| October 22, 2008 |
Yes, I'm still alive... Sorry for the lack of updates over
the last few months. Moving and getting settled in has been surprisingly
busy (plus we had a lot of friends visiting to check out the new
location). Things are going well though, and now that the Winter
weather will be arriving soon (keeping me indoors) I can spend some time
working on revamping the web site. The bicycling material will be
here for a while to help cover the many links to this web site... but
eventually it will shift focus more to photography. I may still keep
the maps going - perhaps with some new rides in the Ashland / Rogue Valley
area (this is still largely dependant on the amount of time I can get to
develop the maps - which are very time-consuming to make).
The photography pages will be updated first... I have a accumulated lot
of really terrific ones from the Oregon Coast, the nearby Siskiyou
Mountains and the Ashland / Talent / Rogue Valley area. I think
you'll be pleased with the photos.
More to come soon... |
| May 30, 2008 |
The first of three sites using the Beautifulvista bicycling
maps is up and running. The maps can be found through the Gold
Country Cyclery web site (follow their main page link on the left for
"Local Cycling Maps"... or the maps themselves can be obtained
directly here).
In my honest opinion, Gold Country Cyclery is probably the best shop
specializing in Tandems and Recumbents in Northern California (and they're
local!). If you're interested in these kinds of bikes, you
definitely owe it to yourself to check them out.
As my move up to Oregon kicks into high gear next week (the first week
of June), I may be a little slow to respond to emails. I promise I
will get to them as soon as I possibly can.
|
| May 21, 2008 |
As I mentioned at the beginning of the year, this web site
will be going through some significant changes in the coming months (and
perhaps through the remaining year). Part of this is due to the fact
that I will be moving out of the area next month and heading up to
southern Oregon.
It is really with a lot of mixed feelings on this... I'm giving up a
lot that has become so familiar... my house (with the beautiful vista as
shown above - hence the name of this site), the many friends whom I've
come to know and greatly admire over the years, and certainly this lovely
area that invites so many wonderful activities that are documented
throughout the dozens and dozens of pages on this site.
Going forward, the bike maps will stay local to this area... there's no
sense for me to "own" the maps while I live in a different
region. I've given the map sources to several individuals who've
promised to keep the bicycling maps alive and to help promote this
wonderful sport in this area. The maps will remain on this site
until the other web sites can get them up and running (I will post a
notice when this happens). As always, the maps will be free to all.
The Photography section will travel to Oregon with me... as well as the
remainder of this web site. I'm not sure yet if there will be a new
bicycling section for southern Oregon... we'll see how things go once I
get up there.
It's been a pleasure to have created and managed this site over the
last 8 years... it's grown considerably during this time, and I've enjoyed
the wonderful emails that I've received from literally all over the world
(including many parts of Europe and Asia) - which I found both surprising
and exciting. I've also enjoyed hearing from new cyclist discovering
El Dorado County for the first time, and to hear of their stories and
adventures.
And finally - most of all - many thanks to all of you who made this
possible.
Best wishes,
Charles
|
| April 22, 2008 |
The El Dorado Trial map has been updated to show the new
paved section (which is terrific if you haven't been on it yet!).
You can find the map here...
or go the the Bike Rides page and click on El Dorado Trail link.
|
| April 9, 2008 |
I've added 6 wonderful photographs to the Outdoors
Photos page... I think you'll enjoy them... very scenic
photos! You may notice that I'm starting to use larger
thumbnails... the previous ones were a bit small to see the content.
Some readers have suggested that I should mention that my house
is up for sale... it has a spectacular view (IMHO - one of the best views
in El Dorado County) and 6 acres of land... a lot of photos on the
Outdoors Photos page (above) were taken from the house.... you can see
more photos here...
If interested, please contact me,
and I'll send you the details.
Update: I've received a PDF Flyer on the house from
my Realtor... you can see it here.
|
| March 25, 2008 |
The Wednesday Evening Bike rides have resumed!
Everyone is welcome to join in... bicycle helmets are required. See
the Schedule
for the current list of rides. All rides (with the exception of
March 26th ride) start promptly at 6:00pm. The March 26th ride
starts a little earlier (due to the shorter day) at 5:30pm. |
| March 7, 2008 |
Daylight Savings is coming this next weekend... and
the Wednesday Evening Bike Rides are not far behind! I'll post a
schedule as soon as it becomes available.
There are some spectacular photos added to the Outdoors
Photos page... one dozen (!) total... these are from a recent trip to
the Oregon Coast... and a side trip to the Sacramento Wildlife
Refuge. I think you'll really enjoy these! |
| February 5, 2008 |
Whew... we've had quite a series of storms roll
through here... It's been a cold, wet, windy winter to date. Photos
are at a minimum right now, but I did manage to add three photos in this
period that I think came out exceptionally well. They're posted on
the Outdoors
Photos page... take a look and let me know your thoughts on them. |
| January 22, 2008 |
Three new photos were added to the Outdoors
Photos page. The one of the sun's rays and birds came out
especially well... one of my favorites to date.
