The idea was to get up at 3:30 and hit the road by 4:00/4:30, but it would have helped to set the alarm. Nevertheless, I woke up about 4:30 and was out the door at 5:38. It was a little warmer today, but still pretty cold. In order to get some extra climbing in, I took Panorama to Fairfax, then down to the dump road, up to the cogen plant and over to Morning. From there I followed the usual route to Comanche and Bena. I stopped at the Shell and grabbed something to eat and some hot coffee. The sun was just coming up as I got ready to head out.
After leaving the Shell, I heading east bound on Bena hoping to make it to Caliente before turning around to meet up with the Wheelmen group that was planning on leaving the Shell at 10:00. Unfortunately, the wind had it’s own plan for my ride. Just after passing the dump and descending into the little valley I was hit with a pretty stiff headwind. At one point the wind was so bad that I was my small chainring and 32 rear cog and I was doing about 10 MPH. As a result it took me, what seemed like forever, to make it across the valley to the bottom of the climb up to the Caliente turn off. On the climb the wind switched from a head wind to a gusting crosswind that nearly knocked me off my bike several times. As I was running out of time and it seemed safer to limit my descent, I turned around and headed back to the Shell. On the way back, the tailwind allowed me to maintain 32-33 mph all the way across the valley floor.
After leaving everyone at the Shell, I headed to Rancheria for some more climbing. I stopped at Coresoree’s Deli before heading up Rancheria, but after waiting about 20 minutes and still no food, I told them I would be back later. I went up Rancheria about 4-6 miles, took a couple photos and headed back down.
After picking up my sandwich I headed home.
A very nice day. 110 miles with just over 7K of climbing.
A Shot In The Dark 
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