Hello all,
Well we were finally able to pull off the 5th Annual Mountain Goat King Ridge first timers ride this year although now where near the 80+ riders we had registered last year due to the Covid19. We had 12 riders today with 8 of them being Mountain Goats and 4 first time riders. We had a number of people cancel this morning due to the uncertainty of the air which was probably a good idea especially with the high heat on the course. The route is challenging enough on a normal day but the heat really brings out the teeth in the course.I finally made the call at 6am to carry on with the ride once I saw the air quality looked what seemed to be good. I should have looked closer to the temps for the day as we got a bit cooked up there today with temps consistantly between 97-93 degrees from up part way up King Ridge all the way to the descent part way down Meyers Grade. So thankful to Charlie and Nancy Doval for following us around the course and keeping our heads wet with water and our bottles filled. Lots of red faces once we got to Ratna Ling and I’v never seen so many riders putting their heads under the water spigot there to get cooled off and no one seemed in too big of a hurry to leave the shade and water. Once we got to Timber Cove Rd. We did the same head watering at the Timber Cove Fire Department. It was just that hot.When we got to Hwy 1 we were greeted by Loie and Jan which was a nice surprise. With the temps cooled a bit on Hwy 1 we enjoyed a nice ride back into Duncans Mills with a pleasant tailwind to push us along. Once back at the vehicles we had our usual celebratory beer for everyone who did the ride and helped the first timers make the loop! Congrats to Kim W, Bob A, Nora l, and David L For making their first loop on this on iconic ride.A huge thanks to Steve P, DC5, Robin R, Cintsy S, Jerry A, Gary H, and Nancy and Charlie Doval for volunteering their time to make this ride possible for the first timers. Without these folks constant support and encouragement throughout the course it would keep a lot of folks from even considering this challenging ride. There is nothing like coming down Meyers Grade and seeing the beautiful coastline looking south. It makes all the hard effort worth it.
Enjoy the day,
Dennis
