By: C. Kent, aka (Superman) I try to make Wednesdays a bit more challenging that the rest of the week and good or bad that is what I wanted to do today. So I posted a ride into Bautista Canyon and got ready to head east for one of the first climbs up there since I got out of the hospital. I got to the bike shop to see Digger and met a new rider, Michael, who was planning on joining us for the first time. Dragon Slayer and Earth Dog arrived and we were ready to go so we headed down Lyon toward Johnston to got the show on the road as they say.

I managed to lead us to Johnston and then east towards Gilbert. It was getting hot already and I was beginning to rethink my Bautista plan. But it was posted and we were on our way so there was nothing I could do now. So we made our way to Gilbert and headed south to Thornton and headed east again. It took us a few minutes to get the State Street and wait for the light. Stopping made the heat feel even more oppressive but at least while we were moving the wind passing over the jerseys made it feel cooler. We had a pretty straight shot to Santa Fe and made our way back to Stetson with Earth Dog leading the way to head back east again. Earth Dog pulled to the first light before Dragon Slayer took over and got us to Columbia and headed south to get to Crest.

We had to turn onto Thornton again for about a block but soon were working our way to Crest. By this time I was starting to feel the heat and to be honest wasn’t looking forward to the Bautista Climb. Only the prospect of the ride back down from the top kept me going. We finally worked our way over to Lake Street and started to slinky our way to Stetson and east towards Fairview. We regrouped so we could head to Bautista as a group and noticed two riders, rabbits to Dragon Slayer, out in front of us. We caught them before Bautista and then headed east to start our climb up Bautista to the end of the pavement and the honor farm. As we got to the first big right turn I started feeling a bit sick and ended up drafting off of Dragon Slayer’s wheel till we were close to the dam. Earth Dog and Michael were out front and once I settled into a slower cadence to keep my heart rate in check I told Dragon Slayer to go after the lead riders and wait for me at the top. I think they beat me to the top by 10 minutes but I managed to get up there without stopping and cooled down with a drink and snack bar. We waited for Digger and gave him a chance to recover before getting ready to head back down Bautista to get to Fairview. I think I did pretty well chasing Dragon Slayer down the hill and even hit him hard with the sprint at the dam. But I was running out of gas well before the big right hander after the dam and had to reduce my speed to keep from burning up before Fairview. Dragon Slayer and I regrouped everyone at Fairview and then pulled everyone north towards Stetson. Once we got to Stetson it was down to Dragon Slayer, Michael and I heading for the bridge and Mayberry. We turned onto Florida and led Michael to Carl’s for coffee and to see how he liked the ride. Once we were finished we got back out and headed to Lincoln to head for home.

Earth Dog was suffering a bit as we headed for Park and cut over to Columbia where Digger left us. The rest of us rode together all the way back to State to check in at the bike shop before heading for home. I was beat but felt accomplished for having made the climb and still be strong enough to make it home.