We headed to Skyline Park in Napa, for this month’s edition of the BTCEB’s Ride Like a Girl ride. Due to steep climbs and challenging technical rocky single track we limited attendance to riders with intermediate level experience and higher.
To my surprise we had over 27 intermediate women RSVP’d on Meetup. Since I’ve began organizing the rides, I’ve come to expect approximately 15 intermediate level ladies RSVPing in advance with additional 3-5 more showing up the day of. Early on I came to recognize this was going to be a popular ride and that we’d need to split the riders into more manageable groups.
My LUNA Chix teammate, Cari Levine (a Napa local) served as our ride leader for the day, with LUNA Chix Team Leader Petra Lindquist on hand to assist Cari in leading the first group. I assumed sweeper duties with Amy Arcus – our new Director of Women’s Programs for the BTCEB – leading the second group.
We had a record 28 women present for the start, and after everyone was signed in, we gave a safety talk, went over the route and divided the group as best as we could before setting off.
For many of us, it was our first visit to Skyline Park. The experience of riding here was so great I’m amazed I hadn’t ridden here before. The initial River to Ridge climb (2.5 miles) into the park is a fun technical rocky climb, it was a quick way of sorting everyone out into different groups.
In the park we started by climbing the Buckeye Trail to the lake. From here we split up with Amy taking the B group on a less technical ride while the first group continued on. Our route consisted of the Teuter loop, back to the lake, Chapparal/Manzanita to Skyline front entrance before riding River to Ridge back. Cari did an great job choosing the route as it was a great sampler of the park —15 miles in all with 2,800 feet of climbing.
Afterwards more than half of the group stayed to enjoy a bit of socializing, with snacks, water and beer in the grass next to the parking lot courtesy of BTCEB.
Learn more and join in the fun at BTCEB.org
