Luck was with us this past Sunday for the Sebastopol Apple Blossom ride. Only the previous day we got an unexpected drenching, casting a pall over the prospect the Apple Blossom and making me wonder if I would have to post another last-minute cancelation. Unlike Saturday’s Cinderella participants, who got bombed for most of the morning with rain, we had a crystal clear sunny day with nary a cloud in sight! The six of us—John, Randy, Darrell, David Go., Carl, and I—had a gruntin’ good time surmounting the many small hillocks that pepper Sonoma county between Sebastopol and Occidental. Of particular note is Barnett Valley Road at 14%+; it seemed like all the other cyclists, of which there were many out on such a beautiful day, were smartly heading down rather than up it as we did. About midway to Occidental David remarked to me that we must have finished most of the climbing as we had already had 900 feet of elevation gain, which was the total for the route. No, I said, the RideWithGPS data said 900 meters, not feet! Oh. Bummer. Yep, more to come!                                

Sonoma roads have not improved since we were last there four years ago. But what had changed is that even more apple orchards were left to wither and be replaced by ever more wine grapes. I can’t say I blame those farmers because it takes a number of years before a sapling is productive whereas grape plantings apparently can be productive in their second year. And when your orchard is old and needs to be replanted anyway, are you going to install more apple trees or put in grapes? Nonetheless we passed at least two orchards what were not only in bloom but were clearly being maintained, which is great because the Gravenstein is a delicious variety. It was still sad to see a number of abandoned orchards, covered in weeds and absolutely no pruning having been done. Those hoary old apple trees were literally put out to pasture.

By the time we arrived at the Union Hotel in Occidental we were ready for lunch. Seated in their outside patio courtyard on a bright day under the blooming redbud tree was delightful. Some had heaping servings of pasta or polenta and others of us, ever mindful of Kate Moss’s ‘nothing tastes as good as the way thin feels’ were more circumspect of the homemade Italian-American temptations. Yes, life is tough for supermodels!

The way back was considerably easier than the leg out. The lumps were smaller, less steep, and we had a rippin’ good downhill just out of Occidental. The views from the hilltops were superb, the crisp country air was rejuvenating, and the relative lack of cars was a welcome change from typical Bay Area conditions.

You may not have made the Apple Blossom ride this year but the trees are just starting to bloom, so go up there on your own in the next couple of weeks to enjoy the bloom and the pastoral setting after such a water-logged winter.

Ray Hosler reports that over on the Midpeninsula, Skyline Boulevard at Castle Rock State Park is closed due to an immense slip that wiped out the entire road. You can see the incredible pic here. For most Spokers this section of Skyline is way out of their regular riding territory. But if you’re planning to head south on Skyline towards Hwy 17, you are going to have to find another route. Ray mentions the Skyline Trail adjacent to the road but this is a dirt track, so it’s only for those of you who don’t mind riding your road bikes on non-asphalt. From the size of the slip it is going to be a very long time before this section is repaired–the road is completely gone.

Yesterday we had the fortune of riding near Sebastopol on the Apple Blossom ride (more on that on the next post). Although everything we rode was open, there are numerous closures and partial closures of our favorite cycling roads. You can see the complete list here. Note that Old Caz, Austin Creek, Old Duncans Grade, and Geysers Road are completely closed. There are sections of the Bohemian Hwy., Hwy 116, and Hwy 1 at Bodega Bay, and Mill Creek Road that are down to one lane. If you’re heading up to the Sonoma or Guerneville area to ride, check to make sure you don’t unexpectedly confront a road block.

Addendum: In yesterday’s East Bay Times there was an article about the road closure on Morgan Territory Road. Although the road is closed to car traffic, pedestrian and bicycle traffic are crossing the slide area. The road is listed as closed on the county public works site, but that doesn’t seem to prevent cyclists from using it. Of course, that doesn’t mean you should bike there. But it is possible for cyclists to cross the slide area.

Palomares Road was closed today—the fourth time this season—in order to clear it of debris, stabilize the hillside, and presumably to restore the road to its pre-mudslide condition. Palomares is not expected to reopen before May 5. More info is here.

As you already know, Redwood Road near Castro Valley is also closed. If you would like to see what it looks like, go here.