This web site will be going through some changes in 2008... more
details to come next month... so stay tuned! |
| November 9, 2007 |
Added some new photos to the Outdoors
Photos page. There are some really spectacular photos in here...
so check it out! |
| October 14, 2007 |
I uploaded a few photos from today's ride in the High
Sierras. The weather was spectacular - as well as the Fall
colors. You can see the photos here... |
| October 9, 2007 |
The Wednesday Evening Bike Rides for 2007 have ended
(evenings are too short now). Fortunately though there is a special
ride coming up on Sunday October 14th... this is the Sierra Fall Colors
Bike Ride. Starts at 11am... meeting places is next to the
intersection of Blue Lake Road and Highway 88 (parking available along
Blue Lake Road) |
| Sept. 4, 2007 |
The bike trip slideshow has been updated with
higher-resolution photos (up to 1600 x 1200 pixels). The photo is a
little more focused on the bike trip itself (the original slideshow
had some additional photos). You can see the updated slideshow
at:
http://picasaweb.google.com/crlee125/2007_Bike_Trip_Slideshow_HD
For best viewing:
1. Use the slideshow button (top left above the
photos)... and...
2. Change the slide rate from 4 seconds (default) to 8
seconds once the slideshow starts (move your mouse pointer over the slide
and you'll see the setting). This way you'll have time to read the
captions and see the photos.
Total time for the slideshow is about 15 minutes at the 8 seconds
per slide setting. You can pause along the way as needed.
I plan to post some individual photos in high-resolution on this
website in a few weeks. As you'll see there's some really beautiful
ones in there - especially the Oregon coast in the second half of the
slideshow (Some are absolutely amazing on a wide-screen
monitor).
|
August 14, 2007 |
We're back! I've spent the past 5+ weeks up in the
Northwest (Oregon, Washington, British Columbia)... most of the time was
on a bike trip through the area. There's a LOT of great photos
coming shortly... we took over 2000 photos. Now the sorting begins, and
we're pulling out the best ones for the web site for you to enjoy.
Hopefully they'll be available in a few days. (The bike trip was
absolutely fantastic!).
In the meantime, the Wednesday
Evening Bike Ride schedule has been updated. So feel free to
wander over and see where we're meeting next. |
| May 6, 2007 |
Four new photos added to the Group
Ride Photos web page. These were from the Cronan Ranch Mountain
Bike Ride a few weeks ago. It's a really beautiful area, and the
early Spring weather made it an ideal time to go. |
| May 5, 2007 |
Eleven new photos were added to the Outdoors
web page today. These are all taken since the beginning of this
year. Some photos are local... and others are from a recent trip to
Yosemite (at the end of March). Check them out... I think you'll
really enjoy them.
Note: If you visited this page before and don't see the new 2007
photos, you may want to hit the "Reload" button... sometimes the
browsers don't update correctly. |
| March 12, 2007 |
Good news! The Wednesday Evening Bike Rides have
started early this year (due to the earlier time change). The first
ride starts this Wednesday (March 14th).
In other news, I've been taking a lot of photos over the winter, and
hope to post some of them here in the next week or two. Of
particular interest is "HDR" or High Dynamic Range photos where
several photos of different exposures are layered together to give a very
vivid output. I'll update this page when they get posted. |
| Nov. 20, 2006 |
Added two photos from yesterday's ride that are very
unusual. You can see them on the Group
Bike Ride Photos web page. |
| Nov. 18, 2006 |
I've added some new photos (from this year) to the Outdoors
web page today. I'm starting to use a new camera (and better lens),
and I'm also posting the photos in a slightly larger size (1200 x 800
pixels), so the images are even better than before. |
| October 30, 2006 |
Sorting through all the photos from the Great Parks North
Tour (Canadian and northern US Rockies) is finally finished. It took
a lot longer than expected, but they turned out exceptionally well.
Rather than put the photos on a page where you have to click each one
individually, I decided to put them in a Slideshow format (via Picasa).
With the number of photos, I broke them into 3 separate slideshows (each
averages about 5 minutes with a high-speed internet connection... dial-up
will take longer). For best viewing, when you click on the links
below, maximize your window and then click on the "Slideshow"
button just above the photos. The photos will then scale to the size
of your display, and you'll get the best viewing possible.
The photos (and slideshow) are also downloadable, with good enough
resolution for computer images and web sites. Enjoy! :-)
|
| October 22, 2006 |
The Canadian Rockies Bicycle trip (otherwise known as the
"Great Parks North Tour") photos took a lot longer to sort
though than expected. The photos are finally finished, and will be
in the process of uploading shortly. There should be some other
photos added to this site soon... I also have some really nice scenic
shots from this year that have been accumulating... just need a little
spare time to get them sorted and arranged. Everything should be
done in a few weeks... hang in there... |
| August 14, 2006 |
Just returned from a two week bicycle trip in the Canadian
Rockies... to say it was spectacular would be the understatement of the
Century. The ride was from Jasper (Alberta) to Whitefish Montana...
a distance of over 650 miles. There were 6 major passes to cross -
and most of the time we (a total of 13 cyclist) were bicycling in National
Parks. There are many stories to tell... but most of all, the photos
to share. I took a tremendous amount of photos (over 1,000)... so
bear with me while I sort through them and pick out the best (some are
really spectacular!). They should be posted here by the end of the
month (I hope). |
| April 22, 2006 |
Whew! I got caught unguarded... my PC crashed big
time, and for several weeks I was without a PC completely... so there were
no updates to this site during this time. Just tonight I have
everything back up and running (I think).
