June 2006, After missing last year’s Solstice ride, I was determined to ride this year, even though I was not going to spend the night at the hotel. It took a week to finally decide that I would ride the Solstice Century to the hotel, have supper with the other club members, and then return Saturday night. However, I planned to start from home in Brea and ride a ‘Solstice Double’. Yes, it would be a 200 mile round-trip.
While I have not ridden more than a century in one day during the last 25 years, I thought this would be the perfect time to try the Double. The route was relatively flat and cooler along the coast, supper was planned by Penny, the route-slip for 150 of the miles was prepared by Norm, the good weather was guaranteed by Bill, the last 70 miles would be at night when it is cooler, and it is hard to find a more enjoyable and awesome tour than riding down the coast to Torrey Pines - and back - with the BCI riders on the Solstice ride.
I left home in Brea at 6:00am, arriving at the Irvine Civic Center at 8:00am. I was surprised to see the parking lot was already bustling with a large number of bikers unloading their bikes and preparing to ride the Solstice ride. I rode in, said hello to Bill, Norm, and Penny, signed in, picked up my ride-slip for the century, and headed out at 8:06am. (23 miles)
On the way down I rode for about 4 miles with a group of 10 riders, that caught up with me at the Oso Creek Trail (left off of Cabot Rd at Rapid Falls Rd). I shot a photo of them as they passed me on the trail and Penny asked me to ride with them. They also went under the train station using the stairs to reach Camino Capistrano. I was glad to see others taking a detour that was not on the ride-slip this year (especially since I was not exactly sure where the station and stairs were). (38 miles)
I also rode with a few others on occasion for short distances, as I would catch up with them at rest-stops. August slowed down on several occasions to ride and talk to me and give me inspiration. I left him and his group before Las Pulgas as I decided to take the freeway to save time, since I was 15 minutes behind my schedule to reach the hotel for supper by 5:30pm. It worked and I reached Oceanside back on schedule. (75 miles)
I skinned my finger on a driver side mirror of a parked car on Pacific St, in Oceanside, while moving to the right to allow two cars to pass each other and me. I forgot to move my hand off of the bar-end. I wrapped my finger in a napkin and a small bungee-cord to stop the bleeding. Later I bummed a band-aid at a ‘7-11’ store. (78 miles)
Due to the time spent trying to save my finger, I stopped just short of the North Torrey Pines Rd grade at the Coast Hwy & Camel Valley Rd intersection, enjoyed the view, made a u-turn and headed for the hotel, rode up Poinsettia (or was it Hwy 330 up to Big Bear Lake), and arrived at the hotel for supper at 5:35pm. (114 miles)
I enjoyed the supper and the stories of the problems other riders were having on the ride (nice to know I was not the only one with problems). I spent an hour longer at supper than planned, but it was a tour not a race, so I stayed and enjoyed the experience. I was back on the road at 7:15pm
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The Double did seem to drag on as the night went on. I guess time would have gone by faster if I had someone to talk to on the ride, but I met bored convenience store operators at night who wanted to talk about where I was going, etc. I always took the time to oblige them. I knew it would be a long night when I stopped in Carlsbad to watch a juggler perform above the beach. (121 miles)
There were a couple of cars waiting to turn left from Muirlands Blvd onto Los Alisos, as I passed, and one of the teenagers was standing up in the ‘sun-roof’ of the leading car and began shouting and motioning at me, so I turned the bike and pointed my bright headlight at the kids to blind them for a second. The leading car turned left, but the 2nd car followed me and shouted some more before making a u-turn at the next street. I guess I should have ignored them, but they looked harmless. (164 miles)
Having only slept about 4-5 hours before starting the 200 mile tour, I guess it was not surprising when I actually fell into a glassy-eyed trance and began to “nod off” after leaving the Bill Barber Memorial Park in Irvine. I ate some food at the park and suspect that the food in combination with the extremely comfortable triathlon handle-bars helped me become sleepy. (177 miles)
Perhaps I should have listened to the advice received at the Solstice hotel pool during supper, concerning not riding up Grand/Glassel/Kraemer, because I was ‘egged’ by some teenagers in a car just before 1st St in Santa Ana. They hit me in the back of the jersey with one egg and the other hit one of the bags on the front handle bar. There was very little egg on the bike and it was easy to clean up later. That shocked me awake, and I never became sleepy again the rest of the way home - sweet home. (200 miles)
The main difference between riding during the day and riding at night is that the world is in color during the day, and black & white at night. It is also cooler at night. I saw the usual assortment of birds, rabbits, opossum, cats (not wildcats!), and coyotes, which you only see out at night. You can ride through a golf course at midnight and see 30 rabbits at one time.
The Solstice Double was definitely harder than the ‘Ride Around the Bear’, because I did not do any distance training beyond a century for the Solstice Double, while I did climb up a lot of hills in preparation for the Bear ride. I was not sore the day after the Bear ride, but I was a little sore after the Double. I was pushing an extra 10 lbs (55 lbs of bike and lights) during the Double on my black mountain bike with several handlebars (the ‘heavyweight’ bike). The Double was not really hard, but just very, very long. The hardest part was trying to stay awake (an ‘ordeal’) and not wreck, during the 4 miles that I was falling asleep.
Perhaps I was inspired by Doug Browne and RAAM, but I also had a theory that riding the Double is more mental than physical, and with proper planning it could be accomplished without feeling like it was an ‘ordeal’. I suspect the “overriding” reason for doing the Double was to prove I could visit my daughter at UCSD, La Jolla by riding down and returning in one day (and night). No gas and no car! It feels good to be independent and self sufficient, on a ‘heavyweight’. |
