Johnson Road (~30 miles; ~1,000 feet elevation gain)

I did this ride with James and Mike on 04/12/2008. It was just a straightforward moderate training ride (since I was planning to ride the next day). It turns out that the poppies were in fine form so I took a lovely picture from Johnson Road looking NE towards Avenue K. As fate would have it, there was actually a Santa Ana coming through, so we had a tailwind up Johnson and a headwind down Elizabeth Lake.

California Poppies

This is a great ride if you want to get in a bit of hard climbing. I firmly believe that Johnson Road is one of the steepest climbs around...the last 1/4 mile of climbing is pretty darn hard; however, the payoff is a very fun ride down Elizabeth Lake Road. Fortunately, there wasn't much traffic on Lake Elizabeth; however, Mike, who is fairly new to road cycling, did tell me that he felt quite uncomfortable with the traffic. Like always, 95% of drivers are really great and give you lots of room...it's the other 5% that like to gamble with your life!

Conclusion: Great training ride for climbing and mashing on the rollers. The climb up the backside of Goode is the end of the real workout so you do get to coast a few miles home.