El Dorado Trail

Yesterday we found ourselves with an empty house: one kid was working and the other was at a friend's basketball tournament. We decided to head out for a ride on the El Dorado Trail.

We started at Missouri Flat Road and headed east towards Camino Heights. Jen's geared bike is in Tahoe, so we took the single speeds.

With 1500 feet of climbing, this was definitely the toughest ride Jen has done on a single speed thus far, and she did great. The nice thing about the trail is the grade is fairly constant due to it being an old railroad grade. You can see the profile here.

The trail consists of paved sections, some dirt, a trip through old Placerville, another paved section and then a couple miles of dirt to the end.

It was tough climbing towards the top with the loose gravel, but she was still smiling.

We turned around at the top and enjoyed over seven miles of mostly uninterrupted downhill back through Placerville. After a few more miles with a couple climbs we were back at the truck.

Jen was a bit apprehensive about taking the single speed, but I think the ride showed her what she is capable of on a bike. She is much stronger than she thinks, especially when the road tilts up.

Later.