My girlfriend and I started early for a ride from Ukiah toward Comptche. The main portion of the ride is on Orr Springs Road. This road used to be one of the stagecoast road between inland and coastal Mendocino county. The road is fairly narrow and has a few houses and ranches along it. One can take ths same road all the way to Comptche-- a former logging town--then further to Mendocino on the coast. M. and I did an out-and-back from Ukiah to Mendocino last year when we were training for the 1-day version of STP, and it still is the most challenging ride we did. Today we are not going as far, the plan is to start as early as we did, go all the way to Comptche, then turn around.
Soon after we made the turn onto Orr Springs, we began a very long and steep climb to the summit. According to the elevation profile for our route on Bikely, we started the climb on mile 6.5 or so at about 600 ft above sea level. At mile 10 or so, our elevation reached about 2400 ft (that's almost 10% the entire time!). Then after a drop to about 2000 ft at mile 11, we climbed again to reach close to 2600 ft at mile 13. Even though it's a challenging climb, it was quite pleasant. It was cool in the morning so climbing helped to warm us up. We stopped at a moment to peel off some layers and got to enjoy the view of the Ukiah valley. The traffic level is very low, the scenery is great, and pavement is pretty good. All one needs is some legs (or low gears) and some patience. There is a ranch called "Wonder" at the top. It's a very satisfying climb. A little on our equipments for the day. I took my Rivendell Romulus with Baggins Little Joe saddle bag. Because there is no services on the road until Comptche (even then, the store there doesn't open everyday), I carried a Nalgene water pouch that can fit 125 ml (4 of our stainless steel water bottles) of water in the saddle bag. The weight of the water (almost 10 lbs) certainly added the difficulty on the first climb. The Romulus performed wonderfully, it didn't tend to tip over, and stayed in a straightline without too much effort. I was able to alternate on and off the saddle going over the top. On descent, it took me a couple of turns to get used to the handling with added weight on the saddle, but it wasn't difficult and compromised the bike's handling only slightly. As we transferred water from the pouch to our bottles, obviously the weight of the bike/bag returned to normal. I really like having the little joe on my bike and will keep it there for a while. M. took her 650b Serotta CRT with matching Acorn Bags--a small saddle bag as a handlebar bag in the front and a medium/large saddle bag in the back. She didn't carry water (since I was the mule) but carried energy bars, sunscreens, and her fleece jacket. Her bike also performed well for her. The lightweight tubes suited her very well, as she is light. The stiff frame also helped her on climbs as she is more of a masher than spinner on the climbs. And the grand bois cypres tires provided her more comfort on some patches of bad pavement than 25mm Panaracer Pasela TGs on her Torelli. She also felt more confident on descent with those tires. Her speed on flat has not suffer because of the 650b wheel size. We both wore reflective hi-vis vest for safety and both have bells from Jitensha Studio. Between mile 10 and 13 when we were at the top, the road winds slightly and rolls a little. Here the vista is pretty open, looking over unincorporated regions of the Ukiah valley, with what must be new- growth forests. At mile 13, the road took a fast and winding dives, with many switchbacks for the next 4 miles. I stopped at a switch back to enjoy the view, give my hands some rest and allow M. to catch up. At mile 17, we got to the edge of the forest. The next 6 miles we will be in Montgomery Woods. We passed by Orr Hot Springs Resort along the way. This stretch of the ride is probably my favorite, as is M.'s. We rode under the tall canopy of several different kinds of trees-- redwood, pines, oaks--and there is a creek running next to the road. I tried to take some picture but it was pretty dark in the forest to take good pictures while on a bike. It felt magical! The pavement is decent, but bad at a few spots, and the traffic is very low, with most of the cars going to and from the hot spring resort. We both remarked that this is probably our favorite place to ride. We climbed one more significant hill before comptche. Before a 4-mile descent into town, we decided that we didn't want to climb back on the return trip and turned around there at mile 30. It was a wonderful ride! For complete write-up, see here: http://bikegarage.blogspot.com/2008/12/ukiah-comptche-ride-on-thanksgiving.html Photos are here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/franklyn/sets/72157610579847635/ Bikely route map is here: http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/Ukiah-Comptche-on-Orr-Springs-Road Franklyn Berkeley, CA --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
