The title of this post pays homage to one of the first Zombie books ever published, Richard Matheson's "I Am Legend", originally published in 1954, and is a somewhat ironic nod to the fact that, because of the ride described here, I have attained Local Legend status on Strava.The above picture is a scan of the edition of this book that I own, published in 1964.
This post may get the award for "Most Potential Titles". The first was "Lake Loop GoTo ride". The second was "I Am Legend". I smooshed these first two together to create the title I used. A third potential title was "The Rice Track, California Style" to note the fact that my new GoTo ride has the same "many lap around a short course" property as my old favorite in Texas.
Regular readers of this blog know that, last July, I moved from San Carlos to Emerald Hills, a move that impacted my cycling. One concern I expressed was that, because me new home was in a hillier neighborhood than the San Carlos house, it would be harder for me to find the easy rides which are a necessary part of my training schedule. This new GoTo ride is not a perfect solution to that problem, my local geography probably makes a perfect solution impossible, but so far, it seems to be working pretty well.
The core of this new ride is a local gem of my delightfully quirky new neighborhood, a man-made lake set up like a summer camp swimming hole organized as a country club for the enjoyment of local residents; the Emerald Lake Country Club. I don't belong, but my grandkids and their parents do, and I can use it as their guest.
The local streets make a short 0.4mile loop which follows the shores of this lake fairly closely. I was inspired to explore this loop thinking that this might be my long-sought flat ride. The laws of physics dictate that the lake itself must be flat, so maybe the roads around it would be as well. They probably are about as flat as a road in this neighborhood can be, but they are not perfectly flat, I usually do some gear shifting as I go around the lake. By the time one gets far enough from the shores of the lake to build a road, the terrain has already acquired some ups and downs. The larger issue is the hills going to and from this loop. By the most direct route, the lake is less than a half mile from my house, all downhill. Returning by that route would be impossible, however, due to the steepness of the hills. As it happens, I also don't want to take that route to go to the lake because it includes too many dangerous intersections. The routes I have selected to go to and from the lake are different. The route to the lake is about a mile long, starts with a short, steep climb, then has some flats, and finally a very steep (but safe) downhill. The route home is 1.7 miles, almost all uphill, mostly steep. There is a 2.3 mile route home that is less steep but features heavier traffic and after having tried both, decided I prefer the 1.7 mile route. If I use the lowest gear on my Volpe and deliberately keep my pace as slow as I can, the ride home, while not effortless, is not too bad. I feel like this makes for an OK recovery ride, and gives me practice saving my strength on hills to boot.
So where did this lovely lake come from? In researching this post, I came across this informative interview with the current president of the Country Club. Briefly, the dam that forms the lake was constructed in 1920 by a pair of developers who imagined they could attract visitors from San Francisco. After six years, they were unhappy with the business and sold the lake to a group of local families who ran it in a way that has stayed the same until today. Fifty families share ownership of the lake and its developments (a sandy beach, diving boards, a barbeque area with picnic tables, etc.) Every couple of years or so one of them sells their share to another family. This group of families sets the policies for the lake and sells a strictly limited number of summer memberships to anyone who would like to use it. It is this summer membership that my son and daughter-in-law have. A family who is interested in acquiring an ownership share when one becomes available volunteers to help with lake maintenance and is put on a waiting list. The lake is very well run. My son and daughter-in-law are very conservative about COVID-19, but the lake management was able to develop policies to keep the lake open that were safe enough that they felt comfortable allowing their children continued to use it, a very welcome relief from the limits the pandemic have imposed on us all.
So how did I get to be a legend? Strava is famous for its segments, stretches of road on which they track and compare the performance of their members. For any given ride I do, I have the opportunity to notice how slow I am compared to everyone else on several such segments. Stava also has a consolation prize for those of us who are never going to set a speed record. If you ride a particular segment more often than anyone else, you are declared a "Local Legend." The loop around Emerald Hills Lake is such a segment. My fastest time around the lake is 1 minute and 39 seconds. The record is 1 minute and 2 seconds. (It would probably be much faster if this segment was at all popular.) However, because I have chosen to go around this lake 20 times every time I do one of my easy rides, and because this segment is not very popular, very quickly I had ridden it more often than anyone else; I Am Legend.
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