Finally, this one escaped my notice and probably doesn’t matter to most of you: Collier Canyon Road near Livermore suffered some winter damage and is currently down to one lane. The county is asking people to avoid using it. This is unfortunate because Collier Canyon Road is BEAUTIFUL at this time of year because it is verdant green ranch land. This road is just outside the county green line and has managed to avoid annexation to Livermore at least twice, which if it had succeeded would have surely meant massive residential development.

Roger and I have been leading so-called Social “A” rides for almost two years. We felt the club was running on a steady diet of B+ rides, which often were quite a bit faster than B pace, and really didn’t have much to offer cyclists who would like to go perhaps a bit slower. Since the club is for all LGBT cyclists (and our fellow travelers and co-conspirators), we were hoping to break the cycle of B/C/D rides attracting faster cyclists who then joined and led more B/C/D rides by offering something different and seeing if we could get some momentum going and rebalance the club at least in this respect (there are other imbalances such as race, age, gender, and road vs. dirt).

We’ve had some success with a small but steady number of participants. Some riders have told us they welcome the slower paced rides because other club rides are just too fast for them, and for that reason they rarely go on club rides anymore. Some are new to the club and want to test the waters before they go on faster or longer rides. That’s actually a good thing: we hope that people continue to attend our rides OR “graduate” to harder ones as they get stronger and more confident. Some attendees are B/C/D riders who are “slumming”, taking a recovery day, or getting over a bug; a few are lapsed Spokers who are reinvestigating the club.

Although we started these Social A rides, we certainly do not claim ownership of the category. We want others will jump in and lead this type of ride and offer it to the club. That hasn’t happened yet but we are hopeful.

We also try to offer our rides around the Bay Area instead of nesting them in just one location such as SF. We’ve offered rides mostly in the East Bay since we live here but we’ve deliberately spread them around to the Peninsula, South Bay, and Napa. We have plans to lead rides in San Jose, SF, and Sacramento too.

The core of a Social ride is hanging out and gabbing not just riding. All club rides regardless of pace have that, but for the slower cyclist there’s not a lot of it if you’re left in the dust and riding by yourself or are panting too hard from the effort to keep up! So that’s what we mean by “social”: it should be possible for the less speedy cyclist to have a good time too. Another aspect of our Social A rides is we always stop for a good lunch. We’re not into Clif bars, sorry! And lunch is a fabulous way to practice all those skills you learned at finishing school.

This past winter has been unkind to all club rides with cancelation after cancelation due to rain. But we seem to be past the worst of the inclement weather and looking forward to an incredible spring and summer. The first Social A ride of the year—a ride through the Midpeninsula with lunch at the Prolific Oven in Palo Alto—finally took place a couple of weeks ago after being postponed three times due to rain! It was a small group: Roger, me, and two newcomers Brian and Michael. Strangely enough both Brian and Michael, who didn’t know each other, were from San Diego but now live in the Bay Area. Both are also very strong cyclists and were checking out the club. In fact Brian had completed the Furnace Creek 508, which is an ultramarathon ride in Death Valley!

So what happened on our Social “A” ride is what happens at a lot of our club rides: the pace got a lot faster. Social rides may be slower but they are not necessarily flat. Going up Sand Hill Road, then Olive Hill, and then into Portola Valley there wasn’t any panting even though we were going well past 17 mph at times. It’s not that we usually go this fast, but with unfamiliar newcomers I was just checking to see if the pace might be too slow. And it was, it seems. No one protested and when asked later on they said they were comfortable with it. So there! Social A rides are supposed to have a moving average 8 to 10 mph (that sometimes get pushed to almost 11); this time it was 13.5, which under normal circumstances would have me profusely apologizing.

The day was one of the first dry days in a while and it showed: the Midpeninsula, which is a hotbed of cycling anyway, was crawling with bicyclists starving for a ride. No matter which way we looked or rode we kept running into mobs. We stopped at the Arastradero Preserve to freshen up and encountered a recumbent cycling club. Much chatting ensued, most of it about the e-bike Roger was riding and comparing notes with the e-recumbents. One of our former Ride Coordinators, Bill Bushnell, has and is a big e-recumbent rider and they all knew Bill. After our close encounter with the ‘Bent kind we rolled into Los Altos Hills and took on Purissima and Elena, short but gritty hills, admiring all the homes we cannot afford, before cruising up Foothill to our lunch stop.

