Cycling for the Arthritis Foundation: Training Ride 8/17: GPC Mid-August Birthday Ride

On Sunday, 8/17, my training ride was a Grizzly Peak Cyclist club ride celebrating a couple of August birthdays, Sherie and Kurt. Sherie is the club president. She also selected the route.

We started in Half Moon Bay with overcast skies and drizzle. I had the arm and leg warmers on. The first ~20 miles were heading south on highway 1 to the Pigeon Point Lighthouse. There were some very large rollers on the way. We regrouped at the lighthouse and then continued on a little way further on highway 1 before turning onto Gazos Creek Rd. We headed up a spur that passed some lovely territory. It ended at a gate with a dirt road on the other side. It was definitely time for me to take off the arm and leg warmers by that time. We returned, headed up Cloverdale and rode for a while before turning on Butano Cutoff and then over to Pescadero for lunch at Arcangeli's.

Arcangeli's grocery is the home of the very tasty garlic and artichoke bread. They bake it fresh throughout the day. In addition to a sandwich for lunch, I got a loaf of the famous bread. I have a large bike bag and was able to cram one of smaller loaves in there. Probably that bag will smell like garlic for some time to come. Thanks to Phil who passed around a delicious olallieberry pie, still warm from the oven at a place across the street, to all interested Grizzlies around the picnic tables. Some people said it was better than Fat Apple's pie. I think I'll have to have a slice of theirs to adequately reach a conclusion.

After lunch was Stage Road. It starts out all sweet and friendly, with new pavement, but the new pavement ends and the rolling hills and then climbing come in. At the top of Stage, we went north on highway 1 a short distance to get to Tunitas Creek Road. We had a break at the Bike Hut and then moved on.

Unfortunately, I misinterpreted the cue sheet and turned left on Lobitos Creek Cutoff instead of Lobitos Creek Rd. It only cut off about 5 miles but quite a few feet of climbing. Here's how Sherie described it: "The climb up to the farms on the ridge-line offers a challenging but peaceful gradient, spectacular views all around the hillsides and back out to the ocean...(think something like somewhere between Tunitas Creek, Old La Honda Road and the top of Coleman Valley Road)...and then a zippy, fun descent down to where it joins Verde Road.... about as fun as a bicycle ride can get!!" Oh well, next time.

Lobitos Creek Cutoff did rejoin the route without any difficulty. We continued on Verde Rd., Purisima Creek Rd., and then a climb near the end on Higgins Canyon Rd. After the climb, there was a nice descent and we were back by the firehouse on Main Street in Half Moon Bay.