Weekend's Ride: 7/12

For our second ride of the season, we had eleven riders head out for the Modified City Loop (route here) - a 36 mile loop around the city.  We were 7 riders strong as we headed out from our Nob Hill ride start - John, Olga, Evil Gary, Stacy, Andrew, David, and new rider Jared!  After an uneventful first leg we picked up another 3 riders at the Smiths at Central and Tramway - Good Gary, Eric, Greg V.  From there we headed out on the slow uphill toward our first rally point at the base of the tram.  The last mile of this ride is pretty tough, with 8-10% grade, but a nice reward of a good view with restroom and water facilities.

At Smith's Rally Point

From this point on, the route is about 9 miles of thrilling down hill excitement, as you drop down into the valley, and then a flat ride along the diversion channel trail back to the ride start.  We stayed together pretty well today, with everyone hitting the rally points within 5 minutes of each other.

Heading toward the Tram

Three riders peeled off the diversion channel trail at Commanche and headed back toward the NE Heights and home, with the rest of us continued on down a strangely busy diversion channel trail.  We got back to O'Neill's at by 9:20.  Too early for Serafins, but we had 6 riders + 1 person who slept in join us for a filling breakfast at the Weck's on San Mateo and Lomas.  Another great ride weekend!

At the base of the Tram.

There was planned a shorter ride on Sunday, but after both Blythe and Ali had rough nights with sick kiddos, both decided to sleep in.  Stacy, however, headed out on the ride up the diversion channel trail up the balloon fiesta park by herself and reported a good ride on a nice Sunday morning.