I had hoped to post this up just after the Tour of the California Alps, which took place almost two weeks ago now, on Saturday, the 13th. Unfortunately, I picked up a bit of a cough, brought on by a little trip to the Southland the Tuesday prior, and it put me out of commission. Note to self: Don’t get in one of those shiny, jet-powered tubes filled with other germ-carriers, fly to a big city and hang out in a meeting for two (2) hours with a sick colleague also in the meeting, especially the week before the Deathride.
Thankfully it didn’t hit me so hard that I couldn’t do some of the ride. I was able to get four (4) passes done but Carson just wasn’t possible. Just couldn’t get any air as the day wore on; 40 more miles and another ~4000 feet wasn’t going to happen. So, I had to abandon and leave my brother from another mother, and California Alps Cycling member, Scott Keno, to finish without me, which he did. Two (2) other members, Roy Franz and Joe Watkins, also finished, and a couple other members, Greg Hanson and Rich Harvey, conquered one, or both sides, of Ebbett’s. Congrats boyz!
While I don’t have the official stats yet from the Alpine Co. Chamber, I heard that there were approximately 2000 sign-ups and about 900 5-pass finishers! Based on what I know about previous years that’s a higher percentage than in the past. Lots of strong riders out there this year! The weather cooperated; it didn’t get too hot or windy until later in the day. Still challenging for those on Carson but it could have been much worse as highs in the 90’s were expected. Congratulations to all you Death-riders! Whether you did 1, 2, 3, 4 or all 5 passes you should be proud.
Here’s a bunch o’ photos from the day (and a couple from the Expo the Friday before)
From our perspective here at California Alps Cycling we couldn’t have had a more successful weekend (well, it would have been nice to not get that cold but that’s life, eh?). The Expo was hugely successful! We sold out of our cinch-packs for the bag drop and we got great reviews on the drop itself, too; we turned some folks onto our jerseys, vests, bibs and decals, and we had many great conversations with riders. Thank you so much BTW, to those of you who came by our booth, and especially to those that partook of our bag drop or bought other schwag. We are grateful. We also handed out (free of charge) some Smart Cycling Quick-Guides, which we purchased from the League of American Bicyclists. Based on what our booth-goers told us, most of them were going to go to kids and grand-kids of riders, which is what we had hoped. Getting to those neophyte riders early is key we think and it’s one of the things we feel very strongly about – cycling education that is. Don’t you agree?
We’ll be back next year and have already started planning. Hope to see you then! Be on the lookout (BOLO) for our Deathride 2020 page (we retired the 2019 page earlier this week) where we’ll post up that data that matta for next year.
In other news…
Earlier this week, we joined other members of the Markleeville Enhancement Club (Mark’s the secy-treasurer) for a bit of weed-whacking, branch-trimming and litter pick-up at Heritage Park. If you’re interested in a bit of history, click here to read a 2016 article about Jacob Markley (’twas he that our town was named after) and the park.
Lighting and thunder visited us in earnest yesterday (first real storm of the season). We had about .30 inches of rain fall here at HQ and a few strikes did torch some trees, one here on Hot Springs Road and one out on the Mesa area, near Woodfords. Thanks to our firefighting professionals, though, they were quickly extinguished.
Last, but not least, there is some road work being done on Dixon Mine Road (off Wolf Creek Road) until November but it looks like Wolf Creek Road itself will remain open.
So there you have it loyal reader. The latest happenings here in our little slice of heaven. This Sunday, by the way, Mark is going to join other members of the Alpine Trails Association (yup, he’s a member, too) for a nice hike on the Charity Valley Trail, from Blue Lakes Rd. to Grover Hot Springs State Park, so we’ll post something on our blog next week on that. Stay tuned.
Happy weekend to you! Get out and enjoy the outdoors and let’s kick some passes’ asses! whether that be by foot, horseback, bike or some other form of transpo.