Biking AROUND the Buttes, not OVER the Buttes

This past weekend, a small crew of us drove up to Yuba city at 5 o'clock (or so) in the morning to ride 100 miles around the Sutter Buttes. The ride is called Bike Around the Buttes, and some of you might remember that I did the same ride last year. Well. . . I signed up to do it. I drove up to Yuba City. I even got on my bike and started riding. After about 19 miles, I was just plumb fed up with wind, the 20 degree temp, and the pouring rain. Those might be exaggerations, but it's no exaggeration that I had rain pouring out of my shoes, and decided I am not *that* kind of cyclist.

So -- this year, clear skies, cold, no rain, and wind not predicted until after noon. It's mostly a flat ride. Rather pretty, but quite flat. Most of the day the Buttes were in view, which is good, because we really never got tired of the "Butt"/"Butte" jokes. And when they were in view, we were that much more inspired.
And off we go. 100 miles is a really long way. I captured a bit of the day on camera. I'll try to explain what the mostly obscure photos mean.

Here's the morning bathroom line. Jeff, my carpool buddy, and over-all good guy, seemed to spend most of the day in line for the bathroom.














Emily got a new jersey -- all those polka dots are types of sushi.


















Self Protrait.
















There wasn't a whole lot of food I could eat at the rest stops/lunch. Lots of processed meat and cheese, as demonstrated below, and it seems someone had entered the race into a 'how many snacks can you make with peanuts?' contest.











I don't know what's going on here, but it seems like processed cheese makes you happy.

Jeff is not allowed to work on his own bike. Parts fall off when he does. But I loaned him my tool anyway.

A view of (one of) the Buttes (this one is small after several years of doing at-home Buttes of Steel):
Another butte or two:
I can't quite recapture this monologue, but the cows hanging out on the hills eating, or laying in the shade under a tree inspired the philosopher (or maybe the bovine-psychologist) in Jeff. "Do you ever wonder what makes some cows wonder up there on the hill to eat grass, while others just lay around and don't go anywhere? What makes a cow decide to just walk a couple miles away from the rest of the cows for its grass? And look at those cows just layin' there. Maybe those are the lazy cows, and the other cows are more ambitious. Don't you think? Makes you think maybe cows have personalities."
Priceless.

The best snack ever -- it doesn't look like much, but here you have boiled potatoes, salted, with some fancy herb in them. Amazing. It was the best potato I'd ever had, or maybe I was a little hungry.
I know. They're just potatoes.

The end of the ride. Here's a happy rider finishing her first century and biking her Butte off.
















Comparison between this year and last year -- this is at the car getting ready to go home. On the left, rainy last year. On the right, happy (but tired) this year.