Big miles this week and big news

I put a lot of miles in this week - a great ride (100% trails) over Memorial Day weekend in Tahoe, a couple of good days of commuting, and a 25-miler today.

Today's ride was a little adventure in itself. I loaded my panniers on my touring bike with the intention of riding north along Hwy 1 out to Big Basin to do some hiking. The panniers held a full CamelBak, a WindStopper jacket just in case, a pair of hiking shoes, and my journal. My plan was to ride the 20 miles one way to Big Basin and then hike about 15 miles to a spot called Buzzard's Lookout. Well, I timed my depature wrong, and caught the predictable headwind all the way up Hwy 1. I made it eight miles into the headwind, then when the route became completely exposed along the cliffs near the ocean, I pulled over and did a little self-talk.

"I wouldn't ride into this headwind if I was touring."
"Big Basin will be there next weekend."
"Wilder Ranch sounds pretty fun!"

So I turned around and shot into Wilder Ranch, enjoying the push on my back from the strong north wind.

When I got into Wilder Ranch, I rode six miles on loose, rocky fire road from Hwy 1 to Empire Grade Road. Passed a bunch of moutain bikers, a few hikers, and one lady on a horse. My SOMA felt good underneath me - it's a great, solid, steel bike, and I had some flashbacks to the New Zealand tour that I did a couple of months ago.

When you get to the highest point in Wilder Ranch, the fire road is bisected by Empire Grade - if you cross Empire Grade it puts you into the insanely fun trails of UCSC. I hung a right onto Empire and descended the two-lane road back into Santa Cruz.

I descended the 8 to 14% downhill very s-l-o-w-l-y. Since a major wipeout nearly four weeks ago on the road, followed by a minor one on the trails, followed by another minor one on the road, I have been very cautious about going fast. And I'm OK with that. I got home safely today - stoked that I got to enjoy three separate view on my ride today - the coast along Hwy 1, the tall, grassy plains of Wilder Ranch, and the redwoods on Empire Grade.

So that's the "big miles" part of the blog entry. And now here's the "big news" of the blog entry.
Long-time followers of this blog (those who have read all four previous posts!) will know that I sold my car over eighteen months ago to fully support myself on a bike. Well, that ended a couple of weeks ago when I bought a used truck.

There are two reasons I bought it. First, I'm ready for my world to expand again. When I moved here from Philly over three years ago I was amazed that my 'big world' on the East Coast could be shrunk and allow me to live car-free. I did it, loved it, learned so much, and now I'm ready to start exploring what's outside my reach on bicycle. Second, I want to start competing in endurance mountain bike events and most of those are held NOT in Santa Cruz. I still plan on supporting myself on bicycle, and I don't expect a big decrease in the amount of miles I put on a bike.