By: C. Kent, aka (Superman) It isn’t often someone asks me for an east climbing ride. It is even less often that an east climbing ride is requested for a Monday. This Monday I got such a request and specifically it was for Bautista Canyon. So I posted the ride and went to bed early Sunday night to be rested. I got up and had breakfast and noticed it was cool and overcast. I don’t normally do well on cool and overcast days but I had high hopes for today. I got dressed and pulled out the Specialized, Seth, and headed for the parking lot. Yes my bikes have names, Seth for the Specialized, Patsy for the Klein and Jean for the Haro. That is another story for another time. I got to Burger King to find Digger waiting and went in to get coffee. We had at least a ten minute wait till to our surprise we saw a “Slade” pull in with Rudy, (El Cid) and Quicksilver pull us as one of the first cars. Next to arrive was Siren followed closely by Dan and Tax Man. Dragon Slayer was back with us as well. Lastly a friend of Siren’s, Chance pulled up about the same time as Shooter and we had a group ready to hit the road. We meandered over to Latham and east to Lyon to start south. I pulled most of the way to Acacia and Shooter pulled us to Whittier before I took over headed to Johnston and east towards Gilbert.

We rounded the corner onto Gilbert and headed south only to catch the light at Stetson. Once on our way again Siren took the lead and got us to Thornton and headed east. I rode with her to State and then to Santa Fe to head back to Stetson. Shooter took the lead with Dragon Slayer and Siren in tow and made it to Columbia where I pulled in front and headed for Thornton.

We made the first right to head for Crest Tax Man stayed on Thornton and headed for Lake. We put on some extra distance getting to lake and we saw Tax Man turning onto Stetson as we came over the hill on Lake. We regrouped on Lake and Stetson before heading east again. Shooter got us up to speed pretty quickly and I had to caution Siren and El Cid to save some matches for the climb. Bautista Canyon would be a new ride for both Siren and El Cid. Tax Man was well ahead of us as we turned south on Fairview but Shooter was starting to pick up the pace. We had a long way to go because Tax Man was already turning on Bautista Canyon as we came off of Stetson. Dragon Slayer, Chase and Quicksilver were close on Shooter’s wheel and it was all I could do to hold back Siren and El Cid. Don was right with us and Digger was falling back a bit. As we rounded onto Bautista Shooter took his group east and I assured Quicksilver I would ride sweep so she could go play on the climb. So off she went and my half of the group followed.

We were about to take the test for Siren and El Cid. I knew Don and Digger could make the climb but I also knew that nine miles would seem like a long way for our new riders. This wasn’t as bad as Minotaur’s first ride when we did Lambs canyon but it was harder than we had done with either El Cid or Siren. So I started to talk them into gear selection and let them know where the rises and flats were. Siren finally got into a rhythm and started to pull in front of El Cid and me after the dam. We kept her in sight as we rolled over the dry wash and made it by the white picket fence. As we made a turn or two it was time for El Cid to get in the small ring and get in a rhythm himself. He did fine until were got into the second set of trees and hit the beginning of the three steps to the end of the canyon. He suffered a bit at the last bump before we saw the honor farm and Quicksilver came back to check on us. Shooter had been back several times so the group was looking out for the new riders. We rode together to the top where everyone was waiting and El Cid sat down for a well deserved rest. Once everyone made it to the top we got ready and started back down towards Fairview. Everyone but Quicksilver loved the downhill even with the wind in our face. We regrouped at Fairview and then got ready to head towards Stetson and the run to Florida. Neither Dragon Slayer nor I had a lot to offer on the run to Mayberry but we at least gave it a shot. We were back as a pace line as we pulled next to the school and headed for the stop light.

We all, except Tax Man who had turned back about halfway up Bautista, stopped at Carl’s for coffee or something cool to drink before heading back west and Burger King. I started us out by leading up to Lincoln and pointed us west towards Lake Street. Siren blew by taking a rider or two with her and we had to chase them all the way to Park. Siren started us towards Devonshire were Digger would leave us and I had to work hard to get in front for a picture.

We made to jog onto Devonshire and instead of a cool down cruise we had a rather quick double pace line going with Siren, El Cid and Quicksilver right in the mix. We kept hitting all the stop signs clear and were only slowed down slightly at San Jacinto and again at State. As we headed for Palm our stop sign luck held and Quicksilver moved up front to get ready to start a sprint at Lyon. We got the stop sign clear and I jumped for the sprint only to be run down by Shooter. He took us back to the cars and our last few minutes of conversation before heading for home and a cool shower. I have to say both El Cid and Siren did very well on the climb. We will have more.