We love eating at the Prolific Oven. It’s old enough—35 years—to have become a Palo Alto mainstay; let’s hope their rent doesn’t go through the roof and drive them out of tony Palo Alto. Sandwiches there go beyond the mundane and always include a small slice of their chocolate cake with your order. Well, there goes the Paleo diet! The only oddity about this visit was the place was full of students, all on Apple laptops doing their homework and research. I felt so old and dated.

Our next social ride is on Sunday April 30 where we will finally get the answer to Paul Simon’s question, “Where have you gone, Joe DiMaggio?” Stay tuned!

Palomares Road has finally been reopened by Alameda County. The slides have been mostly cleared but there is one section that has only one lane open. Details about Palomares as well as other East Bay roads can be found here.

Morgan Territory Road is open today but it is only temporary. You can read the details here. The county seems to be planning to open the road on a very limited basis until the slide stops moving and it can effect permanent repairs.

Mt. Hamilton Road has been closed since Feb. 20 due to a washout, however repairs are underway. If you want to go up Hamilton from the Bay side, you will have to take Quimby to bypass the closure. Quimby is very steep. Ray Hosler has some details on his blog.

And yes, Alhambra Valley Road–part of the Three Bears loop–is still closed with no repair in the near future. Get used to riding up Pig Farm if you do the Bears counterclockwise.

Every March Different Spokes puts on an internal club fundraiser, the Saddle Challenge, to generate some money for Project Inform. Riders pledge to donate a certain amount of money, either a fixed or per mile amount, for the miles they ride during the month. The current Saddle Challenge is actually a mash-up of the Ron Wilmot Ride for Project Inform and the original Saddle Challenge, which started in 2002 and was not a fundraiser at all. It was intended merely to kickstart the riding season by having members log their miles. Trinkets like club caps were awarded to those with the most mileage. The following year the Saddle Challenge morphed into a fundraiser for the Ron Wilmot Bike Ride, which was a completely separate event. The Ron Wilmot Bike Ride was similar to the AIDS Walk: riders did 7.5 mile circuits in Golden Gate Park and pledged money depending on the number of miles they logged.

Who was Ron Wilmot? Currently in Different Spokes I think there are just two of us who had some contact with Ron, Derek Liecty and I, and unfortunately neither of us had more than a passing acquaintance with him. I don’t recall exactly when Ron joined Different Spokes but almost certainly he wasn’t riding regularly with us until the very late Eighties or the early Nineties. This was during “President for Life” Dennis Westler’s reign. I do recall he was a very friendly and warm person and an enthusiastic road cyclist. What also struck me about him was that he was the only person in the club who rode a Merlin titanium bike, an expensive rarity even during Merlin’s heyday. (I suppose that says more about me than him!) In those days although I was still road biking occasionally, I was deep into mountain biking and that may account for why I don’t remember seeing him on many club rides.

Ron was one of the owners/founders of Hartford Properties, which no longer exists. Hartford Properties was a real estate company located where the Chicago Title Co. currently exists on Market Street, not too far from the LGBT Center.

For those too young to remember, the early Nineties was the dark period of AIDS and the epidemic hit our club hard. I wouldn’t go as far as to say the club was decimated but it is true that we lost a large number of longtime members, and of course the AIDS Bike-A-Thon brought us a bigger profile and thus the club roster exploded to almost 400, many of whom were infected. I believe Ron was one of those folks, probably brought into the club because of the AIDS Bike-A-Thon. I’m not sure if Ron was an avid cyclist before the Bike-A-Thon or whether he was converted by us! I recall that Ron was regularly one of the most prolific fundraisers for BAT if not the most prolific. But I’d have to research the old BAT files (and Bay Area Reporters) to verify that. He rode in seven BATs.

It was probably no coincidence that Ron started his ride in 1995: the last AIDS BAT under Different Spokes was in 1994 (the 1995 and final BAT was run by Project Open Hand). The Ron Wilmot Ride for Project Inform shared one particular trait with the Bike-A-Thon: extremely low overhead. BAT prided itself on being able to give 100% of donations to beneficiary organizations (that wasn’t technically true in the last two years of BAT when in order to survive BAT named itself as one of the beneficiaries but even then the amount of money set aside for BAT was a pittance). The RWRFPI was able to hand over about 95% of donations to PI, meaning that overhead was just 5%, which is ridiculously low. In contrast I’ve read that the AIDS Lifecycle has an overhead somewhere between 30-40% (of course ALC also generates much more money overall). Ron was a big supporter of PI, personally raising more than $130,000 for the organization.

