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.
We started up the hill and knew that after about 10 miles there would be some construction that we would have to go through. After climbing for about an hour and a half we reached the person holding the stop sign and told us that they let cars through once an hour on the hour. She also told me that they would not let us ride through the construction zone, if we want to go through we would need to find a ride. It was also about 3 miles in length, so we decided that skipping it would kind of ruin the purpose of "riding" up a climb, so we turned around and decided to go ride another climb that was on Leon's list that we didn't expect to have time to get to. The decent off of the climb was a blast though! All of the corners were predictable (no decreasing radius) and the pavement was excellent with no gravel on any apexes. You were able to fly through most of the switch backs at full speed leaning your bike almost completely over, challenging Newton at his own game. Luckily Newton didn't show up and we made it down safely!
The last day (for me). We woke
up and drove out to Three Rivers and ended up parking just through
the entrance to Sequoia National Park. Leon said that the climb
started a mile back so he rode down the hill to get the first part of the climb
while Mike and I got ready. This was by far the warmest day of the trip, and I
didn't even put arm warmers on. This climb was supposed to be about 18 miles
and somewhere around 6000 feet of elevation gain. It also had about 100 switch
backs.
We started up the hill and knew that after about 10 miles there would be some construction that we would have to go through. After climbing for about an hour and a half we reached the person holding the stop sign and told us that they let cars through once an hour on the hour. She also told me that they would not let us ride through the construction zone, if we want to go through we would need to find a ride. It was also about 3 miles in length, so we decided that skipping it would kind of ruin the purpose of "riding" up a climb, so we turned around and decided to go ride another climb that was on Leon's list that we didn't expect to have time to get to. The decent off of the climb was a blast though! All of the corners were predictable (no decreasing radius) and the pavement was excellent with no gravel on any apexes. You were able to fly through most of the switch backs at full speed leaning your bike almost completely over, challenging Newton at his own game. Luckily Newton didn't show up and we made it down safely!
Mike decided not to ride the second climb so
Leon and I stopped at the car to get some more water and rode down the highway
to Mineral King Rd. We got to the road and it immediately went up.
The pavement was very poor, and at some places merely gravel. We rode about 6
miles before we decided to turn around. I think the full climb was something
like 22 miles, and we didn't expect to have time to ride the entire thing. On
the way down while getting bucked like a cowboy on a mustang, I managed to lose
a water bottle. Luckily that was the only casualty of the entire trip
for me. After that it was to Fresno Airport for me and Leon and Mike continued
on to Santa Cruz.
*I make no warranties to the accuracy of my
facts, figures, stories or claims.
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