Highest paved road in California, Cooper Sufferfest day 3.
I had Monday off for this trip, so I managed to squeeze in another ride by myself on the way home. The weather and air quality a bit north of the previous 2 days rides was much better. A cold front had come in, so it was quite cold - mid 30s (at least for me!) Other than the temperature, the weather and air quality were great.
I started the ride from Tom's Place, and headed up. Going up the temperature was great - I took of my jacket and had my jerseys unzipped. I think there was a small tailwind going up so I was pretty much riding in still air. As I rode up I did see frozen water by the side of the road, but no snow. It was nice to get above 10000 feet.
At the top I quickly got quite cold, and put on all the extra clothes I had packed up, including ski gloves. My hands were a bit numb by the time I finally got to heading down, and they didn't get much better on the way down. Nothing like numb hands to give you confidence breaking into corners :) The descent was quite easy, and didn't require much braking. I now had a headwind for most of the descent, and I was able to pedal a fair bit of the way down, which helped keep me warm.
This is a great climb - nice road surface, and a bike lane all the way up. Lots of (currently closed) campgrounds along the way, so there are likely toilets and water available on the route during non-COVID times.