Last Fall I did the Marin Mountains 200k and speculated that it might be
the hardest 200k brevet the RUSA catalog. Yesterday, San Francisco
Randonneurs hosted La Ruta Loca, and the route owner Carlos (#4841) is
pretty certain this course is harder. It was definitely a monster. "The
Crazy Route" was crazy hard, and crazy fun. The main stats are: 125.3
miles, ~50 miles of dirt, and 13,051ft of climbing. Here's my Ride with gps
data: https://ridewithgps.com/trips/24131333
The weather report called for ideal temperatures, low 50s in the early
morning, slight general overcast and not many spots even approaching 75
degrees. According to Rob Hawks, 25 riders gathered in the dense fog at
Crissy Field East Beach. The pavement was very wet, like after a hard
rain. It was only fog, and there were times during the ride where I wished
the fog would come back. The only threatening part of the weather report
called for strong winds from the Northwest. I went with El Cerrito High
School racing kit, along with matching arm warmers, a reflective vest and
that's all. I was chilly to start but it worked out perfectly. The
armwarmers didn't come off until I was back in my van after the finish.
<https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-mUJehyt_WD8/Wx01oHdOuXI/AAAAAAAAD4k/upEogSvzFIE9-Qquynie4so-okix6sDjwCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_0517.jpg>
I was trying to travel light as I wasn't bringing a lot of bag-space on my
Black Mountain Monster Cross. The bike's nickname alternates between Green
Meanie and Mean Greenie. I ran a 2x10 drivetrain, 42/26 in front, 11-36 in
back. My 700x43 Bruce Gordon Rock and Roads were about 'average' for the
tires I saw people running. Some of the bikes present were classic
rando-machines with Hetres or similar. Some were fully contemporary 'all
road' bikes with 27.5" Thunder Burts. I only saw one flat bar mountain
bike, but now that I've done the route, I wouldn't hesitate to bring a
light XC mountain bike. At about 5:50AM we gathered for a pre-ride chat,
and the solemn SFR oath promising "not to do stupid stuff". At 6AM sharp we
were off towards the Golden Gate Bridge heading North into Marin County.
Unlike most other SFR routes, we didn't have to meander all willy nilly
through Sausalito, Mill Valley, Ross and the other southern Marin towns.
Instead we got right off the bridge and headed straight up into the Marin
headlands and got off-road immediately. The ride ended up being three
distinct sections. Section 1 was an epic 50 mile mountain bike ride,
punctuated with just a few paved connectors. Section 2 would be a basically
flat road ride punctuated by a few gravel stretches. Section 3 would be
another 30 mile mountain bike ride up and over Mount Tam. The first big
dirt climb was Miwok Trail, which started to sort people out, especially on
the descent of Old Springs. There was a broad array of offroad descending
skills on display. Some would bomb the descents 'full-send', while others
were quite timid. I landed somewhere in the middle. Throughout the day, I
would notice tight corners on a soft trail where a skid mark went straight
when the trail curved. The clear indication was that this was caused by a
rider who brought too much speed and not enough tire into that corner. The
clear message was that there was not going to be much long-term grouping up
of riders. It's hard to match skills exactly, and since this course was
going to be hard to finish within the 13:30 limit, waiting around was not a
smart option. I briefly latched on to a strong group up the steep technical
Deer Park climb, led out by Paul on a cyclocross race bike. I let them pace
me up the climb, but gathered pretty quickly that this would be the lead
group, and I would let them go after a while to 'do my own ride' and
conserve my energy. I could tell Paul was serious when he indicated he
saved weight by only filling one full water bottle at the start because he
planned to stop for water at the Pan Toll Ranger Station at the top of Deer
Park. While he did that, I had plenty and went ahead. He passed me shortly
after that on the road climb to the tippy top of Mount Tam and I wouldn't
see him again. That long climb included some paved riding up Pan Toll and
Ridgecrest, but quickly got onto the Lagunitas-RockSprings trail and hit
the highest elevation of the day, about 2200 feet. It felt good to be done
with the longest steady individual climb and to be at the high point of the
route at mile 23. It was just a down-hill century remaining, right?
RIGHT?
The Lagunitas-Rock Springs descent is steep and loose and dangerous. It's
not a descent you use to rest and recover. You have to be on high alert to
keep yourself safe. This is the area where disc brakes would have been
most-appropriate, but my CX70 cantilevers did fine. I'd been on this trail
a few times before so it was not as frightening as the first time I did it.
