Strawberry Fields Forever Century

I did my last of 5 scheduled group rides yesterday.  It was Strawberry Fields Forever, which went up the Santa Cruz mountains, along the coast and said strawberry fields, and then rumbling through the hilly and potholed mountain roads.  It felt great to be riding in this area again; I used to ride Eureka canyon and San Jose Soquel road many times when I lived in Los Gatos. The day was 103 miles and 6500 vertical feet, with some of it at 15% grade and much of it potholed from the winter rains. I didn't take any pictures of these, as it was al bone-jarring.

I met up with two of my teammates for the AIDS ride.  Evan is in the center and Joe on the right; Peter was at a family wedding and couldn't make it. We'll all be together early Sunday morning for the ride, though.

I did go light on pictures during this ride; I spent a bit too much time taking photos of the scenery the previous weekend. One that I could not pass up was the food at the Gidzich Ranch rest stop, a well-known pie destination.  They had fresh apple pie and apple juice, as you can see below. It was very welcome at mile 82.

They had a wonderful backdrop for photo ops at the ends of the ride.  The pictures speak for themselves in this case. A two hour drive is a long distance to do to get there for 7 AM. I don't think I'll do this ride again,