4/18/2012

By: C. Kent, aka (Superman)


What a great day for a ride this morning was. I looked out and it was clear with little or no wind and I had a new ride planned for Juniper Flats. Normally the climb is in the middle of one of our shorter rides but today I put it a lot closer to the end. More challenging I think. I headed for Burger King just a bit early and only saw Blood Hound waiting for me as I arrived. But soon two riders that were destined to push me all day drove up and started to unload their vehicles. Surgeon and Highlander were looking ready for bear this morning.



It took a while for everyone to get there but soon we had Gambler, Vortex, D’Artagnon, Dura Max, Coyote, and Paul. We gathered ourselves together and headed out of the parking lot onto Gilmore and down to Acacia to head west to Kirby. Yes it was going to start out as a west ride. Different from a normal Juniper Flats because we would be coming at it from Menifee. Once we made the light at Kirby we headed south at a pretty good clip.

We didn’t take long to cross the railroad tracks and got ready to make out turn on Cypress to ride through the sleepy housing tract and make our way over to Johnston. We only came across one car on Cypress and a very slight head wind.

I rounded the corner onto Johnston right behind Blood Hound with Surgeon at my side and we easily made it to Sanderson where we turn to head back to the railroad tracks and a left turn towards the little Hemet airport. Blood Hound was still in the lead as we made our way down to the jog left and then right to pass in front of Hanger One. He stayed there till we got close to the end of the road and back out onto Stetson.

I got a chance to start the pull past the airport and headed to Warren and at that point I was feeling pretty good. I slowly took us up to about 19 MPH but no sooner had we settled into the pace we had to stop for cross traffic on Warren and I started out in front again.
We only made it about halfway to California before we had to stop for one of our riders for a few minutes before we could continue. We took the time to tell stories and laugh until we were ready to hit the road again. Highlander and Vortex started out in the lead and I was more than happy to let them set the pace once we turned towards Stowe. However neither one seemed interested in being in front once we got to Stowe so it was very easy to slide past them to get a picture before we made the right onto Stowe.

Somehow everyone seems very willing to let me go once I turned on Stowe and in truth I wasn’t going all that fast as I got close to the dreaded dog house. As I looked behind me no one was closing, and I was about to drop over the short rise all by myself. Just about then I saw D’Artagnon pull around the group and I knew the chase was on. I decided to make a run for it and pushed it into another gear. But I just couldn’t get a real spin going and had a feeling I wasn’t going to hold the chase group off all the way to the parking lot on Winchester. I did hold them off till we past the barn but D’Artagnon and Coyote ran me down before I got to the parking lot.

I took us down to the dump road and started us towards Briggs. Well before Leon I had to fall back to make sure we didn’t drop anyone and lost touch with the main group. We were always just one step behind the main group as the past through the houses and one step behind before we crossed Florida. However we regrouped at Mapes. Next we were headed down to Menifee and started the fast run north. D’Artagnon took us most of the way till Gambler came flying around and pulled up to Central where he went into a full sprint. He had us over 30 mph before we got to Nuevo and headed east to get ready for the climb towards Juniper Flats. Coyote and Dura Max passed the group as they rehydrated on Nuevo at a food mart and we had to give chase all the way to Juniper Flats and to the top of the hill.

We took a little time to regroup at the top of the hill and got ourselves prepared for the ride down hill and back out onto Florida. The two big dogs we itching to get started as we waited for some of the riders to finish a Clark bar on down some electrolytes. As soon as we were all ready Gambler and D’Artagnon were off like a shot heading down hill.

Coyote, Dura Max and I got caught at the light on Briggs and Florida and the rest of the group pulled way headed for the dump road. Coyote left Dura Max and I at Leon to go home and the two of us joined the rest of the group for coffee and conversation. Blood Hound decided to take some extra time at Chris’s while the rest of us headed for Domenigoni and back to Sanderson. Dura Max and I set it on cruise while the rest of the group picked overdrive and dropped us well before the dry wash. Still we enjoyed the good weather and split up at Sanderson where Dura Max continued on to state and home and I turned down to Johnston and home myself. I got home with 44 miles and some new aches and pains from a different pedal stroke. But still I had a good time and enjoy being with a good group of friends.