Saturday was a good day. To start, my SBK teammate Gina and I went on a training ride around Folsom Lake. Due to time constraints, we decided to cut out 6 miles that would have taken us up and over the Foresthill Bridge, but that still left us with a 45 mile ride with 2,500 feet in elevation. I mapped our final route here, starting at Beals Point in Folsom Lake, following the tail end of the American River bike trail, skirting across the new Folsom Lake Crossing bridge, up Green Valley Road, then Salmon Falls Road, then up Highway 49 through Cool, through Auburn, and then back down into Beals Point along Auburn-Folsom Road.

Most of that half-mile in elevation came in two serious climbs, with the first coming on the Salmon Falls leg. Overall, we rode 12 miles along Salmon Falls, and the middle three or four miles of that are a 6% grade, giving us well over a third of our total elevation for the day. Right around the 14 mile mark, we stopped on the side of the road to take a breather – it was slow going and knocked us right out, to the point that we even contemplated calling for someone to SAG us back. But we stuck it out and made it up to Pilot Hill, where Salmon Falls Road hits Highway 49, running from Coloma to Auburn.

Almost immediately after we popped onto 49, we stopped at one of those California Historical Markers. We had time, after all, and one of the best things about bike riding is the ability to stop and take a look at neat little monuments and attractions.

That includes the first Grange Hall in California, right on 49 at Pilot Hill. According to the marker, it was first organized August 10, 1870, and it was a modest little building.

That little pause out of the way, we headed on into Cool, where Highway 193 from Georgetown merges into 49. There’s a small strip mall at the intersection and a gas station where we stopped for a minute to rest and refuel. This was also where Gina and I realized how far we’d come; we’d only ever driven through Cool, annoyed by the interruption of that stop sign. And now we were halfway through our ride, kicking back and looking forward to the next 22 miles.

The second major climb came after a harrowing downhill. Highway 49 sheds 750 feet of elevation in just a couple of miles, often at grades as high as 8%. At one point, I was moving along at 33 mph, my brakes almost fully clamped down, without having pedaled a lick. Then it’s over. You cross a short bridge over the north fork of the American River, and climb those same 750 feet back into Auburn just as quickly as you descended. Here’s where Gina and I learned a valuable lesson. This climb was punishing, and we stopped halfway up to take a rest, but we didn’t rest long enough, and we quickly felt worse trying to climb than we had before we rested. In the future, I’ll either stay on the bike or kick back until I feel a bit more recharged.  I’d intended to get some pictures of the American River or the Foresthill Bridge, but I was going too fast to stop.

After Auburn, the ride was nothing. I’d joked to Gina before the ride that the elevation profile made it look like a 36 mile ride with a 14 mile coast, and that’s pretty much exactly what it was. By the time you get to the last 50 foot climb back into Beals Point from Auburn-Folsom Road, you’ve had plenty of time to rest up in the saddle.

While I’ve been riding more to prepare for the LifeCycle ride, I’m not sure all of those miles helped me nearly as much as did having a friend to ride with. It’s kind of easy to cheat when you’re alone, but on hard climbs it’s much more helpful to have someone else around to commiserate in misery – everything’s easier with a friend.  I’m also pleased that everything held up well. My bike (brakes included), my legs, my spirits, even my lungs and stomach – I wolfed down a Clif bar at both our Salmon Falls stop and at Cool and felt like a millon bucks.

What was even better, though, was that I came home to an e-mail from the AIDS/LifeCycle coordinators congratulating me on reaching my fundraising goal! Every donation from here until the ride is just gravy for the San Francisco AIDS Foundation.  If only every Saturday could be this great!