K-Hounds: Nov-19-2014: First Time K-Hound Greg Olson

In the early summer I realized that I could come pretty close to achieving 10,000km for the year. I usually ride between 16,000km and 21,000km of all types of cycling, so I decided to change some things and work on the K-Hound. In October when I finished the Big Sur 600K I felt pretty confident, realizing that I was at the mercy of the Pacific Northwest weather. The images of rain, and the Columbia Gorge winds turned into reality very quickly. Lacking motivation I continued on, not as had hoped for, but making progress. By mid November I had a window to just about finish up, and scheduled three perms in four days. Unfortunately, an ice storm came in the day before the first perm, and the outlook wasn't good for cycling in sheltered areas even though the temperature was rising above freezing, so I canceled the perms. My wife noticed me pacing around the house and knew to suggest "California is where you outta be," so on short notice I emailed Drew Carlson in Davis about riding three of his perms. On Monday and Tuesday the temperature was in the mid to high 60's and everything was good. [Rando-karma decided to bite me though,] Wednesday turned into rain all day, some heavy. I was on the Calistoga Constitutional, a personal favorite. The suggestion is to get a picture with some biking buddies, but this day there were positively, absolutely no cyclists on the road; not at Winters, not Cardiac, nor on the Silverado Trail. So much for biking buddies.

I had time to think that maybe I was not giving the K-Hound all the credit it deserved. It does require doing 200K pretty much every week for a year -- a real commitment. As I mulled that over I was thinking of three things necessary to complete this journey: (1) a plan, (2) a commitment to the plan, and (3) perm owners who are there to help on pretty short notice. After three 200's in a row I was glad on day four that I finished on day three. On returning home, for some reason I had the crazy idea to do another 1000k in December, [which he did].

Attached are two photo's just past passed the 10,000km mark on Cal Highway 128 at mile post 17.33, on the return to Davis. I really wanted a picture from the summit of Cardiac about 10 miles up the road but it was socked in on the way out and worse on the way back.

Thank you to all the perm owners, you make the K Hound.

Greg Olson

First-Time K-Hound: Greg Olson (RUSA #2917)

Date: November 19, 2014

Where: Calistoga Constitutional permanent out of Davis, CA.
Ride partners: none [well, he indicates "none" -- but somebody took those photos].