Father's Day

My buddy Mike R and I spent the lion's share of Father's Day doing The Cazadero King's Ridge loop in western Sonoma county. Neither of us spent time with our children, not by choice on my part, but that's another story. We woke up and cooked a big breakfast - always a vital chore when an all day jaunt is in store. We did the hour and a half drive to Jenner to the start of the loop. Just before starting I was looking at my practically new front tire and discovered it was missing a huge area of tread - some sort of manufacturing flaw. I opted to ride it anyway, but the knowledge of a defective front tire haunted me on the many high speed downhills through the day. This loop starts with about 8 miles of big ring riding along the Russian River and then Austin Creek. Just after the tiny town of Cazadero things get seriously vertical. We loaded up our jersey pockets with cookies and soda in town wisely as it turned out. The first climb is close to 15 miles long. The climbing while not continuous is consistently steep. Not having any real alpine gears I spent a lot of time out of the saddle. Once this climb finally ends at the intersection of Hauser Bridge and Tin Barn roads you take a vertiginous descent down to the creek. This is a very technical drop down the elevator shaft known as Hauser Bridge. You have to climb steeply back out of this canyon to the ridge. The climbing continues on the ridge. Luckily much of it can be done seated. The next part is the reward. You descend down Meyer's Grade with its at times 18% grades to Route One where the descent hairpins down to the ocean. Then a couple rollers and back along the river to the car. One of the hardest 50 milers that I know. It took me a solid 4 hours to complete and Mike took an hour longer than I. We both agreed that it was the best Father's Day present, both the time and the capacity to do the ride.