# Monitor Pass and Mt. Rose on a folding bike (pics & video)



## freighttraininguphill (Jun 7, 2011)

*Monitor Pass and Mt. Rose on a folding bike*

Last weekend was another rental car trip up to the mountains for some climbing and descending bliss with my Bike Friday Pocket Companion folding bike. On Saturday I climbed Monitor Pass. On the way back down, I set a PR for speed - 51.1 mph! My previous fastest descent was 50 mph down Beatty Drive in El Dorado Hills on my regular road bike.

On the way back to Sacramento in the car, I saw a number of Alpine County Sheriff, fire, paramedic, and CHP vehicles responding towards Ebbetts Pass with lights and sirens going, so I hope somebody didn't crash. I've heard that Ebbetts is dangerous.

Sunday I drove back up to Mt. Rose to watch the riders in the Sierra Nevada Hill Climb time trial, which goes up the longer side of Mt. Rose from Reno.

After watching the riders suffer, I was of course all gung ho to do some suffering of my own. I climbed the Incline Village side of Mt. Rose from Country Club Drive, which is much steeper than the Mt. Rose Highway. Country Club Drive is almost 3 miles long, and it gets steeper as it goes on. It intersects with the Mt. Rose Highway, which is only between 4% and 9% compared to the 10%-18% I measured on Country Club.

Top of Monitor


Bike Friday at top of Monitor Pass 1 by freighttraininguphill, on Flickr

Bike Friday at top of Monitor Pass 2 by freighttraininguphill, on Flickr

Top of Mt. Rose


Bike Friday at top of Mt. Rose 1 by freighttraininguphill, on Flickr

Bike Friday at top of Mt. Rose 2 by freighttraininguphill, on Flickr

Bike Friday at Mt. Rose summit sign by freighttraininguphill, on Flickr


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## Ridgetop (Mar 1, 2005)

Mt. Rose Highway is literally in my back yard. Two blocks over and I'm climbing up it. I did the Reno side a couple of weeks ago. Got to start early to avoid the traffic. We did Ebbetts yesterday. Perfect weather but busy with traffic. 51mph on a Bike Friday!!! Yikes, I've hit 60mph coming down on a regular bike when it was dead still, but the cross winds can be scary on the lower part coming into 89 off of Monitor.

I forgot about the time trials. I'm too dang slow to enter them, but would have been fun to watch while parked near the top.


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## Ridgetop (Mar 1, 2005)

Also, I have to laugh at the FreightTraining thing.

I have a bunch of friends who work for Union Pacific Railroad. Only one of them is a woman, so when I saw your name I figured you must be an oversized guy who wears Carharts on the weekends. Just saw you post in the Women's Forum. . . .d'oh . . .was I ever wrong!  Well, maybe you do wear Carharts on the weekends, but that's cool.


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## freighttraininguphill (Jun 7, 2011)

Ridgetop said:


> Mt. Rose Highway is literally in my back yard. Two blocks over and I'm climbing up it. I did the Reno side a couple of weeks ago. Got to start early to avoid the traffic. We did Ebbetts yesterday. Perfect weather but busy with traffic. 51mph on a Bike Friday!!! Yikes, I've hit 60mph coming down on a regular bike when it was dead still, but the cross winds can be scary on the lower part coming into 89 off of Monitor.
> 
> I forgot about the time trials. I'm too dang slow to enter them, but would have been fun to watch while parked near the top.


I did the Reno side two years ago when I was 185 lbs (60 lbs overweight), on my Rockhopper, which was another 32 pounds. Talk about a miserable experience! To top it off, a couple drivers tried to scare me by yelling as they passed. Add on the three or four times I had to stop to relieve the cramping back muscles, and that made me decide to only climb the Incline Village side after that. 

I think the only way I'll ever climb the Reno side again is if I have a riding partner for inspiration. The time always goes by faster when you have someone else to suffer with.

Ebbetts will be a future ride. :wink5: This weekend I will be climbing Luther Pass and the long side of Kingsbury Grade. There is another hill climb time trial on Kingsbury that I will be recording video of before I climb it.

No wind on the Monitor descent, at least not a crosswind. I wonder how fast I would've gone on my road bike? 

I'm way too slow for any hill climb time trial too, but watching them is very inspiring. I think I climb better after watching one live. I recorded this one from the far east side of the summit parking lot.



Ridgetop said:


> Also, I have to laugh at the FreightTraining thing.
> 
> I have a bunch of friends who work for Union Pacific Railroad. Only one of them is a woman, so when I saw your name I figured you must be an oversized guy who wears Carharts on the weekends. Just saw you post in the Women's Forum. . . .d'oh . . .was I ever wrong!  Well, maybe you do wear Carharts on the weekends, but that's cool.


Nope, no Carharts here. I don't even know what they are!  The "freighttraininguphill" username idea came from a friend of mine. About 20 years ago I showed him a clip from ESPN of the Grundig World Cup mtb xc race. Juli Furtado was breathing hard on a climb, and my friend referred to her breathing as "freight training". Ever since then I have used that phrase to refer to my effort on climbs because I have loud breathing on steep climbs. I don't know why I do and some other riders don't, but I guess that's just the way it is.

I have a feeling that even if I weighed 110 lbs I would still sound like a locomotive while climbing.  I was 117 when I started climbing hills 20 years ago.


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## Ridgetop (Mar 1, 2005)

Have fun on Kingsbury. Nice wide shoulders and great pavement for the most part on that one. I did it last Tuesday in the early evening. Big mistake as there were 25 to 30 mph cross and headwinds due to the cooler air roaring down into the valley. Felt like the longest climb of my life! I normally due it in the morning.

We love to do Luther, but with a twist. We take South Upper Truckee River Road off of Highway 50 and then ride it until it crosses over 89/Luther and then keep going up through the campgrounds and back to 89 about a mile from the top. Avoids a bunch of traffic and sure is a fun and gorgeous little one lane road.


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## freighttraininguphill (Jun 7, 2011)

Ridgetop said:


> We love to do Luther, but with a twist. We take South Upper Truckee River Road off of Highway 50 and then ride it until it crosses over 89/Luther and then keep going up through the campgrounds and back to 89 about a mile from the top. Avoids a bunch of traffic and sure is a fun and gorgeous little one lane road.


Thanks for the tip! I like those kinds of roads. Barker Pass Road near Tahoe City was a beautiful climb with very little traffic.


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## Ridgetop (Mar 1, 2005)

I'll definitely keep my eyes open for a Bike Friday as a I ride the roads around here. Bound to run into you someday.


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## freighttraininguphill (Jun 7, 2011)

Ridgetop said:


> I'll definitely keep my eyes open for a Bike Friday as a I ride the roads around here. Bound to run into you someday.


You could meet me when I climb Luther or Kingsbury this weekend. PM me if you want.


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