Kitchen Creek 200 Brevet: Clear cool skies & some wind!

My Garmin Stats from today's Kitchen Creek 200 Brevet

Around 20 riders at the start on this coolish Saturday in Pine Valley. John Mestemacher was nice enough to give me a lift out for this great route. Also, our buddy Dan Phillips (sans Thailand Bill Stevenson) would be joining up too! After careful study of previous KC rides and today's weather, I decided to go with long orange rando socks to match the wool SDrando jersey. 1 long sleeve under layer only and a woolie cap with long sleeve glove liners under my fingerless riding gloves. I packed on my front bag a reflective wind vest (see previous post for how I made this) and wool arm warmers for the evening ride in. (This combo turned out to be absolutely perfect for the conditions today!).

Planned on taking some pics today, I attached a cheapo video camera to my front stem  and hung the old Canon Powershot AS-1100 around my neck. Brought extra new AA batteries for an eventful day of riding. Pre-ride prep shots of riders is the best part. You get all kinds of weird stuff going on and it's easy to add a funny caption to it later. I rode around a bit to check the air temp on my body clothing. Ended up chatting with a large group of MTB'ers at the Pine Valley Store. All Asians, so I called them the "Ninja MTB's". No cheap rigs on the back of those Toyota's! Dennis sent us off at 0700, under a rising sun under clear cool skies. (Check action video "Kitchen Creek 200" for more vivid details!)

RBA Dennis Stryker preps the riders up before the start.

Racers were off the front on the first 2 climbs out of Pine Valley. Others settled in to their groups for the downhill blast through the INS checkpoint on the way to Buckman Springs Road in the sunshine. Nice! Dan almost missed the Buckman turn as John yelled out "TURN" just in time! His dirt riding skills saved a turn crash! Almost all downhill now as John and Steve Elliott cranked er up. Entered a lite-fog bank and the temp dropped a few degrees, hovering near 40 degrees. My first set of batteries were already shot, so I finally managed to change a set over in the saddle. Easy ride to the Campo Circle K.

Store was packed. Clerk was overwhelmed with all the riders. I got the cheapest thing I could find. Line for the bathroom, so Dan suggested his "outfence" location. That worked good and eventually we got moving again. Our little group grew a bit with Michael Futch and Dave Horwitt joining John, Dan and I. Mike and I were chatting about rando MTB stuff and we slowly wound our way up toward the Southern Pacific Trestle Bridge. Passed tandem pair Kathy & Jack Twitchell and also Lisa Nicholson. Glen Pinson and Seattle Rando Andy Speier turned off to find a 12mm wrench at the Fire Station. (Andy's seat was out of adjustment real bad - see video).

Dan Phillips scenic downhill to Boulevard

Downhill free-fall through Bouvelard and Bankhead Springs ghost town. One real nasty section of road before we passed the "little people" peeking from the bushes on the downhill to Jacumba. Met several riders who already had made their turn-around at the Control in Jacumba. More riders were leaving as we approached the Mountain Sage Market. Andy rode over to the Fire Station and finally made his seat adjustment.

Hit the head and filled one bottle. Put in the wrong generic powder-bad choice as I later found out. John left early and Dan and I soon joined up climbing to Boulevard into a slight headwind. We plodded along, chatting and watching other riders blasting downhill on the other side of the road. At Boulevard, Glen and Andy were pulled off just ahead. We joined them and soon discovered an old man was having trouble standing in gusty wind.  90-year old Fred was going to the Post Office. A old neighbor lady with a yapping dog was there explaining what happened. Glen helped him sit down by a power pole, then him and Andy went around the corner to the local Fire Station for help. We all started riding again when the paramedics arrived in short order! Always nice to see randos helping other roadside.

Randos helped "Boulevard Fred" till the paramedics arrived!

Jimbo and Dave had joined up by now and we all made the downhill turn on Old Hwy. 80 after Acorn Casino. Weee... we were flying into the headwind now. Met a whole lot of riders on various bikes climbing the hill. I thought they must have been group camping by Buckman Springs somewhere and decided to ride up to Acorn! Good luck riders, most were pushing their bikes! We soon joined up behind Glen and Andy for the final fast 20mph pull to Kitchen Creek Road. Dennis had SAG water under the bridge. Michael Futch, Tim Knowles and Steve Elliott were there too. I carefully put my bike against the SAG wagon (shiny new BMW) and filled my bottle. (OK, Dan, there was already a bike there!)

