Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Spooktacular - Rain, Wind, Cold

The Spooktacular Century is presented by the Kern Wheelmen. It started in Bakersfield at the Kern River State Park near Lake Ming and headed into the Sierras for the climbing part.
Because I was recovering from a cold, I wasn't sure which ride I would end up doing:
The Horrible Hundred with 8,600 feet of climbing
The Nightemare Ninety with 5,900 feet of climbing
The Morbid Metric with 4,600 feet of climbing The ride started off as advertised: "eerie lack of traffic . . . . . . and one stoplight." And just my luck, it happened to be red.


The start of the Grey Wolf grade. Over five miles of a continuous 5-8% climb into the Sierras. At about 1400 feet the weather turned nasty with rain, wind gusts, and temp in the low 50's. By the Caliente food stop I was soaked and shivering. I decided to head back before hypothermia set in. Because of the weather, I ended up doing the "Morbid Metric". Looks kinda like a mountain bike. What was that joke about sand in your Schlitz? I've been getting a lot of questions during my ride about "those things" on the back of my bike. I think they mean the Polar power sensor-more about that on another post. Need to give my Trek a bath.