12/02/09
By: C. Kent, aka (Superman)

Hemet, Ca

It seems as if I had plenty of rest because I had no trouble rolling out of bed and getting ready for the Wednesday ride. It wasn’t as cold as I expected but it was a day for arm warmers or long sleeves. I had a quick breakfast and shower and got dressed for the ride. By 8:30 I was heading out of the door and on my way to meet up with the group for a ride.

When I arrived at the Burger King I was greeted by Parky and Deacon. Just for a while it looked like it would be just the three of us or at the very least that I would have to join them on one of their rides even if it were shorter than I have become accustomed to. However, soon Red Rabbit showed up followed by Huntress then Hit Man and Finally Raptor. With just the five of us on road bikes we agreed that it seemed like a good day for a ride up Juniper Flats. Off we went down Kirby headed for Cottonwood and over to Warren Road. It was about this point that Raptor informed us he would be turning on Bridge Street leaving us to forge on by ourselves.

Red Rabbit had made a request that we should attempt to stay together and turn the ride into a social one and for the most part that is what we attempted to do. At least we stayed close until we got out onto Ramona.

Once we got rolling on Ramona we slowly build up speed till Hit Man started pulling away from us. He assured us he would wait after we turned off of Ramona so we all rode more or less at our own pace till it was time to head south towards Juniper flats. I told Huntress I was going to try and keep my heart rate around 150 and she was going to try and find a pace she felt comfortable with to make the climb. Red Rabbit took the lead for a while but was soon passed by Hit Man and then by me. Hit man decided to return to ride up with Huntress and we spread out in a line all the way to the top.

Just as I turned after the stop sign to make the last little climb a big black dog blindsided me and drove me into the gravel on the left side of the road. I managed to get back onto the pavement and started up the hill only to realize that when the other rounded the corner they were likely to be greeted by the same tactic as I had been so I returned to attempt to discourage the K-9 as much as I could. The Red Rabbit rode by and yelled something unintelligible and kept going only to have Hit Man and Huntress be challenged as they attempted the same feat. Hit Man jumped off of his bike and placed it between him and our four legged friend. Huntress was encouraged to continue on to the top of the hill and soon both Hit man and I joined her. We continued on down the hill talking about our experience only to notice Red Rabbit was nowhere in sight. We didn’t see him again till we got to Chris’s.

We enjoyed some coffee and cold drinks and then left to ride by the Airport on the way home. Red Rabbit set a pretty good pace on Stetson but we all regrouped by the airport and managed to ride back together. It was another good day with another 39 miles on the computer. I can only hope we have many more.