On the positive side... my link to cyberspace has been updated to use
real space (satellite ISP via WildBlue... which seems to be terrific so
far... especially for those of us in the countryside that can't get cable
or DSL). Strange to think that I can communicate with a satellite
from my house... there's always an initial 0.6 second delay, but after
that... boom! The pages come flying down incredibly fast. Much
better than dial-up at 28 kbps (the satellite connection is about 20x
faster). |
| March 18, 2006 |
The Wednesday Evening Bike Ride schedule for 2006 has been
posted... well at least the first three rides! First ride starts
April 6 at Spaghetti Factory (corner of Hazel and Folsom Blvd near Folsom)
at 6:00 pm. Dates for the Party Pardee and Wildflower Centuries have
also been added to the list. |
| January 1, 2006 |
Happy New Year to Everyone! May it bring you
only the best things in life!
The web site has been undergoing small minute changes recently... most
people won't see the differences. Mostly minor corrections, wording,
etc... I also have some new photos that I plan to upload soon.
I've been doing some exploring recently in areas adjacent to El
Dorado... mainly Sacramento (including the Delta region), and near Davis /
Vacaville. The latter bears special mention... there is a terrific Map
you can download for free that covers West Sacramento (including the
Delta) all the way westward to Winters and Vacaville. This map shows
recommended bike routes, traffic conditions, and points out where steep
hills are. Someone did an excellent job - and I highly recommend it for
bicyclist interested in exploring this area.
Be forewarned, the file is about 3 MB in size, and is meant to be
printed on large paper (you can print sections of interest though using
Adobe Acrobat).. or alternatively you can drop by one of the many bike
shops listed in the map file and pick up a free (full size) printed
map. One of these days, I'll have to find out how this was done...
I'd love to do the same for El Dorado County. |
| October 19, 2005 |
I was in Malaysia last week on business, but got several
opportunities to get out and see the local sights. I've never been
to Malaysia before, but I found myself thoroughly enjoying my visit
there. The Malaysian people are very, very friendly and the local
sights are beautiful. I've posted a few photos from the trip on the Trips and Travel page. |
| October 2, 2005 |
A couple of quick notes:
 | The Wednesday Evening rides have ended for the season - but check
with Placerville Bike Shop (530-622-3015) for details on the Fall Color
Bike Ride (Sunday - October 16, 2005) |
| More photos added to Trips and Travel page - both from a recent trip
to Europe and a Kayak/Canoe trip earlier this summer. |
| Be sure to check out the Glacier Bike Trip page... there's about 50
new photos there - most of which are truly spectacular (I can't claim
credit for this... it's hard to go wrong in such beautiful
country!). |
|
| Sept. 24, 2005 |
I just finished uploading photos from the Glacier Bike Trip
(mentioned below) to the site. There were so many wonderful photos, that I
had to put them on a special page. Hope you enjoy them! Link
to page is: Glacier Bike
Trip ... you can also find this page through the other photos
web pages on this site. |
| August 22, 2005 |
Whew! Just got back from a fantastic bike trip through
the Rocky Mountains in Montana, British Columbia and Alberta.
Have a ton of photos that have to be sorted through, but I promise you
that some of these are absolutely spectacular. I hope to post the
photos in the next week or two. I'll put out an update here when
they become available on this site. |
| July 28, 2005 |
I'm not sure where my mind went... I forgot completely to
mention this... The Slug Gulch / Fairplay Ride on the 20th of July was
great... but even better was the BBQ/potluck at Single Leaf Winery that
followed. Many, many thanks to Scott and Pam at Single Leaf Winery
who set everything up, and let us BBQ and Wine taste... Scott brought out
some spectacular Port afterwards... everyone had a great time!
Thanks again! |
| July 24, 2005 |
We went from Winter to Summer in a matter of days this
year. June was cool, but July is extremely hot. Bicycling has
gone from afternoons to early mornings. One ride bears special
mention... Iron
Mountain Rd... if you get an early start, you can get up to the higher
elevations (7,000 ft or so) and enjoy really pleasant weather. We did that
today with friends, and while it was in the 100's in Sacramento, it was in
the upper 70's to low 80's near the summit of this ride. Can't tell
you how nice it is up there! :-) |
| June 21, 2005 |
Happy Summers Solstice! A couple of general items... We've
had an amazing amount of rain this year... about double that of last
year. Our digital rain gauge worked well until the last few storms
where it finally gave out at 48 inches of rain. Assuming that the
last few storms added another 4 inches, that puts us at 52 inches - double
the 26 inches we received last year (a dry year). In the 16 years
I've lived here, I don't think I've ever seen so much rain.
The other item worth mentioning... I have a new bike! This is the
Gold Rush Replica (GRR) - an excellent long wheelbase recumbent that's
ideal for touring (comfortable + a super-wide gear range). You can
see a photo of me on the new bike here
at Sly Park. |
| May 17, 2005 |
In doing some on-line searches for a friend, I was surprised
to find this excellent Folsom
Area Bike Map (note: large file ~ 2MB).
