I was feeling guilty about not riding yesterday (too tired, too hot, too wussified), so today I sacked up and did something I’ve been thinking about for a while — rode from Chez Dog up Old Stage Road to its intersection with Gold Camp Road and then down Gold Camp back home.
It’s been a while since I tackled that ride — 15 years or so — and last time around some friends and I found ourselves climbing through a series of stimulating weather patterns, each worse than the one that preceded it, until we were descending Gold Camp in a full-on snowstorm.
Today I was by myself and glad of it, too, because I ain’t the dog I was then and can no longer bear the howls of derisive laughter. I spent a shameless amount of time in the Voodoo Nakisi’s granny (22×28) and recycled a fair amount of salt because I was sweating all over my downtube water bottle. There were no snowstorms, only dust storms whipped up by passing motorists hellbent on enhancing the washboard on the gravel road.
The descent was big fun, though. I shot past a crowd of casual mountain bikers who had been ferried by van to the intersection of Old Stage and Gold Camp, at 9,000 feet, and were enjoying the leisurely, traffic-free descent back to town (a collapsed tunnel some years back closed the road to motorized traffic). I greeted a few and should have stopped to chat, but I was hot and sweaty and tired and thirsty and I could tell that not one of these folks had an ice-cold beer or an air conditioner on them.
So on I plummeted, and after a quick shower and a semi-massive lunch with lots of water I dropped by McCabe’s Irish Tavern for a couple pints of Bristol Brewing’s Compass IPA. I had a column to write, and they had beer and air conditioning. It seemed the smart thing to do, for a change.
Mad Blog Media 
Really beautiful. The view is well worth the ride. Plus now I bet you feel like a million bucks (give or take a few).
Gorgeous view. Probably a pretty tough ride, too.
Sharon, K, it wasn’t a day at the beach for this old fat bastard. Chez Dog sits at about 6,300 feet, smack in the black, flabby heart of Bibleburg, and if the intersection of Old Stage and Gold Camp is really at 9,000 feet, well, I gained about 2,700 feet in 15 miles.
There are a couple short, steep paved climbs between Chez Dog and the foot of Old Stage, which starts with a couple very sharp paved ramps before settling down a bit into a gravel-road ascent that a guy can find a little rhythm on.
There are a few false flats and even some short descents to mess with your mind, and then the sucker gets real steep real fast. The washboard is a pisser — toward the top I spent quite a bit of time riding on the wrong side of the road, where it was less obnoxious.
And you can’t nap on the descent. Gold Camp is a lot like a creek bed without auto traffic to tamp down the pebbles and sand, and there are a few deep gravel sections in off-camber corners that can send you ass over teakettle if you spend too much time enjoying the view, which really is quite spectacular. Next time I’ll take more pix … and climb to Old Stage via Gold Camp, which is a whole lot easier and takes about the same amount of time.
“Howls of derisive laughter Bruce.” Gotta love me some Monty Python on a Monday evening.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_f_p0CgPeyA
I, too rode in this sauna we have outdoors here in DulMn, upper 90’s w/ humidity to match. Usually heading up the north shore of Gitchi Gummi (Ojibway for “Colder Than F@#k) offers some relief, but not in the weather pattern we’re in now.
Patrick, thanks for the Twilight Summer Ale tip. Sure hit the spot last night. Maybe a return engagement tonight.
Boz, at least we don’t have the humidity (and lately, we don’t have any rain, either). Glad you liked the Twilight. If you can find the Green Lakes Organic take a whack at that, too. It’s a little hoppier, but sometimes that’s what I want.
Old light-fighter saying is you can always get warm (layers, hot tea, etc) but it’s harder to get cold.
Yours truly had some “big fun” the other day after humping his fat a__ up the Passo Gavia. I climbed on the bike just before the 80 km mark on our route (after lunch atop the Passo Mortirolo, which I did NOT climb on the bike) and rode just around 12 kms (what’s that, about 7 miles?) but climbed from around 1500 meters to the summit at 2650, well over 1000 meters (3200 feet) in total. My “reward” was the big fun on the descent when this old fart blew past more than a few youngsters on the latest plastic-fantastic bikes, topping out on the far side of 80 kph in the process. I wouldn’t do this kind of descending on any of these plastic, superlight bikes, I just don’t trust ’em. Back in Bormio a cold beer was nice topper for the ride and concluded my riding opportunities on the Legendary Climbs tour. We’ve enjoyed a few rides in Monferrato was we pack up and wind down – tomorrow we’ll see the Tour stage finish in Pinerolo, then get on the plane the following day to fly back to the land of the Big Gulp and Baconater!
Can you guys south of the 49th parallel get Innis & Gunn? http://www.innisandgunn.com/index.htm
A dandy drink if you’re just having a couple. A little too rich to drink a lot of them at one time though, at least for my taste.
Drinking beer in a tavern, writing, you are at least 90% on the way to being a famous author (at the least great writer)!! Sounds like a booger of a ride.