California

California is home to the favorite century I've ever done, the Alta Alpina Challenge, which I did in June of 2009 while I was living in Reno, NV. The stats say it all- 8 climbs, 198 miles, and 20,000 feet of climbing. On top of that, the scenery is absolutely beautiful. What more could you ask for in a ride?

The Alta Alpina Challenge map. Some of it took place in Nevada, but more than 100 straight miles were in California.

By far the hardest ride I've ever done. 198 miles, 20,000 feet of climbing.

Climb #1: Kingsbury Grade, AKA Daggett Summit.

Kingsbury Grade was definitely the easiest climb of the day. I was fresh, the climb is relatively short, and the grade is nice and steady without any steep spots. I played it very safe and went a lot slower than I normally would, hoping that I could save some energy for the next 7 climbs.

Climb #2: Luther Pass. I don't remember much about the climb, so it must not have been too bad.


Climb #3: Carson Pass.

It's hard to see the sign in this picture, but the elevation is 8574 feet. This was the toughest of the first 3 climbs so far. I'm not sure what it was about Carson Pass. The elevation profile doesn't look all that bad, but for some reason this climb seemed to take forever to finish. The climb is absolutely worth the effort, though. The view of Red Lake near the top is stunning, and the descent is fast and not technical at all.

Here I am ascending Carson Pass. So far, so good.

A view from the Carson Pass descent.


Red Lake, as seen from the Carson Pass descent.


Blue Lakes Road is well known in the area as a wonderful place to ride. I couldn't agree more. I was too busy enjoying the ride to take pictures. Here is the only one I took. Blue Lakes counts as climb #4, but it's not a pure climb like the others. There was more up-and-down involved.

After finishing Blue Lakes we headed back to Turtle Rock Park, where it all began, for the lunch stop. Let me tell you, it's never a good thing to be right next to your car after you've already ridden 100 miles with ~10,000 feet of climbing. The weather wasn't great and I felt like I was going to bonk soon, if I wasn't bonking already. Here I am eating some turkey on a bagel and drinking a Pepsi (a performance-enhancing drug, if you ask me). At this point I was considering quitting.

Then a funny thing happened. I heard people talking about Ebbetts Pass and how difficult it is. I began to feel both curious and challenged at the same time. Is it as bad as they say? If so, I wanted to conquer it. I decided I'd just try one side of Ebbetts Pass, come back to the start, and call it a day.

The view on the way to Ebbetts.


This is the sign you see as you get closer to Ebbetts Pass. This is an intimidating sign, but the road actually remains flat for a while after this until you hit a cattle grade and the road shoots skyward. Until that time you're just riding along waiting and waiting, wondering when the pain will finally come.


Climbs 5 & 6: Ebbetts Pass (both sides).

The first side of Ebbetts was tricky. I rode along anticipating the climb, and when it finally hit I was ready for it. The turkey bagel and the Pepsi were kicking in and I was feeling good. The climb has some steep portions, but those portions are mainly around switchbacks and they don't last all that long. It turns out to be a steady climb with steep sections and not-so-steep sections, so it's almost like riding rolling hills without any downhills. Think of the not-so-steep sections as the downhills.

It started to rain towards the top of Ebbetts Pass. I was feeling good at the top and quitting was suddenly out of the question, so I headed down the other side. Both sides of Ebbetts are similar, but the back side (at least with the route we were using) was shorter. I made it down and back to the top without much of a problem, but by this time the rain and the cold were taking a toll and I was not looking forward to the descent back towards the final two climbs of the day.

The descent was cold and the roads were wet. I wasn't much of a descender at the time (I got better and better as my year in Nevada went on), so I was taking it extra slowly. I felt a little cheated that I did all that work to get to the top and I wasn't even going to enjoy the descent. Things started to clear up towards the bottom, which was good news for the last two climbs of the day.

Climbs 7 & 8: Monitor Pass (both sides).

Ebbetts took a lot out of me, and Monitor is no slouch. Its grade is mostly steady, but steep. It seemed steep to me after a long day in the saddle, at least. The turkey bagel and Pepsi had long since worn off and I went really slow up the first side, which made me worry about not having enough time to do the second side and get back before dark.

I was supposed to descend the other side of Monitor and be back at the summit by 8:00, but I figured 8:00 would be pushing my luck. I really wanted to get back by 7:30, but that would only leave 1.5 hours for a 9.9 mile descent and a 9.9 mile climb. Sounds reasonable, but my legs felt dead up the first side. I decided to try my luck. I had made it this far, so why stop now?

I did what for me was a very fast descent. I'm not sure if it was adrenaline from the descent, if I could sense that the end was near, or if I was just getting a second breath (or 3rd or 4th), or if the climb itself was easier, but I felt better on the ascent. I ended up making it back by 7:30. I must have put in a pretty hard effort, because one of the guys at the rest stop seemed really worried about me.

Here you can see the last rest stop straight ahead.

In my mind it was all downhill back to Turtle Rock Park from here, but if you look closely at the elevation profile you'll see that there is actually a little climb just before the finish. It seemed like an appropriate way to finish the day.

Again, the difficulty of the ride must have been showing on my face, because one of the guys at the finish seemed very worried about me. He was doing all he could to get me something to eat and I felt like he was genuinely concerned about me. I can't thank the people at the Alta Alpina Cycling Club enough for their great support. They picked the perfect route and all of the volunteers were very nice.

Like I said before, this was by far my favorite ride I have ever done. The scenery was beautiful, the climbs were challenging, and I felt like I overcame a lot of mental hurdles. To me, that's what cycling is all about- pushing yourself to the limit and doing things that you weren't sure were possible.

EDITS

Since I moved to Reno I've done quite a bit more riding in California. The California Triple Crown became my favorite event, and I have done the following doubles:

Devil Mountain Double (2011)

Terrible Two (2011)

Mt. Tam Double (2011)

Mulholland Double (2012)

Central Coast Double (2012)

Borrego Double (2012)

I have also returned to Monitor Pass and Everested the east side: Everesting Monitor Pass. 

If you're looking for a route across California, here are links to the first few days of my ride across America from 2015: 1, 2, 3. It's a solid route. I highly recommend it.