BRRRR...

Got out for a 50 miler today, trying to get some base down for the upcoming training for the Arizona Trail Race in April. Left the house and it was 37 with a 25 mile an hour wind, brrrrr. Anyone not living in California thinks that amounts to whining, but it was 65 the day before!

Rode the Anthem as that is the likely bike I'll be racing in Arizona, 300 miles over a couple of days on some pretty rugged trails does not sound like fun on the Flash, I'll go ahead and take the 4 pound weight hit for being a bit more comfortable. The temp rose a bit as I headed down Yankee Jims to the North Fork of the American River. I turned around at the bridge and headed back up towards Sugar Pine Lake and Shirttail Canyon.

Wooden bridge over Shirttail Creek.

 As I got to the top of Shirttail Canyon three motos that had passed me earlier were pulled over to the side of the road. It seemed they had been trying to air up one of the rear tires and ended up leaking more air than filling it. They had been really cool as they passed me so I asked if they needed help. They asked if I had a pump and by chance I did have one that would convert to schraeder valve. We sat around and BS'ed while one of them worked feverishly pumping up the tire. Ten minutes later they were on their way and I felt good about helping out, they would have been screwed out there, 25 miles from nowhere is where I found them.

Pretty good views today, not much haze, an oddity for mid Jan. 

Shirttail Canyon Rd, in great shape for January!

I made my way up Big Dipper and took the single-track  around Sugar Pine, lots of fisherman taking advantage of the lack of snow, normally there would be 3 feet of snow around the lake. The wind was really picking up as I made my way around the lake, I had headphones and my Shuffle going, but I could still hear the wind in the trees howling.

Sugar Pine Lake.

I made my way out to Finning Mill Rd for the dirt option back to Foresthill Rd. Man the wind was howling and I knew I was going to get crushed once I got to Foresthill Rd. Sure enough as I made the turn onto Foresthill Rd. I was just about blown to a stop. I struggled to keep it above 15 mph as I headed down the road to home, normally it's a 25-30 mph blast home. The clouds had moved in and it was really starting to get cold as well, a little moisture in the air and it would have been snowing for sure. All in all a beautiful January day, 49 miles with 5000' of up in 3:21 was just perfect . Snow's a coming this week though, arhhhh!