Today was National Inspect Your Bike Day. We woke up to beautiful weather. Sunny, breezy and a bit cool. We had another simple breakfast in the hotel and load up for the day. Dick sagged in the morning.
Dave was pumping up his rear tire broke the valve stem. As he was replacing the tube he noticed a rather serious problem. A spoke had pulled out from the rim. Very bad. He mentioned that he had already replaced that wheel for the same reason some years ago. Seriously big bummer.
We all spent time checking over our bicycles for damage, as well. Nothing found – good. We had been traveling over some rather rough road and it was quite surprising that no one else had busted a spoke.
Unfortunately, we didn’t have a spare wheel or bicycle so our sag schedule is disrupted for a day. Dave had just sagged the previous day; He had to use Dick’s bike for the day. Fortunately, Dick was sagging in the morning, but that left Dick without a bike for the afternoon. He took one for the team and sagged the entire day.
We rolled down the coastal highway again for about 6 miles and then we turn inland. The remainder of the day consisted of rolling up and down some nasty hills. Most were 2 – 3 KM in length, but some are 5 – 8 KM in length. And these were not nice Alps hills, these were the nasty, steep, narrow Pyrenees hills. I was sure glad I was using a compact crankset.
We had lunch at a dot on the map called Los Lomas. I think it was just a sign on the road. We continue on Skaggs Springs Rd. down to Lake Somona – the same place we had lunch on Saturday.
The day turned into a brutal test of survival skills. The weather turned nasty hot again (95+ deg.) and the terrain was up and down, up and down. I think we all lost quite a few pounds of fat and muscle that day just getting through the hills. Fortunately, the roads were in very good shape and traffic was relatively light. We did have to maneuver around logging trucks (or did they have to maneuver around us?) but that was about it. The red necks seemed to stay away that day.
On the descent down to Lake Sonoma we were all cruising down about 40 MPH when, Wham! I had a seriously sharp stinging pain in my right chest area. Crap! Bees! I didn’t even see them. The road was narrow and twisty and I couldn’t stop right where I was so I had to grit the teeth until I found a good turn-off.
I really didn’t know if I was allergic to bee stings so I reeeeeally wanted to get it out of my jersey and apply some salve. Fortunately, the van was behind me and stopped just minutes after I stopped. I pulled a bee out of my jersey and run back to the van for some salve. The only thing we found was some Neosporin, but it had to do.
Dave and I took off again for the bottom to find Terry and Robin. We reached the bottom and roll into the park near the Lake Sonoma dam. Terry “The Pharmacist” pulled his personal stash of drugs from from the van and handed me some industrial strength antihistamine pills and cortisone cream.
After I take the pill and apply the cream he asked me how I was. I mentioned that my right chest and arm pit area felt pretty tingly yet. He took off my sunglasses, looked me in the eye and mentioned, “Maybe we should wait a few minutes.” Oops.
I sat down with a bottle of water and drank it while everyone else filled their tanks with water and chips. After 10 minutes or so I wasn’t getting any worse so we took off to the hotel. Robin led our little train with me following and Terry following me, watching me closely.
By evening most of the pain and sting was mostly gone, but we did consume a fair amount of beer and wine at dinner. We also searched for a bike shop and found a nice one but they were closed for the day. Fortunately, the next day was a rest day so we could get Dave’s bike back into working condition without being hasty.
My wonderful wife (who lets me go on these 10 day bicycling vacations) and I have some friends who moved to Healdsburg a few years ago and opened a deli/restaurant. Unfortunately, I didn’t remember the name of the shop and was late so we decided to bag it for the evening and do our errands the next day.
Day totals:
- Start: Gualala
- End: Healdsburg
- Distance: 66 miles
- Climbs: Over Coastal Ridge via Annapolis Rd and Skaggs Springs Rd
- Total gain: 6264 ft.