The map covers from Hazel Avenue to near Folsom Dam - and everything
in-between! Check out the photo at the bottom of Page 1 (in front of
Intel)... yep... that's yours truly with the recumbent. This photo
was taken a few years ago (on a very cold day) as a bike promotion... I
had forgotten completely about it. |
| May 15, 2005 |
Because of the long winter (rain) we're having this year,
the wildflowers are spectacular! I've added a photo we saw today
while bicycling near Fairplay. You can see it on the Bicycle
Photos Page (scroll down to Fairplay Region)... or you can get it
directly here. |
| May 13, 2005 |
Bizarre weather this spring! Last Monday, it hailed so
hard it looked like snow (Welcome to Sunny California!). The strange
weather has shifted a couple of rides around... see the Wednesday
Evening Bike Ride schedule for further details... some rides
that were rained out have been re-scheduled. Hopefully we'll be
getting some decent riding weather soon. |
| May 2, 2005 |
The name for the group has been decided! There were a
lot of great suggestions... the winner is: Hangtown Velo Many
thanks to everyone who sent in suggestions and ideas for the group
name. Placerville Bike Shop is working on bicycling jerseys for
those who are interested (if you are, contact the shop at:
530-622-3015). The jersey design looks very attractive! On a side note, I just purchased a new "sub-compact" camera
for bicycling. Previously I was using the Canon Digital Rebel (6
MPix), but found the camera rather large to carry at times. The new
(second) camera is a Casio EX-Z750 - which is 7 MPix - and takes really
great photos - and is about the size of a credit card. To see a
sample of this new camera's capabilities in photographs, look at: Single
Leaf Winery Early Spring 2005 (note: large file: 590 kB). A
second note: This
is about 1/7 the resolution of the original = otherwise it'd take
forever to download - and still (depending on your monitor) you may have
to scroll around to see the entire image! |
| April 7, 2005 |
The Wednesday
Evening Bike Rides have started! Check the schedule to see the
latest rides. Everyone is welcome (helmets required!).
A new photo was added to the Outdoor
Photos page. I shot this on April 1st... and it's a beautiful early
dawn photo! |
| March 28, 2005 |
The last of the broken links should be fixed now and
everything is working as it should. This transfer was a pretty
hectic process (and several very late nights re-writing file names and
links), but the site should be better than before. If you find any
broken links, please be sure to email me (use the "Contact" link
at the far left). |
| March 27, 2005 |
Happy Easter! I think this is my favorite
holiday... partially because Spring is coming, the days are getting
longer, wildflowers out in bloom, family get-togethers... not to mention
the (relatively) lack of commercialization of this day. Somehow,
this always seems to bring out the best in everything.
The beautifulvista web site is slowly being rebuilt. About
1/2 of the bike rides are back on-line... most of the photos are
back, and the Wednesday Evening Ride Schedule is up and running.
There was a second problem with file names... no apostrophes allowed in
the name either (along with no spaces allowed). As such, I'm
renaming a lot of files before they can be shown... and this is slowing
down the transfer. Still, progress is being made, and I hope the
website can return to a somewhat normal resemblance of it's formal self
before next weekend. |
| March 25, 2005 |
The beautifulvista.com domain has been transferred
successfully to the new server - and email seems to be working again... However...
all the files (web pages, bike maps, photos) did not transfer... as such I
have to move each file individually... which will take time. To add
insult to injury... some of the files have to be renamed (and re-linked)
as spaces are not permitted in the file names with the new server.
This process is going to take several days to complete... there's a lot of
stuff in here... so please bear with me on this. |
| March 22, 2005 |
Update: Transfer has started - and may take
up to 2 days to complete. My email may stop working at some point...
if so - try beautifulvista@sbcglobal.net
as an alternate. I'll let everyone know when the transfer is
completed.
I'm still having trouble with this site's Internet Service
Provider (ISP), and I will most likely change services shortly.
Hopefully the transition will go smoothly - I'll update the news here when
everything is completed.
|
| March 20, 2005 |
The first 6 rides for the 2005
Wednesday Evening Bike Ride group (yet to be named) is available. I
also archived the 2004
rides in case anyone wants to see what was done last year.
We've received some new entries for the group's name - and they've been
added to the list - keep those clever ideas coming! Express your creative
side! Have fun! |
| March 18, 2005 |
There's a challenge on the Wednesday
Evening Bike Ride page... find a name for our group!
There's some fun entries so far... so put on your thinking cap and
enter the one that wins everyone's heart.
Two new photos added... I took these last weekend... and I think both
are very beautiful in their own quiet way. You can see them at the
top of the Outdoors
Photo web page. |
| March 17, 2005 |
Good news! The Internet Service Provider (which hosts
this site) has graciously agreed to extend the available storage (by a
factor of 6 times!). So look to see new photos and bike rides in the
upcoming months. |
| March 7, 2005 |
Well, apparently I did go over the limit - and
several emails sent to this website got rejected in the last few days...
if you sent in an email, and haven't heard back, please send it in
again. It should be fixed now.
In other news, the Wednesday Evening Bike Rides should be starting up
in April (usually the first Wednesday after going to Daylight Savings
Time). The routes haven't been decided yet, but should in the next
few weeks... so check back regularly to see the latest information.
I'll post something on this page when the 2005 rides become available. |
| March 1, 2005 |
All the photos pages have been updated now with new
photographs. Check
it out! I've managed to keep some of the older photos in there
too... hopefully my Internet Service Provider won't complain too much...
I'm sure I'm running into the web site limit now. |
| February 28, 2005 |
Two of the photo pages have been updated... one is the Recent
Trips and Travel page which covers our Oregon Bike Tour from last
summer. The other is the Group
Ride Photos page which now includes the recent Big Sur Bike
ride. Both have some really good photos worth checking
out. The Home Construction page was removed (it was a few years old
anyway) in order to make room for all the new photos.
