Lazy Lizard Lodown Brevet

Lazy Lizard Lodown Route

This 207km Brevet started way out in the Anza Borrego Desert at Ocotillo. John Mestemacher was nice enough to pick me up in the rain at 5:00 AM. We were both back and forth on adding fenders and rain gear for this ride. I did some deep research on The Weather Channel and the best I could do was rain everywhere west of Ocotillo! No fenders for me. John put his on. We'll see what happens when we get there. Our Nytro friend Joe Morgan and buddy Daryl bailed as did super rider Andi Ramer.

The ride out was wet and rainy all the way till we dropped down to Ocotillo, where it was overcast, but breaking up. Arrived 10 minutes early for the 7:00 start. Enough time to set up and take a few pics. Greg Olmstead did the pre-ride instructions with a group of 9 riders. John & I were the first to leave at 7:05. Group of 4 caught us in the new wind-farm outside Ocotillo on Hwy. S-2. Not a nice sight, all those huge wind turbines. I thought it really ruined the landscape. That's progress? The construction crews had their own little trailer camp outside town. A least it must have boosted Ocotillo's economy a little for a short time. Lazy Lizard Saloon must have done good!

Never did rain on us at all. We did pass through areas on S-2 that were wet. Jacques and Donna Boutet from Alaska flew down for this event in "sunny California". It ended up being sunny, but only 59F for a high. Jacques was a good strong rider and rode with Gary most of the way. However, after chatting with Donna, I didn't feel she was prepared for this ride. She took off up the first 12% climb and cracked half way up. She did turn around near Scissor Crossing to get in her mileage. Rode off and on with Jacques, Gary, John and Jeff Cole.

I brought my Canon camera around my neck and was trying out a Wingman Sports camera on the Fuji carbon bike. Both seemed to work OK. Rendering a ride video was a little "iffy", due to the different .avi and .mov formats from the cameras. After some quality issues, I did get it all together in a 18 minute route video on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MVbRNEIrhB8

John riding S-2 toward the rainbow

Our group of 6 rode off and on together most of the way up. John said he was "cooked" after the turn up San Felipe Road. We were going into a nice headwind all the way up. Plus his new "diet" of lo-carb... 50gm a day didn't help at all. I also mentioned to him I thought he didn't drink enough with only 1 bottle used to Ranchita. That's 64 miles. He felt a little better after the turn around at Ranchita. That first downhill to San Felipe Road was a little cool. Lots of easy downhill riding with just the 3 climbs on the way back. John had a wire flat just before the Sweeney Pass climb on the way back. Even an Aramid layer doesn't stop those little wire pieces.It was just dark when we got back. I was planning on getting back around 4:30, and brought just my "Froggie Lights". John had a helmet light, which was more than enough in the dusk light.

Not a bad ride, weather turned out to be quite nice. Did have some good conversations with Donna Boutet, Gary Kanaby and Jeff Cole. Donna was stating that with the few roads in Alaska to ride on, they have to compete with cars most of the time on local rides. Gary said he works for the company that furnishes those 300' blades for the wind turbine farms. Jeff wants to make up his own Permanent to ride north toward Frisco!

For a Finish receipt, I got a bottle of Bisquick Lo-cal milk drink at Texaco. $2.99!!! NOT. Got a Milky Way instead. Of course the register didn't work and a hand written receipt was in order. We stopped by Alpine on the way back. John refueled the Element and I got my usual after ride energy booster choc shake at Carl's Jr. The shake was thinner than water. Not good. Not mixed. John got solicited by a dude in a SUV from Temecula, who's 2 credit cards wouldn't work in the gas machines or inside either. He left his cash at home and wanted advance bucks now, which he would mail back when he got home. Ya, OK.

What a day... good ride, good friends, good time, bad shake.

-randorides