I started the day with the idea of riding up Anderson Gap. I knew this to be a steep climb and I had never done it. It turned out that Dan and Paul didn't have the time so we decided to do Siskiyou Summit instead. It was nice and cool on the way up and very clear at the top. Nice view of Shasta. The ride down was even a bit chilly. As we got closer to town the wind picked up and we had a stiff headwind all the way back.
I headed out the valley by myself with the thought that maybe I would try Anderson Gap if I felt up to it. I ate a Clif bar at the dog park and another one at Colver park and rode easy hoping to recover enough by the time I got out Griffin. I even got a Gator aide and a Snickers bar at the South Stage store hoping to get enough fuel on board.
The ride up Griffin Creek was very pleasant and by the time I got to the end there was no question that I would do it. At this point I had 54 miles which I thought was perfect training for the Siskiyou Century where the hard climb starts 60 or 70 miles in.
According to the Siskiyou Velo website (http://siskiyouvelo.org/ride_detail.php?id=7) the ride up Anderson Gap climbs from 2100' to 4100' in 4 miles. It says the average grade is 9.1%. The first half mile was easy, no steeper than 6%. The next half mile was a little steeper but still less that 9%. That's when I remembered the "average" part. It meant that there would be some sections quite a but steeper than 9%. There certainly were, but they were never too long. On some of them I could ride zig-zag, but on the steepest part I had to stand and stair-step in my lowest gear. I stopped at the halfway point and enjoyed some ripe blackberries.
The sun was directly in front of me for a good part of the ride and if it hadn't been such a cool day it would have been brutal. This is not a ride you want to do on a hot summer day. As I got further up I was in the shade more and it was nice and cool. With 1 mile to go it was discouraging to see high ridges still in front of me. I didn't see how I was going to get up those ridges and feared the ride might be longer than it said. But with a half mile to go I saw the road was heading for a low spot and I remembered that I was headed for Anderson Gap not Anderson Butte. Sure enough the grade soon got easier and I was there at exactly 4 miles from the bottom. The view to the west was great but the sun prevented any really good pictures.
Looking West from Anderson Gap into the sun.
After turning around and starting down I had a great view of the valley and the Cascades. I took it slow on the way down. The road was really not bad. It was rough chip-seal but with only one easy to see pot hole. My breaks got a really good workout going down.
I took Dark Hollow/Pioneer back for good measure. I got home at about 7:00 with 82 miles. A great ride if ever there was one.