Anderson Gap

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.