| Stat Total Ride Distance: Total Elevation Gain: Average Moving Speed: |
Kelly and Grantham 61.91 miles 4,125 feet 15.67 mph |
Dobler Hill 66.93 miles 3,927 feet 15.89 mph |
Total 128.84 miles 8,052 feet 15.78 mph |
We rode the Kelly and Grantham route with our friend Janette on Sunday. She had to be back by around 1 p.m, so our original intent was to do the metric century with her and then go out by ourselves and do another 40 miles.
The Kelly climb is a nice steady slope that takes you over Yacolt Mountain, about 5% on average so not too steep. The Grantham climb is not as much vertical but slope-wise it is all over the place; the opposite of steady. Everybody did fine on the climbs. Toward the end of the ride Janette's knee starting bothering her so we took it easy from that point.
Well it was hot enough by the time we got back that we decided to forego the extra 40 miles. Amy and I both felt strong at the end of the ride, but we knew it would be another super nice day the next day, Monday. So rather than do a full century and then a recovery ride (if anything) the next day we opted for two quality rides in a row.
Oh, I finally got around to figuring out where to carry a spare tire on my bike. Turns out the double water bottle holder I have on my seat post is the perfect place. The folded tire fits snugly between the two water bottle cages. It is a little extra weight, of course, but it is nice knowing we are now prepared if one of our tires has an unbootable gash.
On Monday we decided on a similar route, but instead of going over Yacolt Mountain we went around it on Lucia Falls road. This will probably be one of our last times on this stretch, at least until after summer, because during the summer the traffic is a bit heavy even on a weekday. Then instead of heading due west from Amboy we continued west on Cedar Creek road all the way to the base of Dobler Hill.
We were definitely feeling it after Sunday's ride, and almost opted to continue on to Woodland, riding a flatter route instead. But we finally opted for the brutality that is Dobler Hill. It is nasty-steep, but the way home from this point would actually be about 5 fewer miles, I estimated at the time. But before we climbed we stopped at the base of the hill and did some stretching. Felt great! It was a good thing we stretched because about half way up Dobler my back was getting tight again.
The Dobler climb is a little over 400 feet in 0.9 miles, but the nasty part is about 0.4 miles with an average slope of 13 percent. By comparison, Kelly is 740 feet in 2.7 miles with an average slope of 5 percent, ranging between 3 and 8 percent for the vast majority of the climb, though it does just touch on 12 percent at one point near the top. Grantham is much more difficult to describe as it even includes some downhill portions, depending on how you look at it.
Regardless of how they are described, Dobler is easily the toughest of the three. In fact, it is in the running for the toughest climb in the county in my opinion. Allen Canyon is steeper (near 20%) but considerably shorter. There are more climbs in east county I have ridden, and I'm sure plenty I have not, but none of the ones I've ridden seem as tough as Dobler.
As good as we feel about getting in a couple nice rides like this, it is a little intimidating to know that we will soon be doing this amount of riding, both in terms of mileage and elevation gain, in a single ride.
I gotta say these metric century rides are a little nicer in several respects. The hardest part of a full century is the last part, which is skipped entirely on a metric century. Plus, metrics only take around 4 hours, which is much nicer on your day schedule-wise. You have time and energy to do something else later in the day. If you've done a full century (or more) you don't have time OR energy to do much of anything else that day. Along the same vein, you can finish a 4 hour ride before getting into the super hot portion of the day. For a rider affected by the heat this is a really nice feature to metrics.
All that said, we'll be riding many more centuries and super centuries this season. They're just too fun not too!
| RIDE MAP IN GOOGLE EARTH: |
| Quick Legend: Red/Purple: Kelly and Grantham route (Sunday) Blue/Purple: Dobler Hill route (Monday) Purple: Overlap of both routes |
| Maps showing all rides: 2012 • 2011 • 2010 • 2009 • All Rides |
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