Latest on River Road

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Anonymous's picture
Anonymous

"Took a ride up River Road on Saturday, 3/21. Had to do it alone since Maurice the Marxist Cyclist was marching in a war protest on Madison Square and Raisehellfrida the Mud Maiden is off in Calistoga, California, vacationing at the mud baths.

The avalanche that blocked River Road about 3/4ths of a mile south of the last long climb is still there. A bunch of boulders fell, taking out a few trees with them. The place needs to be cleared by a team of wood cutters and stone cutters. Major mess. I suppose you could climb over it, but that's a whole new sport -- mountain climbing with a bike on your back.

You can still have a pretty nice ride going to the avalanche and then doubling back the way you came. But warning: Much of the road is littered with fallen rocks, ranging from the size of an axe handle to a Belgian paving block. Depending which angle the sun is shining from they're either easy to spot, or they come up out of the dark and attack your tires when you're least expecting them. Not to mention that the south end of River Road is so screwed up with pits, pocks, cracks and trenches, it's more suitable for a mountain bike than a road bike.

Watch carefully. I hit one rock and almost went over. Good thing I didn't. While I was back in Montenegro, I had the dings on my Colnago retouched out by Istvan, the village art forger. I'd hate to get any new ones. It's a long way to home.

So watch those rocks, dude. An ancient Montenegrin guerilla fighter slogan should serve as a warning: ""A rock in time saves a bullet.""

Well, that's it. I'm off to go bicycling in George Bush country. Yes, Yale and then Richman's Bunk Port, Maine, and then Texas. Maybe I'll write from there.

Your Pal,
Etoain"

Anonymous's picture
JP (not verified)
RR is ... RR!

Hello E.,

Yeah, RR is a bit of a mess, but only a bit more than usual, plus the rock slide.

A few more pot holes and some rocks scattered here and there. Twigs and branches too. It seems rocks fall and bowl down tree parts too. So, you have to slow up a bit on the descents and avoid tree parts. A giant boulder really ripped down some large trees and had created an obstacle: a 12 feet long section across the entire road. My group donned cleat covers, slung our bikes and “waded” across it. It took about 1 minutes to cross and ain’t so bad.

We did hill repeats on Sheriff’s Hill (the last hill north) from the boat basin up to the station, instead of the entire length of RR. I spoke with several riders – men and women – who had ridden up and negotiated the obstacle. No problems. So, a bit more inconvenience, but doable.

My one concern: being there during a rock fall. Yeoww!

Anonymous's picture
Jim Zisfein (not verified)

"Here's a photo of the Alpine rockslide on River Road, from 3/21:

http://5bbc.org/images/landslide2.jpg

You can climb over it. At least, I did.

-Jim"

Anonymous's picture
Mark Loftis (not verified)
River Road almost cleared

As of Tuesday morning, everything had been cleared except for the large boulder to the left of the bike in the photo. [See link in previous post.] You do not have to dismount your bike to get around it but the road is in bad shape. There were workers unloading equipment as I rode by so I assume they took care of it today.

Anonymous's picture
John Z (not verified)
Just Be Careful

I was over doing repeats this afternoon. Yes, it is about cleared but be careful.

Anonymous's picture
Chris T (not verified)
Weather Report Suite = Rocky Road.

Last week on the Weather Channel, they remarked that New York City has had two consecutive years with 40 inches or more of snow. This is the first time this has happened since the late 1940's. Add in the extreme cold snaps in January, there was more significant widening of cracks, resulting in two spectacular landslides. My guess is that we will see more little slides as the spring goes on.

Also the road on the Alpine climb has gotten a lot of erosion this winter. It's not as bad as Perkins drive, but it's on its way, so take those decents much slower during hill repeats.

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