I hope to update the remaining three photo pages later this week. |
| February 27, 2005 |
The photos pages are in need of updating. I took over
3,000 photos last year (not all bicycling of course), and not one has been
posted! A big error on my part. So the pages will be going
through revisions the next few weeks. Please be patient if you get a
"page under construction" message. I'll try to keep the
down time to an absolute minimum. Some of the new photos are really
terrific, so please check back.
The Bicycle Centuries are starting to take reservations now. Two
personal favorites are the "Party
Pardee" a 100km (62 mile) ride near Ione, and the "Wildflower
Century" a 100 mile ride near Chico. Both are excellent
rides - both are in April - and both are highly recommended. There's
shorter versions of each ride if you're not ready to go the full distance. |
| October 5, 2004 |
Several minor updates to various pages, and revision of
"Local Weather" link on the Links Page. The latter has a
new format, and I put in a link to the "prototype" page, which
looks pretty impressive at this time. The link may change in the
near future, but it's pretty good at this point. |
| Sept. 28, 2004 |
Another new bike ride is now available. This is the Fairplay
- Fiddletown Loop - and there are actually two variations of this ride
on the map. The first is 20 miles, and the second is 24 miles.
Both are wonderful - and take you past vineyards, ranches and some very
old (and interesting) buildings in Fiddletown (which is actually a 100
yard detour from the ride). I had the opportunity to bicycle both
loops this month, and have thoroughly enjoyed riding through this
area. Definitely worth checking out. |
| Sept. 2, 2004 |
A new bike ride has been posted today. The Wednesday
Evening Bike Group had a chance to try it yesterday, and it seemed to be a
success... everyone had a good time. This is a mountain bike ride
(about 4.6 of the 14 miles is unpaved), it's very beautiful, and for the
most part, relatively light in traffic. Check out the Ghost
Mountain Loop... Mountain Bikes are required because of the unpaved
section. |
| August 5, 2004 |
Back from the Oregon Bicycle Tour. We traveled from
Eugene north to Portland, then over to Astoria and down the coast to
Reedsport. Total distance was about 520 miles in slightly less than
two weeks (we were fully self-supported carrying our own gear). It
was a wonderful trip, and I'm currently sorting though the 400+ photos we
took along the way. I hope to post some here in the near future... some of
the photos are spectacular! If you ever have the chance to ride the
Oregon coast - please do it!!! It's wonderful!!!
As far as new rides go, a ride around Lake Tahoe to check the map is
planned later this month, so hopefully this will be posted near the end of
this month. Also a second ride is being worked on (a 12 mile
Mountain Bike ride up Slate Mtn). This one is causing me a few
headaches as the map software is not quite correct, and I'll have to
re-ride it again to double check it. |
| July 15, 2004 |
I'm running against the limit of storage space for the web
site. So it looks like there will be some restructuring coming...
mostly the removal of non-bicycling related photos which should free up
more space. The photos from our home building have been up here for
a while, so these will probably be the first to go... after returning from
a much needed vacation (a two-week bike tour of Oregon).
There are three bike rides maps in the works... which I (hopefully)
will post in August. |
| May 28, 2004 |
More photos
added from the Single Springs - French Creek Ride last Wednesday. I
really love this ride... the area around Brandon / French Creek is truly
marvelous. |
| May 16, 2004 |
Some new photos from the Thompson Hill Ride (4 days ago)
have been added to the Group
Rides Photo Page. This is a fun ride with one good climb (up
Lotus Rd), some terrific views on Thompson Hill Rd, and an amazingly fun
downhill on Highway 49 back to Coloma. Definitely an
"E-Ticket" ride... |
| April 12, 2004 |
I'm trying out a new cyclometer that records your ride and
then you can view the results on your PC. So far, it seems to work
pretty well. I'll be adding the elevation profiles from the
Wednesday Evening Bike Rides as we go through the season (at least those
that I make it to the ride). The results will be posted along with
the Wednesday Evening Bike Ride Schedule. |
| March 10, 2004 |
A few new photos have been added... two to the Outdoors
Photos web page
Clouds
and Islands
Lake
Tahoe from the air
and one to the El Dorado Bike Ride Photos Web page (Placerville
section)
Early
Spring on French Creek Rd
And in the "Most Welcome" department, the upcoming
Wednesday Evening Bike Ride Schedule for April - May has been
posted. Spring is here! (YES!) |
| February 25, 2004 |
The email and website for Madrona Vineyards was
updated.
With all the rain and wind we've been having recently we haven't had much
chance to get out. Hopefully this cluster of storms will give us a
break this weekend... everyone here is anxious to get out and do some
riding! |
| January 29, 2004 |
Yes, we're still here... things have been quiet on the
bicycling front. Days are short (and recently cold!) and so are the
rides. The High Sierra rides planned to put on this site are on hold
until later this year after the snow melts (probably early summer).
A lot of the documentation is already done, but it needs to be verified. |
| October 21, 2003 |
Well... for the most effort per mile in developing a map,
the El Dorado Trail wins hands down. Actually this was a group
effort with contributions from many people (you know who you are!).
