The forecast actually called for clearing and a tad warmer on Saturday, despite rain on Friday. A few of us agreed we'd head up to Idyllwild on Saturday morning to do some course recon for a race coming up in a few weeks. We got about 1/4 of the way up the hill and the cars with a few inches to have a foot of snow on their roofs started heading down. We should've turned around (Robert did!). We kept going. I was begging the drizzle at least to stop. The truck was screaming its ICE warning as we got to Mountain Center, and down at Hurkey the ground was damp, and while it wasn't remotely warm out, the temps weren't too bad.
The four of us (Luke, Eric, Justin and I) stood around and tried to formulate a plan. We were all dedicated to the ride, so we figured we'd head out and see what conditions were like.
Nothing too bad climbing up the course, but once we got over to Keen Camp climb it was drizzling again a bit, and the water hitting my face descending through the meadow was frigid. I kept changing my mind about continuing on or turning down Exfoliator. We continued up May Valley. The climb wasn't too bad. The dirt sucked our tires in, and made it feel slow. We got up to the singletrack turn-off and there was snow on the ground. It was raining, so temps weren't below freezing, but it definitely wasn't warm.
We started descending and I soon realized I couldn't continue without putting on my jacket. I was already soaked and muddy, and couldn't see through my glasses. I got moving again and my hands were so cold I had to stop to change out my gloves from the Cyclone's to the Sub-Zero's. Fingers were still freezing, but they weren't getting too much worse.
The boys were stopped waiting and Justin said we were heading down the trail. Off we went. We were all cold.
Luke decided to continue up the climb and finish out the course while Eric, Justin and I took off down Coyote Run and got back to the parking lot stat.
I felt better once I got into some dry clothes. Wasn't really the type of ride I'd been looking for. Too short and too much slow riding for it to be useful for my weekend ride, and too many efforts put in early on trying to stay warm and keep the boys visible that it wasn't easy enough for my easy day. D'oh!
I spent the afternoon cleaning up for a friendly get together planned for Sunday, and Justin and Luke headed down to the spring party at Beyond for burgers, brats, beer, and some warranty stuff. They got in a fast ride in the evening before heading back up north.
Sunday Justin and I slept in, I made a huge pot of oats, and we took our time getting suited up for a run at Daley. The lot was pretty empty (for a Sunday) when we showed up, but lots of trail runners out!
I was happy to NOT need multiple layers
My new shades! Stoked I finally was able to USE them!
We got in some efforts on the climbs, rested on the descents, and generally had a nice ride.
Stopped off at the store on the way home to pick up provisions and then it was food time.
Charressa's bomb salad (I was the only one that ate some!)
Half of dinner
Other than Justin, I was the only one that finished my burger and had corn! And sweet potatoes, and salad.
I can put away the food, let me tell you. Of course, I didn't feel so good for many hours post-binge, but hey…sometimes you gotta eat yourself sick.
Good weekend overall. Just missed not watching Paris-Roubaix. Hopefully we'll get to watch a bit of it this week.