The first RWRFPI raised about $17,500 and garnered around 20 riders. So it wasn’t a big, flashy event. But the event lasted 13 years, the last one taking place in 2007. That little event managed to raise over $750,000 for Project Inform! Project Inform awarded him the Champion of Hope award in 1993 for his tireless support of the organization.

Ron died on February 5, 1997 at age 46 but not before he challenged the community to continue the RWRFPI and especially encouraging people with HIV to ride. He personally raised over $104,000 for AIDS causes. Incidentally Ron’s name is in the Circle of Friends in the SF AIDS Memorial Grove—see if you can find it the next time you walk through it.

Both BAT and the RWRFPI are no more. But the spirit of the event continues in the current Saddle Challenge as well as in the Double Bay Double. Perhaps the current lack of interest in the Saddle Challenge is partly due to fading memory. The deadly early days of the epidemic are ancient history for LGBT youth, the epidemic no longer garners headlines, and club members aren’t disappearing suddenly with their obituaries published in the BAR a few weeks later. It’s a different era.

The May/June 1998 ACLU of Northern California newsletter had a nice article about Ron, from which this is quoted: “Ron was HIV-positive for 18 years and devoted much of his energy raising money for AIDS organizations and educating himself and others about AIDS and AIDS treatments. He served on the advisory board of the Jewish Family and Children’s Services AIDS Project and was the first speaker in their ‘Putting a Face to AIDS’ speakers bureau. An avid cyclist who credited bicycling with keeping him asymptomatic for most of the years he was HIV-positive, Ron created a bike-a-thon to benefit Project Inform, an organization that provided him and others with accurate and up-to-date information on AIDS treatments. This lasting legacy that bears his name is held each May[sic]. The afternoon before his first bike-a-thon in 1995, Ron was taken to the emergency room after suffering a severe reaction to an experimental drug. Although he was hospitalized overnight, he nonetheless insisted on being at the bike-a-thon when it began at 10 a.m. Television crews had gathered awaiting the fundraiser’s creator. Ron’s friends got him out of the hospital 20 minutes before the event was to begin, and he appeared at the starting line, dressed in a biking outfit, perched on his bicycle to talk with reporters. [He did the ride too!] Ron’s partner, Jim O’Donnell, explained that Ron believed “Each life is meant to have a purpose, and it’s our responsibility to determine what our purpose is. For Ron, that meant giving back to the community he was part of and making it a better place.””

In case you missed the news, the Warm Springs BART station is finally going to open up for service in just two weeks, on Saturday March 25. You can read the details here. Warm Springs station is near the Tesla plant in Milpitas, about five miles further south than the Fremont BART station.

The new station will make getting to South Bay rides a little easier. Getting to Penitencia Creek Park, the traditional start of the Mt. Hamilton ride, will be a little bit shorter, 10 miles instead of 15 or 16. The return on BART for the SF to SJ ride will be more tempting, only 15 miles instead of 20, for those of us who live in the East Bay because returning by Caltrain will always involve a transfer over to BART anyway, and it’s a shorter BART ride if you start at Warm Springs.

The Warm Springs station is also a little closer to some great rides, Calaveras, Felter, and Sierra Roads (not to mention Mt. Hamilton). And if you like bike paths, the Coyote Creek path is very close by, which you can connect with the Guadalupe River path and then back to the southern part of the Coyote Creek trail and take it all the way to Anderson Reservoir in Morgan Hill.

Weekday and Saturday rides should be easily accessible because BART opens early. But Sunday rides are going to be somewhat constrained because the earliest train from SF leaves around 8 a.m. and arrives at Warm Springs by 9 a.m.

Chico Velo is well known for putting on the Chico Wildflower Century every April. It’s a huge event they’ve made successful despite being a “backwater”. A large number of SF Bay people, including quite a few Spokers, annually head northward to take part. What isn’t as well known is that Chico Velo has for many years sponsored a much smaller century every February called the Velo Love Ride and it takes place on the weekend on or just before Valentine’s Day. It was formerly known as the Rice Valley Tandem Rally because it runs through a major rice growing region of the Central Valley and is a favorite for tandems being virtually dead flat. I think the new name is a lot catchier, and face it: you have to really love bicycling to get out in February to do a big ride especially in years like 2017 when rain has been ever-present.

