How lucky we are

Looking out over the mountains at Royal Gorge

 We drove up to Donner Lake on Saturday night for a day of cross country skiing on Sunday.  We were very, very lucky with the weather since it hadn't snowed in weeks and things were looking bleak, but we got 8 inches of snow Saturday night and had a perfect day of skiing.  I chose to skate while Claire, Greg, and Cheri strided.  Here is a link to my skating. 

The next morning, Monday,  Claire and I got up at 4:30 in the morning and drove back to Sonoma County for A1's birthday ride.  Aaron had chosen a loop over Sweetwater and up to the top of Mill Creek Road and back.  It ended up being around 52 miles long with plenty of climbing.  We started the ride with 8 people and ended up climbing Mill Creek with 6 people.   For those of you who haven't climbed Mill Creek, it is a dead end road that climbs up around 10 miles from Westside Road outside of Healdsburg.  For the most part the climb is pretty gradual until the final mile or so.  This part is referred  to as "The Ladder" and pitches upwards at over 20% for most of it.  I had only been to the top once before, and most of the others hadn't been up there before.  It was definitely a grunt at the end.

The top of Mill Creek (after climbing The Ladder)
Paul is taking the picture so you can't see him.