Monday, April 5, 2010

Nifty 2010

Below was the final weather report for Nifty day in 2010:

FOR SUNDAY...EXPECT A COOL AND MOSTLY CLOUDY START EARLY IN THE DAY. LIGHT RAIN CHANCES WILL INCREASE BY LATE IN MORNING WITH RAIN EXPECTED TO DEVELOP FIRST IN THE NORTH BAY AND ALONG THE IMMEDIATE COAST AND COASTAL HILLS. STEADY RAINS IN THE NORTH BAY WILL SPREAD SOUTHWARD THROUGH THE BAY AREA BY THE AFTERNOON HOURS REACHING THE SOUTHERN THIRD OF THE DISTRICT BY LATE AFTERNOON/EARLY EVENING.

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Climbing Marin Ave, the paper boy weave comes into play

I tried to keep a positive attitude, but honestly figured no one would show up. To my chagrin, we had about 15 riders. We departed in dry weather and by climb #4 on El Toyonal, the rain started. On climb #5, Centennial, it hit us really hard. At the top we were all soaked. The group decided to bag it at that point. I headed down to retrieve the car left at the rest stop, and decided to continue and see if I could finish in the driving rain. I did climb #6 solo, and at the top I was so miserable I too decided to pack it in. Hopefully better weather in 2011!

See more Photos and captions from the A group.

Here is Bill Oldham's report on the B Group:

Well, with the storm forecast and cold weather we got only 3 takers. Mike Levin and Will Uher started about 8:45, and I waited 10 more minutes in case some other riders showed. About 8:55 I gave Paul my phone number and agreed to wait on the course if any other riders showed up. I wanted to leave ASAP both because of the impending rain and because I did not to want to work too hard to catch Mike and Will.

Moeser was the perfect warm up, dry and verdant green with overpowering scents from the flowering trees. Then down and with only a short stop to shed a jacket, I was up Terrace and managed to catch my team who were stopped trying to find which way to go on Kerr. We quickly made our way up to Grizzly Peak and then the downhill to Marin Circle. Marin was also perfect! Bone dry, flowers everywhere, pretty light traffic, and one spectator cheering us on. We did not race it, but Will was first to the top with his stand-up-and-sprint style using recovery at intersections. Time was 58 minutes to the top of Marin, lots slower than the A group, but hey, our youngest rider was 64.

The weather was still cooperating so we boogied across the top and down Wildcat, anxious to get climbing on El Toyonal. It was an uneventful ride up this long hill (taking the Loma Vista and Alta Vista direct routes) and down to campus. We cheated two blocks here … going directly across to Gayley road rather than going to Euclid and the traffic. On the way up Centennial, we came across stragglers from the Lite group and joined them at the car (rest stop). But we let Mike out of our sight for 10 seconds, and bingo he made a left turn on Shasta and went back up to Grizzly Peak and was lost for 15 minutes.

We enjoyed Janet’s hot chocolate and Paul’s PB filled pretzels, but by then it was starting to rain pretty steadily, so we agreed to call it a day after only 5 climbs. However I did manage to get them up one last stinger on the way back to my house … only a slight diversion off San Pablo: East on Manzanita, right on Bobolink, follow Camino Don Miguel back down to Miner road and thence to my house in Sleepy Hollow. So we will have to revisit this ride later in the Spring or Summer.

Many thanks to Paul and Janet for organizing this.

Bill Oldham

And here is Bill Dunn's report on the Nifty Lite 2010:

With one eye on the weather and one ear to the cell phone the Nifty Lite riders who were bound and determined to join in on Paul McKenzie's April Fools celebration eventually settled on a 9 A.M. start time. Three of us, Janet McKenzie, Brian Crowley, and myself, Bill Dunn, started off together and climbed up, up and away to meet Rebecca Heald on Grizzly Peak Rd.

We cruised through Tilden Park and took the closed connecting road to El Toyonal, the lite women leading the heavier men. The gals descended El Toy to do a 'lollipop loop' on a side road and we followed looking for Alta Vista Rd. as an alternative route back up. When we found it we also found a "No Outlet" sign, and since we didn't know for sure that Alta Vista went through (which it does) we turned around and went back up the section of El Toy we had just come down. Cool: bonus climbing!

Janet and Rebecca caught and passed us on the way back up to Grizzly Peak Rd., then 'Becca led us down to the UC Berkeley campus and over to the base of Centennial. We had fun climbing that tough little road with each of us eventually lost in our own thoughts as we spaced out along the way.

Along about the regroup at the top we were passed by two of the B riders and then the third, who was on his way to being temporarily lost. Then we rode together down to the SAG car in Tilden Park, ate some cookies and bars, drank some thankfully hot hot chocolate, and felt the first raindrops starting to come down.

Bill Dunn