We did the Rice Valley Tandem Ride in 2011 and had a great time. The event was super low-key and the vibe was like back in the day when cycling was fringe and cyclists were members of a secret club with its own password and handshake. The ride took place south of Chico in Gridley and went around the Sutter Buttes, an anomalous set of volcanic lava domes in the middle of the Sacramento Valley. The route is the same today. The ride passes by the Gray Lodge Wildlife Viewing Area, lots of rice paddies full of fish and ducks, beautiful orchards, and of course the Buttes. So in addition to sporting cool scenery (both literally and figuratively), the route makes you feel like you have the whole world to yourself because it’s wide open yet so isolated. The event is practically like a family reunion—maybe a couple hundred altogether?—everybody seems to know each other, and the after-ride meal felt like a big family dinner. And it was delicious too!

We finally were able to head back this year. Despite this winter’s Biblical drenching with which we’ve been punished, the weekend of the Velo Love Ride was auspiciously dry. In 2011 we went up a day early and spent the night in the Motel 6 in Yuba City so we could get an early start. This year we decided instead to wake up super early and drive up in time for an 8 a.m. start. The Butte County Fairgrounds start is about a two-hour drive from our home. We got up there right on time and expected to see a bigger event having blossomed in our absence. Instead we see just two dozen cars parked at the start! Same as it ever was. Check in was no mosh pit: just a few people hanging out. Well, that just set the tone of the day. However even though it wasn’t raining, we found out that a short low-lying section of the route was flooded. But we could try to get through it if we wanted as it might be bikeable. They didn’t seem to know for sure, and actually no one seemed too bothered! We were just going to have a cool day on the bike. Whatever. We were already up there, so we were going to ride, period.

The metric route heads west out of Gridley and then drops south along orthogonal farm roads all the way to the tiny town of Sutter. As in 2011 the scenery was pristine and dripping with character and a world away from the typical Bay Area schmutz. I’m not sure how many people were doing the ride but until the “lunch” stop we saw only five other riders! We were on the tandem after a long abstinence and despite the gentle weather we were struggling at times to get back in the groove. But it was a day meant for a mellower pace rather than hammering.

In Sutter there were about a dozen folks at the lunch stop. The one snafu was that the bathrooms were locked and Chico Velo couldn’t rouse the fellow responsible for opening them. We also found out the flooded section, which was after lunch, wasn’t some shallow puddle across the road but was um, more lake-like. Not wanting to get soggy in the cool weather and not relishing the idea of having to repack the bottom brackets and pedals after the ride, we decided to turn around and head back the same way. Since the lunch was at the 30-mile point, the distance either way was about the same. After a satisfying handmade sandwich, plenty of snacks, and Cokes we rolled back to Gridley. It must have been the Cokes because we finally were hammering! Even though it was later in the day the car traffic was ridiculously low by Bay Area standards making for a pleasant, unharried roll. At the finish Chico Velo arranged to have a local Mexican restaurant, El Tamborazo, provide the post-ride meal. Hot Mexican food after a long ride: perfect! After heaping plates of delicious food and a hot cup of coffee, we were ready to zoom back to the Bay Area. We were home before 3:30 p.m. making for a nice, short day.

For atmosphere, righteous roads, and beautiful scenery, Spokers should definitely check it out next year.

Afternote: Little did we know that just hours after we split Gridley the emergency evacuation order due to the Oroville Dam would be announced. We were lucky not to have to endure an onerous traffic jam to get out of town! If we had done the full century, it might have been a different outcome.

Here is the follow up to my earlier post on 2017 century rides with updates. To see the earlier post, go here.

 

March

11 Saturday. Solvang Century. $125 online/$115 mail in. Registration is open. Preregistration closes on Feb. 22. After that you can do day of event registration but the cost goes up to $130.

April

23 Sunday. Primavera Century. $70. Registration is open. The Primavera is currently about 75% sold.

29 Saturday. Mount Hamilton Challenge. Still no word on whether this venerable event will take place in 2017.

30 Sunday. Chico Wildflower Century. $75 until 1/31, then goes up to $85; $100 onsite registration (if they have any slots, which is never).