The trail map is now on the web ( El
Dorado Trail ) and we think you'll find it useful. Certainly the
trail is a special part of our area... one that will most likely grow in
time along with the everyone who uses it. Really a special treat. |
| October 19, 2003 |
Whew! Finally got the photo pages updated with more
recent photos. Lots of fun stuff... and some very spectacular
scenery. |
| October 16, 2003 |
Photos from the Big Sur Bike Ride added to the Group Bike
Ride page. This was a two day bike ride down the coast from Monterey
to near Morro Bay. |
| October 15, 2003 |
After spending much time on the maps, I realized that the
photos were getting out of date. New to the site is a web page with
group ride photos from this year (with more coming shortly!). One of the
rides was just done last weekend... a very spectacular and wonderful ride
in the High Sierras to see the Fall Colors. Take a look at it here
(or go the the Photos link in the left column). Also coming shortly
are photos from the bike ride down the Big Sur coast. |
| October 8, 2003 |
We did a wonderful 2-day bike trip down the coast from
Monterey to near Morro Bay on Highway 1. Fantastic bicycling...
beautiful scenery along the entire way. I'll try to post some photos
this weekend. If you ever have a chance to do this ride, by all
means do it! You'll be truly amazed.
The Placerville Bike Path map is pretty much completed, but am waiting
for final feedback (from a variety of users) before it gets
published. Certainly it's the most detailed map I've done so far
(and probably the most time spent going through revisions).
Finally, I'm experimenting with a handheld GPS unit to see if it'll
assist me in documenting rides. It has a built-in (actually
downloadable) map database, and so far it's been terrific as far as it's
speed/distance accuracy... and for finding new routes while
bicycling. The altitude/elevation profile is generated from
the map database, and here lies a problem... it's not as accurate as the
Topo software I've been using to generate the elevation profiles for this
site. Looks like I'll be using a combination of the two for future
rides. If you have had experience using GPS (plusses and minuses), I
would love to hear of what you think about this technology. |
| Sept 22, 2003 |
Fall is arriving... the Wednesday Evening Rides have ended... and the weather (hopefully) will start cooling off shortly.
Some notes on what is going on at this site... There are two bike maps in
the works... one is the loop around Lake Tahoe... the other is a detailed
map of the El Dorado Trail in Placerville (the local rails-to-trails bike
path). The latter has taken priority as it is highly popular - and
there is currently no map available for the many
bicyclist/hikers/equestrians who use it daily. The map should be
available within the next week or two. The Lake Tahoe Loop Map will
be worked on following that... even though all the graphics and mileage
points are completed, it will take several weeks more to complete...
there's a lot of information to go over before it gets posted.
One final note: Apple Hill Season has started. Be careful if
deciding to bike in the popular Apple Hill area (near Camino) - especially
avoid riding on weekends with the heavy tourist traffic for this
event. Christmas tree cuttings follow the Apple Harvest... so the
roads here remain busy until near Christmas. Things quiet down
considerably after Christmas. |
| August 15, 2003 |
Added in a new link to the Bicycle Speed and Power
Calculator web site. It's great fun to play around with this...
and it seems pretty accurate too. Someone really put a lot of work
into this, and it shows. Try it out! Go to the links page and
you'll see it listed under the Bicycling Sites links. |
| August 14, 2003 |
Looks like the email is working again, though I've lost all
past correspondences. Also lost are all emails you've sent within
the last few days that I was unable to respond to (because of the computer
virus)... so if you've emailed me recently, please do so
again! I make it a point to reply to all emails, so if you haven't
heard back from me, this is the reason. |
| August 13, 2003 |
Apologies to all.... my computer got infected with the
latest virus to go around, and it's stopped my email cold. If you've
written to me recently, please be patient... I'm working on recovering
everything. |
| July 20, 2003 |
Two new rides added! Both are in El Dorado National
Forest. One starts from Highway 50 and goes to Ice House Reservoir,
the second starts there and continues to Loon Lake. The two rides
can be combined into one super ride (63 miles with 6,800' climbing!), or
take each ride individually. Both are wonderful and a camera is
recommended. These are paved roads in the forest... a great way to
escape the summertime Valley heat. |
| July 14, 2003 |
Rode around Lake Tahoe yesterday. Spectacular!
The section near Emerald Bay is truly awe inspiring. Ride is about
72 miles with 3,800 feet of climbing along the way. Personally, I
wouldn't recommend bicycling around the Lake on the weekend (which is what
we did) - there's a lot of traffic to contend with, especially on the West
side. We did see many other cyclist on the road though (and quite a few
signs asking motorist to share the road with cyclists - nice!).
Weekday riding on this loop would be a lot quieter. Documentation
has started on this ride too (that makes three maps being developed
concurrently - a record). Probably these will be completed in a
couple of weeks. |
| July 7, 2003 |
Added a few photos from the recent trips to the high country
in El Dorado National Forest. You can see them at the top of the
Bicycling Photos page. |
| July 5, 2003 |
Trying some new rides at the higher elevations. The
first ride, Ice House Reservoir to Loon Lake (40 miles round trip), was
really terrific. Despite the high mountainous elevations (some
points over 6,000 feet high), the road was wonderful to bicycle, and the
traffic surprisingly on the light side... especially for a Sunday (I had
always heard that Summer traffic was dreadful up here). This got me
wondering if traffic was like this, or I happened to just luck out.
