Late season ride on Ponderosa Way and Yankee Jims Road. 2020 year's end review.

 

At the Ponderosa Road Bridge

Fall was speeding by and the holiday season was fast approaching. It was time, (11/12/2020) for a last adventure ride before by seasonal training ride routine began.

I decided to take the Ritchey to Ponderosa Way, it would be interesting to see how it handled that rough road.

As usual, I started this ride at the old Park and Ride at Colfax, by the site of the old "Dingus McGees". This is a handy jumping off point for both this ride and for Iowa Hill. 

At the Colfax Park and Ride

For this ride you start by heading west, up to Placer Hills Road. You then follow Placer Hills for a few miles to the Weimar Crossing Road intersection.

At the Weimar Sign

Up over a little rise then you descend into the little village of Weimar. From there you are on Ponderosa Way, which you will follow all the way to Foresthill Divide Road. The paved portion of Ponderosa includes a pretty good climb up to the border of the Auburn State Recreational Area. At that point you start a long descent. You eventually come to an open gate that has a sign indicating that the bridge is out! Don't worry, it is closed to vehicular traffic, but pedestrians and bikes are free to use it.

At the State Recreation Area.

The road now turns to dirt/gravel and it's condition goes downhill along with the road! This is one of the worst roads I've ridden, lots of ruts and holes. I rode the brakes quite a bit, glad to have the Spyre discs on this ride. The mustache handlebars also give you a nice stable riding position. Generally, I was pretty satisfied with the Ritchey's performance here. 

At the Ponderosa Bridge, now closed to cars.

After the long, rough descent I came to the bridge over the North Fork of the American River. I don't know what has caused the closure of this bridge, but it does look a little bit shabbier than the bridge at Yankee Jims. In any event, I'm glad it is closed as this reduces the traffic on the road to practically nothing! I did meet one fellow in a Jeep on the other side of the bridge who was wondering if it was okay to park, that was about the extent of the traffic on this weekday!

Ponderosa Bridge over the N. fork of the American River.

It was now time for the long climb to Foresthill Divide Road. This side of the road is in better condition than the north side so climbing wasn't technical at all, just laborious! I was passed by a trail bike, (motorcycle), at one point, that was the extent of the traffic until I reached Foresthill divide Road!

Pausing on the climb up from the Ponderosa Bridge.

After reaching the pavement, the climb continued into Foresthill. There, I stopped at Worton's Grocery Store and ate a snack at their wonderful picnic tables. Then I was off to Yankee Jims Road.

View from Worton's

I've described Yankee Jims many times in these pages so I won't go into much detail here. Generally the road was okay this year, maybe a little more washboard than I like. At the bottom I hit the corrugated steel plate that forms the road surface of the bridge a little too hard and this caused a pinch flat on my rear tire! This would turn out to be the only mechanical issue of this ride.

At the bottom of Yankee Jims Road, note the deflated rear tire!

Obligatory view back at Yankee Jims Bridge!

The rest of the ride was the usual climb up to Colfax. Nothing unusual here, one or two cars encountered but really, traffic was very light. 

Although this is a relatively short distance ride, (35 miles), the climbing, (4958 feet in elevation gain), and the road conditions really slow you down. It took me four hours to finish the ride!

End of the ride shot.

Equipment notes:

No mechanical issues outside the flat at Yankee Jims Bridge!

This was a good ride to test out the Ritchey Ascent and I was pretty happy with it's performance. Handling-wise, it sort of disappears on the pavement and is pretty stable on the rough stuff. Of course, having the 42mm Gravel King tires and disc brakes goes a long way to inspiring confidence on rough roads. 

I have set up this bike with indexed, (8-speed) bar end shifters. On rough roads like this, I like having positive shifts without having to adjust shifter position a lot which of course the indexing provides. It's really the only bike I have with indexing but I think that it is appropriate for this style of riding.

Finally, mustache handlebars have once again proven to me that they are perfect for this type of mixed surface riding. They can afford a comfortable aero position on the road and a very stable stance on the rough stuff.

Year's end notes:

Thus ended my last "adventure" ride of 2020. COVID had some impact on my riding this year. I avoided a lot of long rides, only riding one century this year. That one was the flat "Three River Century" I do every year. I also managed a 100km ride which included a long stretch of gravel around Camp Far West.

I did get a lot of shorter rides in. In fact my cumulative mileage for 2020 was one of my highest, 5,265 miles!

Equipment wise, the big item was the Ritchey. Initially I set this bike up with the 650b wheels left over from my Felt. Towards the end of the year I collected the components for a new set of 650b wheels, this time they were to be tubeless.  I chose Sun-Ringle Helix rims, Shimano M525A disc hubs and Panaracer Gravel King Slicks, 650X48mm.

This is the first time I ever tried to set up a tubeless tire system and I was anxious to see how it works. There were a couple of hiccups but I finally was able to get the tires working. I haven't put many miles on these yet, but on the short test rides I've taken the wheels seem quite light, and the ride seems very nice!

The Ritchey's new shoes!

Well, that's a wrap for 2020, good riddance! Looking forward to 2021!