By: C. Kent, aka (Superman) I got up this morning and looked outside to see enough fog to warrant a fog horn. I got a text telling me one or two of our riders were staying home till the fog lifted. It didn’t matter to me but I thought it might be a small group because of the weather. I got dressed, put on some warm gear and headed for the Parking lot. At first it was just Digger and I waiting to see if we were the only ones making the ride to Beaumont. Soon Dragon Slayer drove up and Bulldozer arrived so I knew we had at least four riders. Things continued to get better when MacGyver and ME-109 joined us followed by Minotaur. Once Closer and Mark pulled up and Gambler arrived we were more or less ready to go. I took us out onto Latham with just four of us leading the way.

We moved easily to Lyon and headed north towards Menlo with the rest of the group a block or two behind us. It was clear as we rolled by Menlo and Fruitvale that the bigger group wasn’t interested in catching us and they let us lead the way to Esplanade were everyone finally joined us and moved with us to Seventh street and headed for Cottonwood. By now we were beginning to warm up and it seemed as if the Sun was trying to burn through the Fog. That made it look like we might have a nice climb when we got to the Canyon.

At this point we started riding as a group and I was still pulling as we crossed Cottonwood heading towards Ramona. I had been allowed to pull all the way as we headed north with the exception of a few times till we rolled by De Anza Dr. where I took over again and pulled us around the corner and onto Ramona Boulevard to get us headed towards Sanderson.

As we got to Sanderson I expected things to start to pick up and to see the big dogs take off and leave me but they didn’t. It wasn’t till we got to Gilman that Dragon Slayer took the lead and I fell in on his wheel. We were all still pretty much together as we past the Gilman on ramp when Minotaur started to pull to the front. I looked back to see Closer, Digger and Quicksilver falling back. I dropped out of place and went back to get them and soon we were dropped heading to the top of the first climb. As we crested the first climb and started towards the dump Quicksilver got a flat after having to ride through all the debris from the flairs on the side of the road. I had a spare tube I had already patched handy and quickly started to change the tire. It needed a boot so I put one in and replaced the tube as Digger rode by. Once we inflated the tire Closer, Quicksilver and I gave chase and tried to see if we could catch Digger by First Street. We rolled by the Dump just as Digger crested the last hill. We crested the last hill and Quicksilver came from behind and caught me, and even managed to get a wheel in front of me, before falling off before the downhill heading to First Street. Digger waited till we crossed the light and we all rode together to Live Oak and headed east. We made the big loop and came back to Second Street and met the rest of our group at Starbucks.

The lead group left first as we finished our coffee and we followed them about ten minutes later. By the time we started for home the sun was out and the sky was clear. It was time to shed our jackets and head back to Lamb’s Canyon. Once we turned the corner off of First Street and headed for home Quicksilver hooked onto my wheel as we crested the rise before the long downhill towards the dump.

I was surprised to see Quicksilver stay with me as long as she did on the downhill. She has never been fond of fast downhill. Unlike Huntress who delights in them. I ended up running shoulder to shoulder with Closer down to the dump and to the second downhill to do it all over again. Just before we got to Gilman Closer caught a draft off of a bus and I thought he had a shot of Nitro. But I caught him again and we waited for the rest of the group at the light on Ramona Expressway.

Closer had to ride across town to pick up his car so we turned on Ramona Boulevard and headed for Lyon together. Only Quicksilver seemed to have the recovery to push back towards Lyon and soon she had pulled me quite a distance in front of Digger, Mark and Closer. She looked back thinking they we right behind us as they had been shortly after we turned east. Closer did leave us at Lion and we headed back south past Cottonwood and the Seventh to get back to the parking lot.

Digger finally left us at Menlo and Mark, Quicksilver and I rode back to Latham and headed to Burger King. When we got there Dragon Slayer and Minotaur were still there so we stopped to talk with them and finally Quicksilver left us and I rode with Minotaur and Mark to Acacia and headed east. I felt good and needed the extra miles.