Wildcat Canyon and the Three Bears

Today was Sunday and the first day that I was able to walk successfully down stairs without looking like I had pegs for legs. Ever since that run on Wednesday my inner and outter quads have been killing me! So much so that my work has decided to give me the nickname of peg legs, since it looked like I had peg legs for the past few days.

Luckily I woke up today in not perfect shape- but being able to walk down the stairs like a normal human being sure was a plus!

Originally Erica and I were going to do a 30ish mile ride out in Pleasanton, but it was just WAY to hot for that. So we decided to do an easy ride early in the morning. Little did I know that the ride Erica was going to make us go on was any thing but easy!

She decided that we should do Wildcat Canyon and the 3 Bears and since when it comes to biking I just do whatever Erica tells me to do... at 9:45am we started back up Spruce toward Wildcat Canyon.




As you can see it was a pretty intense ride, but I am really glad that I had not seen it on a map before I did it or else I think I would have psyched myself out of it.

This time I had invited Andrew's cousin's husband, Eric, and one of his friends, Dirk to join us. It was really fun to ride with them and they definitely pushed us (or me!) to ride a little bit harder. Unfortunately they didn't stick around for the whole day- but it was fun for the part that they did join us on!

Riding down Wildcat canyon was awesome and you were able to have some amazing views. Once you got all the way down the hill and were trekking around the dams the hills (there are three of them hence the name the 3 Bears) were moderate- but with no shade. It was a full 85 degrees or higher, but with a nice wind at times and going back up Wildcat canyon was in the shade. For me, a So-Cal girl and someone who has lived in Thailand, I thought that the weather was perfect! And I got to work on my tan along the way! But Erica, and I think Eric and Dirk, might have thought it was a bit too hot to be riding.

The 18 or so miles around the dams were really beautiful and the path dumps you right out in farm and horse country. That was quite a treat to bike through those areas.

In front of some hay bales half way through the ride!

What is also great about the ride is that there a long stretches of road that open up where you can bike up and down baby hills in a higher gear- which is always just such a great feeling! After a few miles in a really low gear it is nice to once again feel the resistance of the bike and really feel like you are in control.

But of course what goes down must come back up again... meaning Wildcat canyon. After getting up Spruce with sore quads and the bike around the dams I really was scared that I wasn't going to make it back up that mountain! But Erica being the great Jitensha Sensei (bike teacher) that she is was able to instill enough confidence in me that I was indeed fit enough to make it back. Besides, we had no other way of getting home! It was a BITCH of a ride back up- I am not going to lie to you. Especially at the end of a long ride. But some how we made it back up to Inspiration Point. And Erica was right in the end- this was a perfect ride to challenge me, but at the same time a ride that I was able to do, even when I doubted myself.

Of course we needed a photo op with the beautiful rolling
Cali hills behind us!

After Inspiration Point the rest were easy mini hills that you could get through with enough momentum and then the down hill along Spruce- that was just fun! At by the end of it we reached home around 1:45ish which rounded out to about 4 hours to do the whole thing. I needed to take some stops to refuel and rest, but I am not going to begrudge myself that since it was only my second time cycling!

All in all Erica, like the story of the three bears, was able to pick just the right ride for the day. Even though at times I thought she was trying to kill me!