California Climbing: Day 3 - Tan lines and hot peppers
Author of this post: Scott Larson
From March 31st to April 5th 2012, Leon, Mike and I traveled to California to check off some of the climbs Leon has on his "100 of the toughest climbs" list. I was very excited to get out of the cold and rain and go the the "mythical" warmth of the central valley and the Sierra mountains.
Mon. April 2: We decided that because we were just coming back to the hotel that evening, there was no reason to start before it was warm enough to ride without knee coverings. We drove up to this place called Squaw Valley (not the ski area) and parked at the side of the road and were off again. I couldn't find my GPS so I'm not certain that we actually rode that day, but both Leon and Mike had theirs and promise me that the ride was real. So, if we rode, this is what I remember.
The climb was similar to the first climb we did on Sunday. It was long and not very steep. It was really warm on the way up which was good because I was working on my tan lines. Half way up I made the observation that the descent would be all on the inside, meaning if you were to crash, you would have the entire slide across the outside lane to consider how much it would hurt will hurt when you finally go off the cliff and land at the bottom. Leon and mike were nonplussed.
There were less gas stations on this climb, but we ended up in the snow at King's Canyon National Park and found the biggest sequoia tree I had ever seen. Once at the top we put all of our clothes on and continued down. Again, similar to Sunday Leon turned left, but I continued with Mike back to the car. On the way down Mike and I held up a minivan going through some real fast curves. I think he was unhappy to wait, but Mike was nice enough to pull over and let him go by. I on the other hand wanted to continue going fast and didn't want to wait for him to go around us so I made him follow me for a couple more miles.
Once we got back to the car I guzzled another coke, deposited my jacket and grabbed a vest to ride back to our hotel. Mike drove back up the hill to meet Leon on the other climbs he was doing. I had a really good ride back to the hotel except for a headwind. Leon and Mike showed up a couple of hours later, and Leon looked very wasted, while Mike told me about the french fries and coke he had eaten in a bar he found while waiting for Leon.
After they cleaned up we found a Mexican restaurant and sat in the bar to watch the NCAA finals. Mike was rooting for the Jayhawks because he is from Kansas. We had a cute Mexican waitress and she challenged me to eat the chilly pepper that was on my plate. I ate it and it wasn't very hot. She was surprised, and I asked her if it was supposed to be hot. She said that they are very hot.
Don't laugh, this is serious!
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