It’s my party, and I will cry if I want to. You would cry too, if you were sixty-two!

I suppose for some people turning 62 is enough to make a grown man cry, but for me each year is exciting because I am blessed with good health.  I have a tradition of biking my age in miles.  We decided to do the birthday ride yesterday.  Anne had already let me open my birthday gift, a new Garmin Edge 500 cycling gps/computer.  It not only lets me know our speed, distance, but also you can download the the files after and see where you went.

The hardest aspect is not biking 62 miles, but figuring out what route to take so we end up with exactly 62.0 miles.  The prior week we scoped out a ride and realized we could do a slight modification to get what we wanted.

Three Lakes and a Free Lunch

We came up with a route where we could actually view three different lakes, stop for lunch and end up close to 62 miles.   We started out in the morning and headed to do the Canada/Roop Road Loop.  We took the side road out Coyote Lake, the first lake on our journey.  After descending down back to the valley, it was into a stiff head wind to Morgan Hill for a climb up Thomas Grade, then down far enough to view Anderson Lake.  We were getting hungry by now so we headed back down to the valley and biked over to one of our favorite spots for lunch, Erik’s Deli in Morgan Hill.  I just happen to have filled my card with 10 stamps so we were able to get a free lunch.

After lunch we did a loop around the Reservoir and stopped for a picture along our third lake, Chesbro.  This map shows our route and stops along the way.

After the last picture stop, we headed back up Blue Bell, then down Mantelli and back home.  We pulled into the driveway with exactly 62.0 miles on the odomoter.

Tri-Sport Birthday and Dinner (but not free)

With the 62 mile birthday ride already finished yesterday, what were we to do today, on my birthday?  How about doing 3 sports?

We headed out in the morning for a 6 mile run.  The air was a bit cool but still plenty warm enough to run in shorts.  In the late morning we took our road bikes  out for a nice 25 mile ride.  I really wanted to set some new record today but breaking my PRs is getting tough.  I found a website for using my new Garmin Edge 500. When you upload files there, it sees where you went, and checks your time over certain climbs.  It then ranks you with other riders.  Oh, that would be perfect so I found one climb on the route we were taking.  I checked out the best time so far on that short, but steep climb up Mantelli. It was 4:55.  I thought I could beat that time.  As you can see, I claimed the King of the Mountain spot after uploading my data to the Strava site.

After testing my 62 year old heart on that fast climb, we headed up to Morgan Hill for lunch, again at our favorite spot.  After biking home, that was enough sports for one day for Anne.  But I wanted to do one more sport, so I went mountain biking with a group of about 6 buddies.

Using my new Garmin GPS, I was able to see on a map where we mountain biked.

After doing all those sports, I was starved.  I cut the mountain bike ride a bit short and before 7 pm we were off to have a nice dinner, which capped off a great birthday.

This picture was at the summit of a long climb. I forgot how steep this canyon is but you can see from this profile.

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We then headed down the backside, an area I have never biked to before. We saw a expansive development over there, looking like large estates, but it was hard to see any buildings. We did see a private lake and a private golf course.

The climb back up the backside is was not as steep. Ann proved she is only 39 years old.

After reaching the summit again, we had a steep descent back down to the Ranch.

We were greeted upon arrival by some friends who were NOT looking forward to Thanksgiving.

For dinner we returned to eat at the Forge in the Forest, in Carmel. It was a wonderful dinner, sitting outside with an outdoor fireplace. After returned back to the Ranch we started the fireplace in our room.The next day we headed over to Monterey and parked the van. On our bikes we headed towards Pebble Beach on the 17 mile drive

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We stopped on the way by the Spanish Bay entrance.

It is beautiful along the 17 mile drive

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At Pebble Beach we bought a sandwich at the market and enjoyed it on the nearby picnic tables.

We then got ready for the ride back along the same route.

It was a fun two days with very nice weather for early November.