By: C. Kent, aka (Superman) We have finally gotten predictions of rain but not till late in the week so it was important to plan some good rides for Monday and Wednesday. It was clear and cool so I decided on three climbs east and headed to Burger King eagerly. My eagerness took a bit of a shock when I got to Burger King first and no one was there. I bought coffee and still no one showed up. By 8:40 I was getting worried when at least Sasquatch arrived and we talked for a while before Digger rode up. It seems as if Digger had a flat on the way over and had to change it on the road. By 9am it was still just the three of us. So we decided to take it easy and instead of going to Cranston we would add Bautista to the other two climbs. We headed down Gilmore and turned onto Acacia. Once on Kirby Digger got another flat and I gave him one of my tubes so we could get back on our way. We made it to Cypress and turned west. As we traveled through the housing tract we decided to head south on Sanderson and go to Domenigoni to attack the Marina hill sooner.

It was pretty much a relaxed pace as we were able to carry on a conversation all the way to the light past Mustang. As we moved past Mustang Digger and I moved over to the left to get into the turn lane with Sasquatch right behind us. We turned east and moved quickly to Searl to make the turn towards Seven Dollar hill. Both Sasquatch and Digger stayed with me as we started up the hill and they were still with me going through the lower gate. I shifted into a spin gear and started to pull away but Sasquatch stayed with me almost all the way to the bug left turn before falling off. Digger was about the same distance behind Sasquatch as Sasquatch was behind me. And it stayed that way all the way to the top of the hill where we stopped for a nutrition break. We dropped down the hill together and headed back out to Domenigoni to head for our next little climb.

We headed for State Street and kept it to cruising speed all the way to the light. Once we were headed back north Sasquatch stayed on my wheel all the way over the rise and to Chambers. Digger wasn’t that far behind and by the time we had turned onto Buena Vista he had caught us. We turned on Thornton and again on Santa Fe to get to Stetson. At this point we started thinking about Ramona Bowl. I don’t think Sasquatch had ever been up the Bowl road on a bike so he had a treat coming to him. As we turned onto Girard Sasquatch headed for the climb with plenty of steam and I had to chase him for about 50 yards at the beginning of the climb before I got by and headed up the hill. I got to the top of the hill first and waited till first Sasquatch and then Digger pulled up. We took a short break to catch our breath and then dropped off the bowl to ride down to Crest Street and then to the old houses towards Lake.

They let me pull all the way to lake and then out onto Stetson towards Fairview and lastly south to Bautista where I waited for Digger before starting up the canyon. Then I ran over a Michelin thorn, piece of wire, and had to use my second tube. I wasn’t that worried but between the three of us all we had was one little container of Scabs in case we flatted again. As it has been said no guts no glory so we started off again and I stayed with the two of them till the dam where Digger faded and Sasquatch stayed with me till we got by the white picket fence where I pulled away. I got out front and stayed there till I got to the decreasing radius double turn and stopped to point it out to Sasquatch so he would know not to try and take either of the turns wide with any speed. We then continued on to the end of the canyon. Digger wasn’t that far behind us.

We stood around for a while and discussed how great of a day this had been for Bautista. It was one of the easier trips up the canyon any of us had. Digger was out of water and planned on heading straight down the hill and to Carl’s while Sasquatch and I would more or less cruise down the hill and maybe catch him or maybe not.

Once we got rolling both Sasquatch and I caught up to Digger and I led us through the off camber decreasing radius turn and towards the picket fence. We took turns pulling to the fence and I tried to explain positioning in the group for the dam sprint to Sasquatch. If he keeps getting stronger like he has been he will become a force in flat sprints and he has already shown a tendency to give sprints a try. We hit the dam together and he was just a bit slow on the jump as we crested the hill and headed for the sharp right turn and then the left towards Fairview. We stopped at the corner of Fairview and Bautista and waited for Digger who rode by. We had to chase him all the way to Stetson and then he drafted us to Mayberry and finally out to Florida where I stopped to get a spare tube before heading to Carl’s for coffee. We split up as we started home and Digger and I went west while Sasquatch went east. Digger stayed with me to Palm where we split for home and I got there looking forward to a hot shower. But most of all I was sorry so many missed a great ride.