Knights Valley Metric Century

It was a cool morning as Leslie and I departed Santa Rosa sporting arm warmers and extra bottled water tucked in the back of our jerseys. We cycled out towards Windsor via Mendocino, Old Redwood Highway, and Faught. The sun hid behind a crisp layer of white mist while the vineyards on Pleasant Hill were ripe with dark purple fruit; simply beautiful. With limited visibility, we turned on Chalk Hill, quickly making our up those climbs to Highway 128. There was virtually no traffic as we took the six mile ride through Knights Valley. The sun began to break through clouds as we arrived at Ida Clayton. We removed our arm warmers, hydrated, and took a quick nature break before beginning our climb. While the first 4 miles of the Ida Clayton climb are the toughest, Leslie and I stayed together the whole time talking, laughing, and enjoying the various microclimates. There was a beautiful freshwater stream trickling down the mountain (see top photo). As we approached the top, my rear tire went flat, but was quickly repaired with my new CO2 pump. Leslie has become such a strong climber, able to maintain a conversation, even during the toughest grades. According to the Garmin GPS, we averaged a killer 9.1 mph up that climb until arriving in Lake County at Western Mine Road (see photo). With the sun warming our backs, we began the exhilarating 8 mile Ida Clayton downhill. As we were picking up speed, we passed Scott Wing quickly (and strongly) climbing uphill; go, Scotty, go! On the final descent, we reached speeds of 34+ mph on the newly paved roadway before reaching the bottom vineyard. After a quick break, Leslie and I headed back on Highway 128. Despite the heavier traffic in this direction, we maintained a fast paceline towards Chalk Hill. With our water bottles nearly empty, we strongly climbed the backside of Chalk Hill. Finally, we took refuge at Shiloh Regional Park for water bottle refills before heading back on Faught towards Old Redwood Highway. We finished the ride via the reverse outbound route, arriving home with a big mutual "high-five". Our riding time on today’s Metric Century was a remarkable 4 hrs, 37 minutes with over 4,911 feet of climbing.

What a beautiful day, what a blast! Wahoo!