Today I decided to test this traffic question... I rode up Ice House
Reservoir Road starting from Highway 50 (near the American River) to Ice
House Reservoir itself. Being a holiday weekend, if there was going
to be traffic, it would certainly happen now. I started at 10:00 am
and it turned out that the traffic was moderate at times (usually a line
of cars stuck behind a trailer or RV), and other times light. But
whoo boy.... the descent on the way back down to the American River...
WOW! Spectacular!!! Not many rides gives you a view like this,
with such a wonderful winding road (easy to keep up with the
traffic). I was grinning ear to ear all the way down. I hope
to post a few photos from both rides in the next week or so.
Both rides are in the process of being documented. The first will
cover from Hwy 50 to Ice House Reservoir. The second will start
there and go to Loon Lake. That way the two can be used individually
or combined for a 25, 40 or 75 mile ride depending on what you are in the
mood for. It'll probably take a few weeks to get everything set, but
stay tuned, these are two great rides! |
| June 6, 2003 |
It's here... our 30th ride! Certainly the ride around
Folsom Lake is one of the most requested rides we've received, and it's
finally available. |
| June 2, 2003 |
We rode around Folsom Lake yesterday... what a great
ride! About 53 miles and 4,440 feet of climbing. The part
going up Old Foresthill Road (instead of Highway 49) was truly wonderful
(though a little hot yesterday) with terrific views of the North American
River Canyon. There were a few surprises along the way, so the map
will have to be re-drawn to reflect the changes. With all the
information in hand, we should have this new ride up in about a week or
so. |
| May 27, 2003 |
Whew! We rode our bikes on Slug Gulch yesterday
(Memorial Day) and found out that the climb reaches 18% grade in several
locations. Certainly a good workout... but one is greatly rewarded
by the wonderful scenery (and very low traffic) along the way.
We'll be test riding the loop around Folsom Lake this Sunday (June
1). What is different in the ride is that rather than climbing
up the busy Hwy 49 from the canyon into Auburn, we'll go up the old
Foresthill Rd to the bridge, then cross the bridge into Auburn.
We'll let you know next week how it turns out. |
| May 19, 2003 |
Got a message from our web host stating that we're starting
to max out the server. As a result, there will be some
background "trimming" going on. I don't think you'll
notice any difference... mostly older files or personal photos that will
be trimmed.
Work continues on our 30th ride... around Folsom Lake (~ 46 miles).
We'll be riding it the first week in June to verify everything is correct,
and the map will probably be published shortly after that. |
| April 12, 2003 |
Finally got the new computer working and can successfully
upload files this site. In the meantime, we've been receiving
requests to document the ride around Folsom Lake (about 47 miles in
length)... work in progress... now only if the weather can
clear up a little so we can ride... |
| April 10, 2003 |
Wednesday Evening Rides have started! All rides start
at 6:00 pm. Starting location varies from week to week, so check the
schedule here. |
| April 9, 2003 |
A lot of action behind the scenes... we have a new computer
that hopefully will keep us going for the next few years. Porting
software to it though has been a nightmare. After two weeks of
installing, re-booting, and testing, we're almost there. Once
things get going again, we'll start posting some new rides.
Sometime during the month of March we passed the first anniversary for
this site. It's come a long way since the first five rides were
posted (now it's 29 rides). More rides are planned to be added,
especially this summer when we hope to document some higher elevation
rides in the Sierras. Stay tuned...
|
| March 6, 2003 |
A new ride in the Latrobe Region has been added (Latrobe -
French Creek - Green Valley Rd... approximately 39 miles total).
This is a terrific loop - great to do in the springtime when the
wildflowers are out. The first 1/3 of the ride goes though rolling
grassy hillsides where wildflowers are in full view (in Spring). The
second third of the ride follows wooded canyons. The final third of
the ride returns to rolling hillsides, and an absolutely spectacular
descent at the end of the ride. |
| February 18, 2003 |
The infamous "Georgetown Grunt" ride has been
added. This is a wonderful, scenic ride that gets most of the
difficult climbing out of the way within the first 3 miles, so don't let
the name discourage you. Yes, the Prospectors Grade is difficult,
but Georgetown is wonderful to visit, and the ride itself (despite the
initial "grunt") is really enjoyable. |
| February 16, 2003 |
The three main winery maps are now completed. I'll
probably have to do a fourth one to include wineries outside the principal
areas, but the ones completed are ready for you to download and use. |
| February 11, 2003 |
Minor updates to the Winery and Bicycling pages. I'd
be curious to see what you think of the new downloadable Winery
Maps. If you have time, email me to let me know. |
| February 10, 2003 |
The second of three winery maps has been added. This
one includes the Pleasant Valley wineries - including Sierra Vista who's
view rivals the banner shown above (great spot for a picnic!).
Holly's Vineyard, Firefall, Chateau Rodin, and Stover Oaks round out the
list. |
| February 8, 2003 |
Something I've been seeing a need for is downloadable maps
of the local wineries. Most wineries have maps available, but if
you're first arriving to the area, you won't have one of these.
