Not only was it steep, but there were zillions of gnats buzzing around your face. They went away when you got over 9 miles an hour - unfortunately on the climb I was lucky if I could get up to 5 mph. Must have eaten at least a dozen of these little buggers.
The hill went on and on...
At about the 12 mile mark (which was the steepest part of the climb) Jim from Santa Barbara passed me and asked me "mike, do you spend any time volunteering"? I could barely breath never the mind talk. Just gasped at him as he passed me.
Not sure I would call this luck but the week before this road had been shut down due to a California wild fire. It torched a bunch of the hills and had we been there 2-3 days earlier we would have had to shuttle around the fire ( damn). There were still fire trucks patrolling the area and the air smelled like an old fire.
The crew meet us at the top so we could top off our water bottles. It was impossible to stay there with all the flies. Barb who is in charge of these stops was even wearing a hat that had bug netting over her face.
Grabbed my water and proceeded to fly down the hill. As noted before it was lots of fun. 20 miles of not pedaling.
when we reached the valley floor I thought we would be able to cruise the last 35 miles into town. But as soon as we turned onto the next road we encountered a headwind that cut down our speed. Had some more hills as we passed miles upon miles of grape vines and vineyards.
When we reached the next town (greenfield) it was pretty flat and the agriculture changed again - back to lettuce and other similar veggies. Not sure where they are getting the water from to run their sprinklers - because every river we went by was bone dry.
We reached King City by 2 pm and we have been advised to be careful. Leaving my wallet and phone in the room buy got to head over to the gas station to get a beer. Deserve this one!!
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