06-23-07-Saratoga Gap-Skyline-Hwy 84-Woodside-Old La Honda-Skyline-Saratoga Gap.gpx-t0

A really nice early morning ride with Sheila – a few others were supposed to show (Jason and his friend, maybe Dave Morton, etc.) – but nobody showed up after waiting about 15 minutes, so we modifed our plan and decided to start at Saratoga Gap instead of Hwy 17 & Summit (the meeting place). So the ride started about an hour late – but we had a really nice ride along Skyline, then went down into Woodside where I showed Sheila where the Noon Goon ride travels through – including the Olive Hill Maze – on Canada Rd, when heading over towards Roberts Market, she got a flat that took us about 45 minutes to fix! The first tube had some kind of defect and the second tube worked okay, but the tire looked like it was real shaky – it had a real bad worn spot, but we decided to continue on and hope for the best. Sheila had never been up Old La Honda, so I introduced her to the famous Bridge of Death at the start of OLH and she got to see this famous climb – there were a ton of riders going up and down the climb, of course! Then we got back onto Skyline and headed back, after making a brief stop at Windy Hill Preserve to make a pee stop – and check out the incredible views of both Silicon Valley and the ocean, all from one vantage point on a ridge – really cool! When we got to within 5 miles of Saratoga Gap, she blew out another rear tube – this time the rear tire looked like it was all frazzled, so we decided not to chance it and I zoomed back by myself to get her car for her – that delayed things another half hour or so, which is why I ended up getting back about 2 hours later than I thought! Oh well, it was a nice day of riding, in any case – the weather was really perfect and Sheila and I had some pleasant conversations about life, etc. – really must do that loop again – it’s totally awesome – and still quite a bit of climbing – only 40 miles, but almost 4500 feet of climbing – fun!