Well we did the second King Ridge ride for beginners today and had 47-50 riders show up.  I lost count after all my fingers and toes were counted but someone with better adding skills got up to 47 at the start but I think a few more joined as we left the parking lot in Duncan Mills.

21 of the folks were from the Mountain Goat group to help the new folks navigate the hill climbs and also give some of the other folks company going over the ride as the groups got spread out once the hill climbing began.

We cruised up Cazadero canyon in groups of 5 with about 100-200 yards between the groups so as to allow the cars to get around us as best as possible and that seemed to work pretty good although there were a few folks who didn't seem to get the concept but such is life with 47+ riders.  The folks who have done the ride before just went off the front and I didn't see them again after that which was part of the plan.  There was probably a group of about 12-15 that were at or near the back at one point or another.  The new folks doing this ride for the first time did a great job and were real troopers and had a great attitude to the experience just like the group from last year.

When we started the first big climb up King Ridge Sarah Schroer and the C/D riders coming from Healdsburg passed us as they were headed for Tin Barn and Skaggs and then about 20 minutes later Miguel Sanchez showed up chasing down the C/D riders and the rumor had it that he caught them at Tin Barn and Skaggs so he must have been really moving after he said hello  to us and started the chase.

Once on the ridge of King Ridge where the fields are open and the cattle are roaming around with the clear weather the new folks got to see what everyone has been talking about.  You could even see the ocean at the end of the ridge before you drop down to Parameter's pond and vineyards.

Everyone made it down Hauser Bridge rd. to the bridge safe and sound.  We had 3 of the goats lead the new folks down the hill with me at the back just to make sure no one picked up too much speed on that last 100yds as there is now a crater at around the 100yd point with only a sliver of asphalt to the left that we chose to take as a line(this wasn't there a month ago), but going only about 1mph really helped keep everyone safe and the bottom was a bit tore up but going slow it wasn't all that bad at all and no one really complained about the descent.  We did our best to keep everyone's sphincter's somewhat relaxed on this portion of the ride!  :-).

We climbed up to Ratna Ling where we filled up our water bottles and had a rest and snacks and then made the ride to Meyers Grade where the views on this clear day were once again breath taking heading down towards the coast.  Once on Highway 1 we encountered a fair amount of Sunday traffic but made it back to Duncan Mills safe and sound.  

11 of the original rides opted to head south on Highway 1 at jenner and add in Coleman Valley to make a 70 mile and 7,000' day of it!

We had only one mechanical and that was a flat on Seaview that we fixed but it kept losing air so we were able to every 4 miles or so to add some more with C02 cartridges to get the guy back to the start.  He had a kevlar liner on the inside of his tire so I'm thinking that was the cause of the problem at least that  would be my first guess.

A lot of happy faces after the ride and a huge thanks to those that showed up for the ride and helped the new folks on their first loop around King Ridge!

Enjoy the day,

Dennis