Los Osis versus La Tiburon

My nick name in the bicycle club is “The Shark”. In Spanish, La Tiburon. Los Osis is "the bear". This Saturday, I did the hardest ride of my life, Orange County Wheelmen's ride around The Bear. 100 miles, with 9,000 feet of climbing
I arrived at the park in Redlands at 4:30 am. Ron and Cindy Meir were already there. Ron was going to ride it as a pirate, that is, not stopping at the official rest stops, Tom and Sue Tisler, Les, John and Fred Roth arrived shortly there after. Tom and Mary Lou Lodsgon had agreed to drive their van as a SAG vehcile I picked up my registration number and was on my way at 5:30

Fred and Sylvia Santiago were not able to ride.
The first 15 miles were through Redlands, Highlands, and San Bernardino. I met Tom and Mary Lou
when I turned onto Boulder in Highland. We went up Bolder to the Walmart, turned on to Route 330 and the fun began in honest, we soon passed this sign:

This one says "cars turn off air conditioners next 20 miles"
I laterpassed another sign that said “Watch for Bike racers” Funny, I did not think I was racing. We passed the 2,000 foot elevation sign and came to the first rest stop:

I rendezvoused with Tom and Mary Lou here, and got a refill of Cytomax(energy drink) and water. we soon passed the 3,4, and 5000 foot sign and entered Running Springs and California 18. Despite the fact that we were back in civilization, we kept on climbing. I stopped at the second rest stop at a ski resort, and we soon climbed past 7,000 foot sign and found this view:

If you look real closely at the mountain in the background(Mt San Bernardino), you can see snow. We soon started descending to Big Bear Lake (6,700) feet. I saw a pirate ship on the lake. Must drink more Cytomax... I did not get a chance to get a picture of the ship, but here is the lake:



I was grateful for the flat terrain surrounding the lake, I soon came to the Lunch rest stop:



I met up with Tom again:


As well as Mary Lou:


I made a wrong turn after lunch, but I was able to correct myself and was soon on my way to Onyx summit

getting there:



Almost, but not quite:



At long Last:



OCW claim its' all downhill from here (40 Miles), It actually 10 miles of downhill, with a mile uphill, 5 miles of rollers, and 16 miles of down hill. I had started cramping going up to onyx summit, so I was concerned about the mile uphill. It was not a big bother.

another pic of Mt San Bernardino.

and another view downhill:



I passed one of the of the Colivita Olive Oil riders on the way down. Maybe CalTrans was right about a bike race...

I was back at Redlands at 3:30. About what I had planned on, even though I just about dead last.