The ride takes place on the first Saturday in April. The temperature in the low 60s was just perfect for a long ride. The riders are held up until there is enough light to make it safe to be on the road; 7:00 AM. Usually a fair percentage of the nearly 2000 riders that make this ride are waiting at the main gate for the mass start.The road in front of the park is held closed for a few minutes to allow the riders to safely enter the roadway. There is a lot of jostling for position that takes place in these mass starts as the serious riders try to break away from the large, more or less organized, groups that make this ride each year. The first 17 miles are just slightly rolling with no major hills as it wanders through the incredibly green pastureland of western Amador County. Each year when we make this ride I am enthralled with the beautiful farms and ranches all decked out in their new spring green and the occasional early blooming wild flower. Probably the funniest aspect is the horses that will line up along the fence to watch the riders pass as if incredulous that anyone would choose to work that hard.

There is always a large crowd of riders at the first rest stop eating the wonderful foods that await them. This particular ride is very well supported and there is no shortage of good food at each stop. As you re-enter the road there is a fairly good hill that is the beginning of the dividing point that breaks the crowd of riders down into 3 groups; the serious advanced riders who do this as fast and hard as they can, the serious amateur riders who participate in this event each year as a start to the ride season, and the group of folks who do it just for the party atmosphere of these large organized rides. It is a much safer ride once the three groups split up and eliminates a lot of the unsafe passing that took place earlier. It is also near the half way point for the shorter ride and the spot where it begins to occur to many of the riders that this is not a flat valley ride, but more typical of the rides in the foothills where an average of a 100 feet of climbing per mile is not at all uncommon.

The shorter ride turns away from the longer one after several medium level hills; heading back to town. This ride ends after roughly 28 miles with 1500 feet of climbing; a good morning ride. The longer ride heads out towards Comanche Reservoir and the beginning of the steeper, more robust hills. The road between the first and second rest stop starts to get a bit hillier as you ride along the east side of the reservoir with great vistas along the way. There are a few decent climbs as you make your way towards the second rest stop and can be the toughest part of the ride mentally as you know the big hills are ahead of you and you feel the burn of thirty plus miles in your legs. There are a lot less riders in the second stop, but the stop itself is much smaller so it is still pretty crowded. We didn't stay more than about 15 minutes and moved back onto the road. Continued ...