Ok, So I've been wanting to do this ride for a few months now. The idea was to go out till I reached that riser going into the outskirts of Bakersfield. It was about 13.5 mi out. There were many things I wasn't sure about. The amount of climbing, the wind conditions, shelter from the sun, how my legs were going to respond, etc. So, I got my stuff in the car and made my way to the start point. I had no problems getting there and I didn't forget any gear. I even got my new RoadId that I got from the mailbox as I was leaving town. After getting my stuff out, I took a quick bio, suited up and headed out. The weather was in the 80's, with winds from the west. The wind conditions were encouraging as I knew I was going to have a significant tailwind on the way back. The first half of the ride went quick. The terrain was about as I remembered it from the Spooktakular ride. The section that was impassable (at the time) has long since been re-paved. The terrain undulated and went in between mountain ranges, the railroad not so far away either. The bad thing was that there wasn't any shelter from the sun, so I was slowly baking out there. Just as I mapped it online, the last riser was about 13.5 miles out. I didn't spare much time when I got there. Pretty much, turned around and headed back. All together, I think I stopped no more than 3 times to take photos. No feeding today. The provisions I had were plenty. I didn't require the extra, 3rd, bottle. As I was anticipating, I had a nice tailwind on the way back, although, there was a significant amount of climbing on the return. I was having to use my 32T on many occasions. I remember the last stretch of road that seemed to climb forever. I did this part with Roger, many years ago. I knew that, once over this section, the remainder was mostly undulating and downhill. This proved to be the case, and shortly after I made my way back to the car. Concentration was good, HOWEVER, I did encounter a nasty gremlin out there. It wasn't so bad that I had to stop or turn around. In fact, it made me ride faster as I wanted to get out of that alley ASAP. Fortunately, I knew what to do to keep thing safe. It felt like a wind talker was right next to me. Strange and somewhat frightening. That happened on the outbound for about a few minutes. No issues on the way back. Ailments consisted of some mild stomach bloating. Almost like having a lots of gas, but difference. It wasn't sore, but annoying. Not so much that I had to stop and let my body equalize. I had some mild crotch soreness, nothing significant. Balance and form felt pretty good. Gear worked perfect. No issues. Other notes, no cyclists on this route, some motor-cyclists and minimal traffic.