Well, I am sitting on our deck with Claire and Mathilda listening to the Old 97’s on my iPod and drinking margaritas that Claire made from scratch. She is using Debbie A’s recipe, which we have grown quite fond of. My only complaint is that Claire bought some terrible chips to go with the salsa, but, that is a minor complaint in the scheme of things.
We went out this morning and, after a couple of mochas in Duncans Mills, rode over Old Caz. It was all Claire’s idea, which is one of the multitude of reasons that I love her. We had to do Duncan Road first, of course, and when I checked my Garmin at the bottom, it was reading 21% grade. We weren’t in any hurry today, so we took our time as we climbed Old Caz. At the top we stopped for a couple of pictures before climbing over the gate and starting the dirt descent. The thing that makes descending interesting on the Ibis right now is that I have some of the coolest looking brakes ever made that do not really slow you down. I am not going to say what type. Anyway, on my single bike, the fact that they didn’t slow you down was really no big deal, but descending down a beat up dirt road where I ended up on my head the last time I rode down it, you want your brakes to slow you down. So, anyway, it was a hoot as we headed into some of the corners with me grabbing both brakes as hard as I could, and nothing really happening. We stayed upright, and that is really all that matters. We crossed the creek at the bottom without even getting our shoes wet and climbed back up out of the valley before dropping, or should I say, plummeting down into Cazadero. It was the perfect length bike ride, and we were happy that we parked in Duncans Mills instead of Occidental. Here is a link to our ride. And here are some pictures.