Recovery Weekend

A nasty cold virus thing took a hold of my body last week and I spent a few days trying to fight it back and get back to health. Thursday I skipped the bike commute, Friday I worked from home. Saturday I went out shopping, then worked at home the rest of the day, skipping a ride for some time spent in the garage on the rollers.

By Sunday I was ready to get back on a bike. Fortunately we had made plans to meet Alicat and Merkeley Bike in Gilroy for some riding. The Wife had been tasked with developing a route, and she had decided on a couple of loops into the hills on opposite sides of the valley. Gilroy Hot Springs was the first loop, and the weather from town around the loop was perfect: clear, temperatures in the low 60’s Fahrenheit, moderate winds. The ride to the hills as mellow, punctuated with the smell of the pepper trees lining the roads. Only issue I had on that loop was trying to keep pace with Merkeley up the hill with only about a half a lung of respiratory capacity due to the effects of the virus. Amazingly, for a such a great morning we encountered only one other rider on that loop, a guy from Morgan Hill who was doing the loop counter-clockwise, like us, then going back around clockwise to get the double dose.

The second loop was across the valley and to the north, a trip around Chesbro and Uvas reservoirs, or more correctly the damned up areas that will be reservoirs when it finally rains. We had to do ride through a bunch of flat, semi-rural area to get to that loop, traversing a good chunk of Gilroy, San Martin, and part of Morgan Hill on the way. As we approached Chesbro reservoir the weather shifted, the skies became overcast, the temperatures dropped a tad, and the wind picked up a little. It felt as if it would or could rain at any moment, and indeed one section of Uvas Road seemed to have been under a recent little rain shower. With a number of golden-yellow trees, the weather, and some lingering wood smoke near some of the residences it was feeling very autumnal.

It was a great ride; nice scenery, pleasant weather, fantastic company. Only sour note was the tire slice flat Merkeley suffered in the last couple miles as we traversed Gilroy suburbia on our way back to the cars. We were glad that The Wife had selected a meeting point near a restaurant (was it really coincidence) so we could refuel before driving back north to home. Now I need to finish shaking this cold and get back out for more rides like that!

A few more photos from the ride are here.