Primavera, Poached

The Calaveras Reservoir looked invitingly cool this morning, but today it was my lot to simmer in the heat. Yesterday I volunteered for the Tierra Bella, doing my fair turn to support my fellow cyclists. I congratulated a guy who completed his first century, and another who rode the event with clipless pedals for the first time. I watched two guys fall into a deep sleep despite the bustle around them, and chatted with many familiar faces as I handed out jerseys and t-shirts.

I wisely abandoned my plan to ride the century route for the Primavera today, much as I enjoyed it last year. I settled for the metric century (100 km) instead, given that my cold symptoms are lingering. Not to mention the heat advisory. With a later start and a more relaxed pace, I still finished with plenty of time to enjoy lunch at the end of the ride. 3515 feet of climbing, 63.5 miles.

I admired a red-tailed hawk that soared overhead, and was paced by the shadow of a turkey vulture that judged me an unsuitable meal. A pair of quail darted back into the brush as I approached, leaving me to wonder why do these birds prefer to walk, when they can fly?

Early in the day, more people were walking up the Calaveras “wall” than pedaling. If they could fly, they would not be walking. Late in the day, climbing Palomares seemed to take forever.

The summit is around that next bend, I'm sure of it.

Eager for some advantage, I swept past the clutch of cyclists huddled in the shade of the oak tree at the top to claim my reward: a cooling, rip-roaring descent. Palomares leads to Niles Canyon Road, which has an idyllic ring that Highway 84 lacks (sadly, they are one and the same). There may be some lovely vistas, but the traffic is too treacherous to notice them. With a narrow, shoulder-less underpass ahead, I had the good sense to check my rear-view mirror in time to see an enormous RV approaching. If ever there were a time to “take the lane,” this was it. I am riding as far to the right as practicable. At the moment, "practicable" means not giving that RV an opportunity to sideswipe me.