John said he was going up the road and I soon joined him. Dan hooked up and then Tim. Steve was a bit behind at a steady climb pace. Andy and Glen came up and Dan joined up with them as climber pace-man! Went past Cibbits Flat Campground together and kept the unsteady climbing going. At the second gate, I stopped to take a whizz and Dan did likewise up the trail. I heard some laughing nearby and discovered 3 tourists peeking over! Nice. I rode over and chatted with them while taking a picture. Dan paced up the following miles to Sunrise Highway and then it was a blast-off to the Laguna Store Control.

John Mestemacher chats with Greg Olmstead at Mt. Laguna Control

Greg Olmstead was in full SAG control there, giving out packs of energy cookies. Those suckers packed a punch! Several riders were milling around, so I headed over to the bathrooms. Steve Elliott came over and indicated he was riding to Pine Valley instead. I watered up, chomped a E-Cookie and rode back to tell John I was slo-rolling out of there. Soloing out on the downhill from Mt. Laguna, it was gusty wind time! Dan soon joined up on the slo roll. Side-winds were kicking us all over the road. John came up to make our triplex complete for fighting the wind. I know we couldn't wait for the tailwind to kick in at the Hwy. 79 turn. Ahhhh, easy riding now through the tree lined curves and some short climbs before the long, fast run into Julian. Saw Wei Sun in his blue kit heading uphill to Cuyamaca already. That dude is ON.

Julian was packed! Was it apple pie time again? Crowds of people lined the sidewalks. Traffic galore. The downhill speed to Wynola was worth the wait. FAST. We met Tim Sullivan & Michael Futch on the way up. Didn't take long to get to the INFO at Red Barn Pizza place. 5 minute stop and we were on our way again.

Lake Cuyamaca: John scans Big Stone Wall Peak ahead

Kelly pace on the climb back to Julian. No use getting too excited. Lots of climbing left. Met Dave Horwitt going to Wynola, can't miss his cap! Dan set the uphill tempo from Julian to Sunrise Hwy. Met Kathy & Jack Twitchell rolling downhill. Side-wind really kicked in as John led out past Cuyamaca Lake. Sun was starting to drop behind the mountains to the west and made for some good photo shots. Finally, we made it up to the Fire Station/State Park. Time to put some clothes on.

Surprisingly it wasn't dark yet! Guess John and I had been thinking of the Pines To Cactus ride and the timing when we got to the station. Did the whizz-bang, put on the arm warmers, glove liners and reflective wind vest. Helmet light, rear blinkies and a chug of power water. We were off to the races now with Dan leading through the curves. Wasn't cold at all. Not even dark enough for usable lights. We had our front lights on "blink" mode. Comfortable ride down to Old Highway 80 this trip. Paced our way up to Guatay and finally the last, fast downhill into Pine Valley with no double flats this time. Pulled into the Majors parking lot where Greg was waiting to sign off the cards. Tim Sullivan was pulling out and noticed my "blinkies".

John and Dan approach Cuyamaca Fire Station for "lights on"

We loaded the bikes into John's Element. He suggested we get our "recovery shake fix" here at Majors. We conned Dan into joining up. Walking around the front, we soon discovered the place just closed! Bummer. We said "adios' to Dan for a good ride and headed down to Alpine for our recovery shake at Carl's Jr.

I dressed "spot on" for this route. Didn't need the jacket or leg warmers. The sun did the rest. Quite windy at times up on the top. Flu shot on Monday maybe took it's toll. I was hacking away and couldn't clear the lungs to get a full breath at higher output levels on the Kitchen Creek climb. Sounded like Jimbo at times. Legs were good all day and looking back, I never sat down one time all route. After Wynola, I was "feelin' it" Took one Advil early for the side left tendon. Didn't eat "anything" and put the wrong stuff in my bottle at Jacumba for fuel. Drank OK, but probably not enough either. Pace was real high at times, esp in the Highway 80 paceline.

Energizer AA batteries didn't hold up well & I never got all the shots I wanted. Mis-took the shots of racer reptile-guy Ben Hain, but got his van. Whatever venom extract he takes really works! This dude flies! Thought I had all the later shots around Guatay too, but they never took. New batteries should give more than 40 pics. Managed only 125 pictures and 9 video segments. 3/5 for this trip

Kitchen Creek 200 Video

Clear skies
Hi: 73     Lo:39
Wind: Gusty at times

124 miles


-randorides