this ride is one of my favorite. probably because i had used all of my networking prowess and found three other people to go with me. dan, roy, and zak. three of my favorite people.

i was still on the old trek (two days before it got stolen) and had just found an old canny in really good shape for really cheap that i had loaned zak. 

i started the ride out by going the wrong way (which i didn’t put into the map) to meet roy and dan because we decided that no one was going to be driving anywhere to meet anyone else and i felt bad because they had to start earlier than me and they’d be riding to meet me solo so…

we met zak at the gas station by his house after i hounded him out of bed over the phone. he was trying to pump up the rear tire that he had said he would have fixed several days prior when he agreed to do the ride. 

i checked the tube and it was shredded. luckily he had his old bike at his house with a good tube that we snagged and used. 

so we got out of the gate over an hour late. which was trash because both dan and zak both had time frames for finishing the ride.

we made it up to san fernando road pretty quickly. roy and dan were lagging behind and decided to go through griffith park since they didn’t know zak and i had gone straight out los feliz.

we met for our first break at a drug store (cvs? rite aid?) and got water etc.

took off and basically mashed san fernando into dust. roy and dan had a slightly slower pace than zak and i but zak likes to stop and look at stuff and take photos so it all worked out.

jack in the box on brand at the end of san fern for lunch. we all pigged out, then hit rinaldi. nice long stretches of uphill with very few stoplights. then tampa down to devonshire which is where you get a little glimpse of what topnaga will be like. it’s much straighter and not as steep but still super fast. really fun.

devonshire takes you all the way to topanga canyon blvd. it’s straight and flat until you get to burbank blvd.

i saw a vans store and forced the train to stop. i went in, bought new shoes and was ready to go. this was the point when dan decided his knee hurt too much to keep going and plus not to mention he was already late so he had his lady come pick him up leaving zak, roy, and myself to finish it out.

and then it starts. the climb. not a bad climb by any means but when you’re a couple of knuckle heads who really have only been riding with any amount of seriousness for a short while it’s pretty intimidating.

roy was training for the AIDS ride at this point but had never done a ride over 40 miles before. in fact, the ride he did that was 40 miles was with me a week earlier. he was probably under 100 miles for his entire biking career. zak and i had been going out every so often for a few months so we were kinda prepared. kinda. 

up up up. steeper and steeper. our 16-17 mph average was dropping rapidly. 10 mph. 8 mph. 7 mph and holding steady. i was ahead of zak only because i was ahead of him. we just pedaled to the top. just like that. it took way less time than i thought it would but it really wasn’t bad. i mean, it kicked my ass but i still had energy once we peaked it.

roy fell behind and zak and i waited. i tried to call but no answer. he called back and said he was just going to take his time. i asked if he wanted us to wait and he said no. we gave him another 5 minutes and he came around the corner. we did the hydrate thing and rested briefly. we were all pumped to get on and bomb the hill.

steep, sharp curves, no shoulder, speeding cars, and so so fun. there was a pretty good head wind going down but that didn’t stop us from getting up in the high 30 mphs for the majority of the ride down. i pedaled basically the whole way and it was flat out amazing.

holy smokes it’s hard to believe that this is before i was wearing a helmet. infact, i think roy was the only person who owned a helmet (one that i gave him) and he didn’t bring it cuz no one else was gonna wear one. dumb. all of us were dumb.

it was over way too fast we hit the pch and stopped to talk about it and take some photos. 

we mounted up and rolled out. roy veered off and hit a grocery store just off sunset and zak and i finished the ride by trudging up santa monica and heading home.

i haven’t ridden with roy since he stopped for water. he just finished the AIDS ride a few days ago. i’m really proud of him. i can’t wait until saturday. he and i are gonna go for a ride!

chirp,

hillary