California Climbing 8/2013

Author: Leon Matz


CALIFORNIA CLIMBING

On Monday July 29th at 5:00am Leon picked Mike up at this house to head off on their adventure to California to do some bike climbing. Leon still has 26 climbs left on his list of the toughest 100 climbs in the US. To help in my recovery and to get ready for “Worlds” in Italy I wanted to go test myself on some of the toughest 25 climbs in America.

After 13 hours of driving they spent the night in South Lake Tahoe . We were both amazed at how much cooler it was. When we left early that morning it was only 45 degrees. As we headed south the road took them through part of the course for The Death Ride. I enjoyed sharing the route with Mike and reliving the wonderful experience I had doing 6 years ago. We had two climbs planned for that day (Rock Creek #26 and Pine Creek #81) but as we got closer we noticed a lot of smoke. We turned on the radio and discovered that there were 3 fires burning in the Sierra’s. YUK! What do we do. After a delay and some deliberation on our part. We decided to start the first climb and see how far we could go. Rock Creek is a 20.5 mi climb with 5,600 ft of elevation gain. As it turned out as we climbed the wind shifted and the climb became smoke free. We didn’t start the climb until around 11 so by the time we were down it was in the 90’s and the wind was howling and the smoke started to return. The wind in fact made the descent a challenge. As we drove to the second climb the wind seemed to shift again and the smoke returned. Even though I wanted to cross Pine Creek off my list by completing it we decided to skip it. We then headed to Bishop, CA to stay overnight and plan our next strategy.

The next days plan was to climb South Lake Road# 16 and Sabrina Lake #25. Unsure on weather the weather would allow us to climb or not we prepared to go. To our pleasant surprise the smoke had cleared and the climbs were very do able. We were able to ride straight from the hotel. We were up and on our bikes by 7. It quickly warmed up (way too hot for Leon). It was in the 80’s 1/3 of the way up. Mike kept saying how perfect the temperature was for him and I am sweating like a hog. I got so hot that I had to stop and dump my head in the creek and soak my neck scarf with the cold water. That seemed to help but the 5,445 ft. climb for 15 .8 mi. proved to be a real challenge. Part of the challenge was the 10,000 ft finish The last 2 miles included segments 12-14%. Mike proved to be real strong and left me in the dust up those last steep sections. We then descended for 7 miles and then climbed up to Sabrina Lake. We finished with 7,200 ft and about 50 miles. I had to stop a second and third time over the day. Too hot for me! The next two days Mike graciously agreed to try and get started on the bikes at 6 instead of 7 a.m.. That greatly assisted me in staying cooler and not needing to stop.

The plan for the next day was to drive north through Yosemite to do 3 climbs on the other side of the Sierra’s. One fire was in Yosemite and the other two were just south of there. The chances of us being able to do the first two of those climbs (King’s Canyon #94 and Sequoia #24) didn’t look very likely. We adjusted our plans and stayed in the same hotel and decided to do #7 on the list White Mountain. #7 on the list. It is a very isolated climb of 20.1 miles with 6,200 ft of climbing entering the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forrest. The climb ended at just over 10.000 ft. A very tough climb! Summerson in his book claims that the steepest pitch on the climb is 11% but Mike and I saw extended stretches of 12-14% We were cursing him! Conor has signed up to do the Everest Challenge in September. The challenge requires a rider to do 6 climbs over two days, log over 200 miles and climb more than 29,000 feet. Conor will need to do Rock Creek as the first climb on day one and then finish with South Lake on the first day. On the second day he will need to do White Mt. as the last climb of the two days. Mike and I are both in awe of that challenge. We did 3 of the climbs over 3 days and found them tough. The idea of doing them plus 3 other climbs over two days sounds incredible. Hopefully it cools off for the September ride.

Since heading north to go through Yosemite was problematic we drove south through Bakersfield to our next climb. The name Highway 190 doesn’t give you vivid pictures of a beautiful climb but that is what the climb turned out to be. It started out following a beautiful creek that had sculptured the sandstone rocks around it. The climb entered a scrub brush area with some views of the valley below and soon it transcended to a Sequoia Forest. The road winded back and forth and I loved the shade. The 190 climb was #22 on the list with 6,200 ft and a 24 mi. long climb. Both Mike and I loved the climb but the descent tired our necks, hands and shoulders with all the tight switchbacks. Wonderful Climb!

After a quick shower we headed for Sacramento to have dinner with my daughter Becky and her boyfriend. We drove to get to Redding to stay overnight. We talked about trying to do Mt. Shasta on the way home. To our disappointment some forest fires in Oregon were sending smoke into the Shasta Mt. area. Combined with our bodies feeling tired from 33,000 ft of elevation gain over 4 days we decided to head home. It was a wonderful trip even with the forest fire problems. We were very fortunate to be able to get in 5 climbs on my list all in the top 25 of difficulty with one being in the top 10. Spending 6 days with a terrific friend driving and riding bikes in some of America’s most beautiful roads is a heck of a priviledge. My fitness is improving and Mike is riding stronger than ever. GO CYCLOPATHS!

To view all photos associated with this trip, click on the following link:  https://picasaweb.google.com/103821724300588557330/2013_08_03CaliforniaClimbingLeonMikeS#slideshow/5909961845521139538