Blue Balls

With public art as playful as this, who couldn't forgive calling this "Blue Balls" Park? For the record, the official name is Anna Jean Cummings Park.

My ride partner suggested that we preview a route we plan to lead for the club next month, and so we headed into the redwood forest on a sort of junior Santa Cruz Mountains Challenge.

Up Old Santa Cruz Highway. Down Soquel-San Jose Road. One of my favorite descents - no need to touch your brakes unless you catch a car. Up Rodeo Gulch. Down Branciforte. Up Granite Creek. Down (and up) Bean Creek. There's a beautiful road, lulling you along through the redwoods until ... wham! It gets steep enough to hurt, signaling that you have almost reached the end. And finally, the pièce de résistance: Up Mountain Charlie Road.

The last time we led a group up Mountain Charlie, two of the riders thought the day's 45-mile route was a tad short and planned to extend it. By the time they reached the top, they had changed their minds.

Did I ride hard, or take it easy? I had a good time climbing Mountain Charlie. (There's a sentence I never thought I would write). I was riding without stats today (unthinkable!). My Polar receiver's battery was almost fully drained by the time I noticed, last weekend; hopefully the service center will return it next week. MyTracks balked and could not be coaxed to record any data. Just pedal. And breathe.