By: C. Kent, aka (Superman) This would be our last chance to get in some team work before the Patriot Ride so we decided on a half century to Lake Perris the long way. I looked out first thing this morning while breakfast was cooking and it was gorgeous, clear and cool. I got dressed and headed for the parking lot looking forward to every mile of this ride. I got to the parking lot after Digger but before Highlander and Sasquatch. Brian joined us as did The Closer and at least for part of the ride we would have the Red Rabbit. We have had larger groups but n this case most of us would be riding together on Saturday. We hit the road right at 8am having given Red Rabbit an 8 minute head start.

It was a quick drop down to Acacia and over to Kirby before turning south and heading to Cypress. Looking behind me I could see Highlander like a shadow staying right in the draft with the rest of the group following him. With the few exceptions of some segments and sprints the view would remain pretty much the same all day. We made it to Johnston and headed south on Sanderson to roll by Stetson. As we headed towards Mustang I looked back and the view was just like it had been on Kirby. Not only that we were scooting along at 18 in the small ring to save our legs.

I was still feeling good so I pulled to Domenigoni and headed west towards Warren. Still I couldn’t see any reason to pull all day so I gave up the lead to Highlander after the rise and he pulled us to Warren and over the dry wash. He stayed out front almost all the way to Winchester before we caught the light red. We rolled on towards Leon where Closer took over and got us to the saddle. Highlander started around Closer and Brian shifted telling me he was getting ready to stand so I jumped first and managed to get away without being chased down by Sasquatch or Brian. Age and treachery will beat youth and talent as they say. Still we were all laughing as we regrouped before dropping down the backside of the saddle and heading for Menifee to go north.

Because Menifee has just opened all the way to Simpson it doesn’t plot on either Ride with GPS or Map my ride so we were off course according to the map. It didn’t matter because Rabbit was still with us at that point and he could follow us all the way to Simpson before we lost him. I once again took over pulling duty and led us all the way to the AM/PM and a water break. We didn’t stop for long before Highlander had us back on our way and headed north on Menifee. I pulled around Highlander at Florida and led us to Mapes and over the rise to the first little downhill where Closer came by.

Closer took us all the way down Menifee almost to Central where I came back and pulled us past Central all the way to Nuevo. I had to keep one eye out for Sasquatch because he has been attacking in a late sprint lately and the last time he got me on Winchester by a whole lot before we had to stop for coffee. I got us to Nuevo and headed west towards Evans. We had to regroup once but soon were on our way to Evans and north towards Ramona. The whole group stayed together with Highlander and Brian leading the way to Ramona and then to the west entrance to the park. Sasquatch and I worked on his climbing into the park and all the way to the Marina entrance. We stopped for a rest break and to look out over the lake before getting ready to head back to the east entrance.

We finally headed for the east end of the lake on the bike path with Digger taking us through the picnic area and giving up the lead to me to pull all the way around the lake and out onto Bernasconi to get back out onto Ramona and the ride home east.

We settled on a 18 MPH pace line to keep the whole group together. Sasquatch was having trouble with his speedometer so I took the lead and kept it as close to 18 mph as I could before giving it back to Sasquatch. He kept us at 18 most of the way to Bridge before Highlander got the lead and pulled us to Warren. I got us got us going after the Warren light and took us to Sanderson. Highlander wanted to come back on Lyon for a change so we cut over on Ramona Boulevard and headed for Lyon. I came off of the corner on Lyon hard and got us going strong to the stop sign where Brian took over and pulled hard towards Cottonwood and Sasquatch finished it off. It was a pretty good attempt at a segment I thought and Sasquatch did get the KOM on that Segment. I know that will simply inspire some of the rest of the group to hit it hard the next time the run Lyon but that is life. We rode back to the cars before heading home. I ended up wit 54 miles for a Wednesday ride.