Chico Wildflower and Sierra Nevada Brewery Tour

Combining triking with beer tasting is where it’s at, right?!?

We arrived in Chico yesterday in preparation for the 60 mile Flat Flower route of the Chico Velo Wildflower this year. We had planned to do the metric Wildflower, but were concerned about our lack of fitness as it’s got about 2500’ of climbing. Not much by cyclists’ standards, but we wanted to respect our limits. We also didn’t want to experience the humiliation of being “those” riders, who run out of battery before finishing the ride. Because of the size of a recumbent trike, we always assume that it’s unlikely that any SAG vehicle would have the capacity to help ferry us back should we get stranded.

We found a good camping spot on the Silver Dollar Fairgrounds, site of the Wildflower, and then headed off for our brewery tour. Here are some photos from the tour:

 Paula enjoyed the tastings at the end, but Sierra Nevada is proud of its hoppy beers, I was not a fan. We were hoping they might include one of their porters or stouts in post-tour tasting, but no such luck.

We returned to the fairgrounds to find the in-fill camping had been in full swing. We were definitely surrounded now. Thank goodness everyone wanted to have an early night like we did. We had a lovely pasta puttanesca dinner that Paula made for Carol and me, and then we all turned in.

We arose early because we knew the temperatures would rise quickly through the day. We were cycling by 7:00AM. Carol was on her Lightning P-38 Voyager, Paula on her HP Velotechnik with Bionx, and me on my HP Velotechnik S-Pedelec with Go-Swiss motor. We had chosen the Flat Flower 60 miler, as we were scared by the climbing of the Wild Flower.

On the ride we saw a recumbent tandem, an ICE trike with BaFang motor, and an unassisted BikeE. We’re were surprised this was all for recumbents, since this was such a large event, but we all had a good time. Carol decided to do a 45 mile ride, so left us around mile 37. We turned up our assist and played for the second part of the ride at speeds from 18 to 24 mph. The headwind had arrived, so we were glad for the help.

We didn’t take many pictures on the ride, but here are a couple..

Yes, that’s my foot in the foreground. Had to let you know I was there. When we returned, the Chico Velo folks had a lovely dinner all planned for us: barbecued chicken, rice, beans, and salad. What a great day.