May

6 Saturday. Wine Country Century. Registration opens on 2/1—soon!—and they will sell out in a couple of days if history is a guide. Cost is $87/200k or 100 mi; $77/100k; $62/35 mi.

7 Sunday. Delta Century. $52.50 for 100 century or metric. No information on whether there is a limit this year.

7 Sunday. Grizzly Peak Century. $60; $70 after 4/15. Registration is now open. This has a cap of only 1,000 and usually sells out.

21 Sunday. Strawberry Fields Forever. Registration is now open.

June

4 Sunday. Sequoia Century. $80 for 100 mi; $70 for 72 mi; $65 for 64 mi; $40 for 44 mi. All go up $10 after 2/17. Registration is now open.

17 Saturday. Mile High 100. $75 for 100 mi; $55 for metric; $55 for half metric.Registration is open. If you’re interested in getting far away from the Bay Area, this is for you. Ride starts in Chester, CA and takes in Lake Almanor.

24 Saturday. Alta Alpina Challenge. This is the “other” Death Ride. $120-$70 depending on which route you ride. You can also make up your own route including as many passes as you want. Cost goes up after 5/1.

24 Saturday. Climb to Kaiser. $95 until 1/31; $110 until 6/11; $125 thereafter. This is a real killer, even more deadly than the Death Ride: 155 miles with 15k vertical. Since it starts in Fresno, you always have extreme heat to make it extra nice. But it’s closer than going to Markleeville!

July

8 Saturday. Markleeville Death Ride. $125. Registration opened on 1/17 and they are very likely completely full.

29 Saturday. Devil’s Slide Ride. $45-90 depending on route, until 2/20 then goes up quite a bit. This used to be the Giro de Peninsula and started at the old Bay Meadows race track in San Mateo; now it starts in Pacifica. The century is a scenic run down Hwy 1 to Pescadero and up Alpine (!) to Skyline and back on Sharp Park. The metric cuts the route down by returning over Tunitas Creek.

29 Saturday. Santa Cruz Mountains Challenge. $55-65. Registration is open now. 135/101/75/45 mi. Lots of climbing in the Santa Cruz Mtns. and it’s not too far from the Bay Area.

August

5 Saturday. Marin Century. $110-30 depending on route; increases on 2/5 and then again on 5/1, 6/1, and 7/1. 200/136/107/96/60/30 mi. This is club fav but also for thousands of others, so you are warned. Food on this one is quite good, which makes up for the crowd scene.

20 Sunday. Tour of Napa. 100/65/40/35 mi. No information yet but date is confirmed. This is also club fav and lots of Spokers will likely attend. Food is typically quite good also.

September

10 Sunday. Motherlode Century. This century has been moved from April to September for 2017. If the Mt. Hamilton Challenge fails to be offered this year, you won’t be able to fall back on the Motherlode, alas. Otherwise no additional details.

23 Saturday. Lighthouse Century. 100/85/65 mi. $75. Registration not yet open. Venerable century starting in Morro Bay on the Central Coast. Route goes over Green Valley to Templeton and then back to the coast up to San Simeon and a return to Morro Bay.

October

7 Saturday. Best of the Bay. 203 or 114 mi. $100 until 2/28, then goes up. Registration opens on 2/1. This is an East Bay climbing route starting in Castro Valley: Skyline, Grizzly Peak, Redwood, Norris Cyn., Diablo, Calaveras. If this ride coincides with a heat wave, you’ll be in for a real gruesome treat.

21 Saturday. Foxy Fall Century. Registration opens 6/1. 100, metric, or 50k. Enjoyable flattish ride in the Davis exurbs. Limit of 1500 and it will sell out.

22 Sunday. Canyon Classic. $59 until 91, then $69, or $80 same day. 112, 91, or 53 mi. The Canyon Classic used to be in June, when it was usually hot. Now it’s in October and that’s likely to make it a less sweltering. However Del Puerto Canyon is likely to be dried out and arid in October instead of green. Lovely ride up Del Puerto and down to Livermore and back to Patterson after some flat Valley miles. The metric goes up Del Puerto and back down for Valley miles. The 91-mile is up Del Puerto and to the top of Mt. Hamilton and back.

Check out the new kit that DSSC has in store for 2017. Having a nice new kit for 2016 apparently wasn’t enough, so they have a new one for this year! To see the whole thing and to place an order, go here. Makes me think that we should have something as well since it’s our club’s 35th anniversary…