County Line

So you're thinking, "It's time to ride my SS, where should I go?..."single track is always nice, some climbing is OK,the woods, mountains". It never really crossed my mind that 40 miles on Hwy 1, railroad tracks and sand would be ideal, and it isn't, but damn if I didn't have fun! what's it called? County Line.

My inability to ask questions beyond, "sounds good-let's do it", led me into this one. The whole time, up to the night before, I assumed it was alike a mass "ride" of SS'ers, spending the day riding in less than ideal conditions. Well, the night before, I clarified with Curtis that it was more like a race and he let me know I wouldn't be seeing him or the other folks I headed down with-but not to worry as long as I heeded several warnings ... things like;

bring extra socks
watch out in bum alley
look out for poison oak somewhere around the 4th bluff
and make sure you head to the beach when the train racks start to slightly bend away from the beach somewhere outside of Santa Cruz beach boardwalk

So I was a little freaked as I do not race, but I was going and I went. What can I say? It was hella™ hard. There was like 60-70 riders (maybe more),I believe we did something like 12-15 miles on RR track gravel (not the packed kind either), like 10+ miles on the sand and the balance on the shoulder of HWY 1. Good thing I listened and geared up--normally running 2:1 (32:16), I swapped out to 36:16 and being so flat it worked out great_I don't htink I stopped pedaling for the whole 3 hours.

Finished the ride/race in 3 hours, headed to Hunter Cycles shop for food, fun and new friends. To say I was cracked was an understatement. During the post-ride party, I began to have the cold sweats, felt like puking and Mitzi said I was pretty pale white. It passed and so did the ride home.

Overall a great day (wish I could say the same about my late night at home) and I look forward to putting myself through it again next year.

8AM we leave to pick up Jeff

Mitzi and Max...Mitzi was a life saver-driving the course so we didn't have to shuttle

Last time I saw Curtis and Jeff until the end of ride...I actually broke my chain 100 yards from start and was saved by a powerlink from another rider

Group Start HWY 1

Riding HWY 1

Riding above RR tracks--the only way to go, when you could!

The beach...I was solo on her for an hour at least

The line up out side of Rick Hunter's shop

**No RR track pics as there was no way to shoot while riding...