The route dropped down to Lake Lagunitas and meandered around the lake
counter clockwise. I had brought my handheld movie camera as my one packing
indulgence. I told my daughter I'd take a bunch of movie clips so she could
edit together a music video of my ride. I was staging a bridge crossing
shot when Alice passed me. She asked if I was OK. I said "I'm fine, just
setting up a shot". She said "Um, random, OK" and continued on. We'd pass
each other back and forth the rest of the day. The next down and up trail
section included the famous Eldridge Grade. I struggled a bit with
navigation to find Shaver Grade. In the trees, GPS signals are super
unreliable. I was following Carlos' gpx route on my Wahoo, and at times
Carlos' path didn't correspond with THIS trail, even though this trail was
the trail he had followed. I wandered a little bit and wasted some time,
but probably not as much as I would have wasted reading cue sheets, all
told. After climbing Shaver Grade, and Concrete Pipe Road, the route took
Bolinas-Fairfax Road out to the famous Bolinas Ridge Trail. At this hour
we started to see more and more mountain bikers out for a Saturday ride. I
stopped to chat with a group interested at a 'classic bike' out on these
trails. They were impressed that we were out on a 125 mile day and wished
me luck.
Bolinas-Ridge Trail looks like the Star Wars movie with the Ewoks. It's
dense redwood forest and the trail is wide and firm but carpeted with
roots. There are no long climbs or descents but the constant small up and
downs, all rooty, all loose, really takes it out of me. It was during this
time I really started to notice how loud the winds were in the tops of the
trees. I rarely felt the winds at all, but I could definitely hear the
trees protecting me from the wind. Bolinas Ridge Trail seemed to go
forever, and was followed by a very steep descent down Randall Trail back
to Highway 1. I was at Mile 48, but more than half of the climbing was
done, and it was time for a road ride.
Riding Highway 1 North to Olema and Point Reyes Station, I felt the
headwind that I had heard in the trees. It was pretty fierce, but
fortunately it was down hill and the route only went another 8 miles North
before hitting the northenmost point of the route and returning South with
the wind. I stopped in Olema for my favorite brevet beverage: buy a bottle
of cane-sugar Coke and a bottle of Orangina. Mix them 50/50 in two water
bottles and top off with water. I read about how orange juice and Coke was
what all the Tour de France racers drank in the 1980s and that's where I
picked it up. I lingered for a bit and headed to Point Reyes Station and
paid a short visit to Mike Varley at Black Mountain Cycles. He had seen one
more of his bikes come through already and was happy to look over my build,
and seemed to approve. We chatted for a while, but I resisted getting on
his famous couch and expending too much time. I needed to get some fast
miles in to build a little bit of a cushion to finish on time. The road
route went smoothly and fast, as intended. All my contact points still felt
good on the bike, and I was able to get into a good rhythm to knock out the
miles. The route took the bike trail through Samuel P Taylor park, and then
Sir Francis Drake up White's Hill back to Fairfax and back into Marin. Next
up was a scenic circumnavigation of Tiburon, which I'd never ridden before.
That gave me views of the Bay that I'd never seen. It was really beautiful.
The one and only timed receipt control of the day was at Cafe Acris. I had
to buy something to get a receipt. Unfortunately the service was really
slow, so I ended up spending like 45 minutes just to get a caprese
sandwich, but I got out of there with about 4 hours to do the last 35
miles.
After a short approach to Mount Tam was the last big climb of the day
starting with Railroad Grade out of Mill Valley to the West Point Inn. Even
though it was mile 95 I felt really good. I'd done this climb several times
with the mountain bike team. I decided to push the pace hard and go for a
PR, which I'm pleased to report I did. Top 30% all-time on Strava. I'd feel
that effort on the last couple climbs, but it was worth it. Panoramic
Highway took me back down the other side of Mount Tam, and I blended in
with the crazy weekend traffic. Everybody was out there. It made me
grateful how much of the route was on trails and less-traveled roads. The
last trail section included Miwok, Marincello and Bobcat trails back around
the Marin Headlands. It was really cool to be on dirt facing the Pacific
Ocean but seeing the Golden Gate Bridge towers peeking above the hills. The
trail spit me back out on Conzelman road, the way I had come 12 hours
before. The road that had been deserted in the morning was a parking lot of
sightseers in the early evening. I worked my way back to the Bridge and
back to Crissy field. I finished in 12 hours 36 minutes, which I was happy
with considering the time spent not-riding. I didn't take a bunch of
photos, but I will share a youtube link if we manage to make our music
video.
<https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-e0nB0Qk369c/Wx1SHjfqrEI/AAAAAAAAD4w/O5Z4xHpYSVQIZyVBTZK8KAAH-gvROCHJgCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_0519.jpg>
<https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-w3BPD4JY1Jg/Wx1SV7iAcoI/AAAAAAAAD40/7jIkF8Dv1y44Dt_ejFfWWQMiqv_KU3VVwCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_0521.jpg>
The bike did perfectly, and it was a really great, really memorable day on
the bike. I recommend La Ruta Loca to anybody looking for an epic mixed
terrain adventure.
Bill Lindsay
#6551
El Cerrito, CA
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW
Owners Bunch" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email
to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com.
To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com.
Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
