Mr Bob H's Blog: Cycling this week

This past weekend Nabeel and I drove up to Mammoth for the High Sierra Fall Century. We got up there just before midnight on Friday night and managed to sleep to 6 AM, so, not too bad a start. We stayed at the Shilo Inn, which had a pretty good free breakfast and it started at 6 AM, so we had plenty of time to chow down before the ride, which, it turns out was a good thing.

The weather was great, it was about 65 degrees and sunny when we started at 7:50 AM, and it only got warmer throughout the day. The ride starts at a 7,000 foot elevation and goes up and down between that and about 8,100 foot elevation throughout the day. The total climbing is about 6,000 feet, which isn’t so bad, but when coupled with the elevation, makes for some pretty heavy breathing. Throw in a pretty good headwind on the second half of the ride, and it becomes pretty challenging.

The ride itself was probably the most beautiful ride I have ever done. The scenery is just magnificent, (look at the pictures) and the roads had very few cars. The rest stops were not stocked with very much food, unless you liked orange slices and trail mix. The second to the last stop was the only one with anything other than water to drink. Nabeel and I relied mostly on our large breakfast and what we brought with us for nutrition. At the end of the ride, all they had was barbequed pork sandwiches. If it wasn’t for the beer, they would have been in big trouble. If I do this ride next year, I’m bringing my own Subway sandwich.

All in all, it was a good day, the scenery made up for the lack of food. We rode the 95 miles in 6 hours 38 minutes.

Nabeel and I at the start