By: C. Kent, aka (Superman) I have read about people living in Alaska coming down with something called cabin fever because of the long winters and seasons with hardly any sun. When I was in High School I lived just outside of Seattle and because of the number of rainy days I sort of could understand the feeling. Still I hardly have ever felt all that antsy living in Southern California at least till I became a cyclist. Three or four days of rain made me and several others pretty eager for a ride so I picked a good one of about 50 miles and posted it to the group. I left the house looking forward to an easy ride to Lake Perris. I got to Burger King and met Digger for coffee and for a while it looked like we might be the only ones riding. But by the time we started looking at our watches Bloodhound rode up. Sasquatch pulled up next followed by Akira and Newsboy. We looked across the street and noticed Daredevil was headed in our direction. A new rider, Steve, pulled up on a very clean Blue Trek and asked to join us. Last but not least old Red Rabbit showed up and said he would follow us part way. It was 9am so we headed for Latham and turned north towards Ramona to start the day.

As we got farther up Lyon the pace picked up and at first I decided to try and stay with the lead group. Daredevil and Bloodhound kept taking it up a notch till we rolled by Seventh at better than 22 mph and by Cottonwood at close to 23 or 24. Once we turned onto Ramona Boulevard they dropped the hammer and Newsboy joined Daredevil as he headed west at an ever increasing pace. By the time we were halfway to Sanderson people started to grenade off the back and as Bloodhound started to close the gap to Newsboy I went with him. But looking back I could see the new rider, Sasquatch and Digger were going to get dropped big time if someone didn’t break off and give them a draft. We caught up at the light on Sanderson and the Expressway and I told daredevil we would see him and his group at the Valero. I fell back for Digger and Steve and let Sasquatch grab the back wheel of the lead group. Still I managed to pull my two riders almost up to Sasquatch and regroup at the gas station.

As we left Lakeview I took the lead and pulled us west towards the bridge. My plan was to build up slowly and try to hold the group together and that worked pretty well till I gave up the lead just before the bottom of the climb. I knew full well that the B group couldn’t hang with Bloodhound, Newsboy and Daredevil so I dropped back and pulled as many as I could up the hill and into the back gate leading to the bike path by Lake Perris. We regrouped by the stop sign where the old check in booth used to be. As soon as we were ready we pulled onto the path and headed for the east end of the lake.

Steve and I pulled away a bit and headed for the Marina to regroup with the fleeing threesome of Bloodhound, Newsboy and Daredevil. When we got there we noticed Daredevil was gone. He must have decided to head for home or was abducted by a UFO because we never past him and Bloodhound and Newsboy hadn’t seen him. Well he is a big boy so I am sure he headed for home because I didn’t see any space aliens being tossed out of any UFOs and hitting the ground so we decided t head out of t north side of the park and head towards Evans before heading home. We did a quick regroup as soon as we turned west and made our way to Evans and then all the way to Rider where I had to stop and change my camera batteries.

Once we were back on our way heading towards the Expressway Akira and Sasquatch decided to try and chase Bloodhound and Newsboy and ended up burning a lot of matches as they turned east on the expressway and started the climb. Once onto the Expressway I decided to give chase and topped the hill about 150 yards behind Newsboy and another 75 yards behind Bloodhound. I didn’t catch Newsboy till Bernasconi and I didn’t catch Bloodhound till the bridge and was spent by the time we pulled back onto Lakeview. Bloodhound and Digger decided to leave before everyone regrouped and it turned out that Akira had a flat so we go at least a five minute late start going after them.

I asked what the group would be comfortable with and agreed to pull between 18 and 20 MPH on the way home. That is a pretty easy pace to cruise so I pulled all the way to Bridge Street and gave up the lead to Sasquatch. He finally gave things over to Steve and Newsboy took over from him. Newsboy took it up to 22-23 and that was just too much for Steve so I had him back down till we got to Warren where Steve headed for home and Newsboy and I pulled for Sanderson. We zig zagged around the corner onto Ramona and once again Newsboy started the pull for Lyon. In took over and pulled us around the corner and headed us back to Cottonwood when we spotted Digger off on the distance. Sasquatch headed for home before we turned so it was just Akira, Newsboy and I chasing Digger and trying to catch him before Menlo where he would turn for home. We did catch him by Fruitvale.

We all road together till Digger had to turn for home. That left just three of us to head to Devonshire and then Latham. Both Newsboy and Akira stayed with me till we got back to Florida and then they split off and I headed for a quick stop at the bike shop before heading for home myself. It was not a bad day I have been tired before so I took a hot shower and then took the dog for a walk before calling it a day.