down; the quandry always is wheather to go faster to get it over with quicker or slow down to keep the wind chill down. It's a lose lose propo sition. I wasn't the least warment dressed person there, by any means. I don't know how the guys without tights even survived without loseing a limb to frostbite. Once we were all gathered at the bottom, a warmer 3 m ile jaunt and suddenly we were having hot coffee and sitting in the rest uraunt ordering up some eats. Seriously, I've never been so thankful to be warm. That kind of cold is the stuff I don't ever want to feel again. I lived in Alaska and have been out in 50 degrees below zero (properly dress in sandles, Hawaiian shirt, and bermuda shorts, obviously) and not come anywhere near to being as cold as I was today. We had a good time overall. The food was good and the company was great. The climb kicked m y ass, but it was the coldness that made me most uncomfortable. I'd do t his insanity again in warmer conditions, but never again when it's cold out.

The final 12 miles home from the eatery to where we parked the cars was a brisk pace, on account we were running out of daylight. We arrived bac k at the starting point just as it was becomming dark. That was a full d ay. Quite a ride, really. Charles tells me it's beautiful up there and h e likes to look around and see the sights. All I looked at most of the t ime was my front wheel as I tried to keep my tongue from hanging out so far that I would run it over. I was pretty much gassed the whole way. Lu cky I had some low gears (30x32!, less than 1 to 1) and yet the 20 miles of climbing were still over my head. I think I need to go to the local shopping mall and practice climbing speed bumps for awhile before I go i nto the mountains like that again. Damn, that was tough. Good ride guys! Glad we all made it. It was epic, we all lived to tell the story, and w e had darn good fun freezing out behinds off. Let's get together and NEV ER do that again, shall we?

Brian Baylis La Mesa, CA I should be whipped, and yet here I am still awake at 1:00am. Weird.