Surprisingly, no one has created downloadable (printable) wine tasting
maps of the region - so we decided to do it. As always, the maps are
free. We've posted the first map showing the wineries in the
immediate Placerville area. More maps to come soon! |
| February 2, 2003 |
Another new ride added - this one is special - Mosquito Road
Loop. If you've never ridden this, then you're in for a treat (bring
a camera). It starts in Placerville, goes out Highway 193 to Rock
Creek, then climbs up to Mosquito Rd via Rock Creek (great scenery along
the way). The descent down to Mosquito Bridge is exciting to say the
least. The climb back out is steep - definitely not for
beginners. Still, worth the effort, and it's definitely one of the
most unique rides in El Dorado county. |
| January 30, 2003 |
We have a new ride - and it's a great one! It starts in
El Dorado Hills and goes out on Salmon Falls Rd to Pilot Hill. The
ride then returns on Lotus Rd and Green Valley Rd. And if that isn't
enough, there's an option to take in a few more miles with Deer Valley Rd
(less traffic and more scenic as you bypass Cameron Park). I've been
wanting to document this ride for some time, and it's finally up
here. This makes the 26th ride available on this site. |
| January 12, 2003 |
Yes, we're still here... the weather hasn't been the best
lately for riding... but we are planning to update this site shortly with some new
rides at the lower elevations. Also in the works is a winery map of
this area. More details soon... in the meantime we hope that this
new year brings you good health, peace and joy! |
| September 19, 2002 |
The Wednesday Evening Rides have finished for the season
(evenings are getting too short to ride anything longer than a few
miles). They will resume again next April. Certainly this
years list of rides was notable for it's wide variation - with several new
rides appearing for the first time. Always sad to see these come to
an end for the year, but there's every reason to believe that the 2003
Wednesday Evening Rides will be even better! |
| September 5, 2002 |
We now have a bicycling photo page up and running. Go
to the "Photos" menu item on the left, click on "El Dorado Bike Rides" and enjoy! The
photos are thumbnailed, so click on the small image to see the larger
version. You can also go directly to the bicycling photo page by
clicking here. |
| September 2, 2002 |
Fall is definitely showing it's initial signs. I've
noticed a variety of plants around here that are just starting their
annual shift to their beautiful fall colors. We've just posted our
25th ride on this site, and it's the longest ride to date... 51 miles with
6,100 feet of climbing. Not to be taken lightly, but worth every
mile. Check out the Pleasant Valley / Capps Crossing Loop when you
can. As the hot temperatures start to cool off, we'll start looking
at new rides in the lower elevations and add them to this site. |
| August 25, 2002 |
New bicycling route - and it's a good one too! If you
want a great all day ride - check out the Slug Gulch / Hwy 88 / Shake
Ridge Loop. A total of 48 miles, and 4,700 feet of climbing. I
did this ride yesterday, and it was a great pleasure. Only down side
is that you are Highway 88 for almost 3 miles - but fortunately it's
mostly downhill - and it goes by fast. It took me about 5 hours to
do the ride. We're now at 24 rides for this site. |
| August 10, 2002 |
New bicycling route - Clear Creek / Shooting Star Loop has
been added. This ride starts in Pleasant Valley and heads directly
towards the cool canyon of Clear Creek Rd. We did this ride on one
of the hottest days of the year (112 in Sacramento) and the canyon was a
very pleasant - and relatively cool - 83 degrees. This is a short
ride, only 9.5 miles, but if you have to get out on a day that's scorching
hot, this is a good one to do. |
| July 30, 2002 |
Added photos of our vacation (in Bolinas, Marin County) to
the Recent Trips and Travel page. Some very nice bicycling and kayak
pictures.
Also updated the Wednesday Evening Bike Ride Schedule. |
| June 21, 2002 |
Updated web site with two more rides... Slug Gulch / Dorado
Canyon Loop, and our first Mountain Bike ride - Snow Mill / Cosumnes Mine
Loop. We're now at 22 rides for this site. Also added in a
Fairplay Region Overview web page. At this point, I plan to take a
small break, fix my computer (whatever is making it crash), and do some
adjusting of the web site directories - the latter of which will appear
invisible to you (at least it better!). If you have any thoughts or
comments about this site, please feel free to email me on this
subject. Use the "Contact" link to the right to send an
email. |
| June 16, 2002 |
Minor updates to rides in the Fairplay region. We did
a ride up Slug Gulch today, returning on Dorado Canyon Rd. Had a
great time. Despite the "killer" hill of Slug Gulch, it's
worth the effort. Great riding after the second switchback - and
after a while, even the main climb itself doesn't seem so bad...
Hey! By the way, we hit 20 rides documented on this web site
today! Two more to come shortly... |
| June 15, 2002 |
Just rode the Perry Creek / Dorado Canyon Loop (with the
option to return on E16)... had a great time. Doing rides like this
on early summer mornings definitely puts you in the right frame of mind...
traffic was light, weather was great (nice and cool). The ride has
just been published, and is available for downloading and printing.
This ride is unusual, as it gives you a choice on how you want to return -
only 2 miles difference between the two options, both are
good. |
| June 12, 2002 |
Having major computer problems the last few days... which is
unfortunate as there are several bike maps ready to be posted.
Hopefully I can get this resolved in a week or so. In the meantime, the
updates - especially bike maps - will slow down temporarily. |
| June 2, 2002 |
Rode up Iron Mountain Rd today, got as far as the summit,
after which the road was covered with snow. Still an amazingly
beautiful climb... well worth every mile. There are several rides in
the works, some which will be appearing shortly. Now as summer
approaches, the ride documentation will start shifting towards Mountain
Bike rides. |
