OK what kind of joker rides uphill for 35-miles (on gravel & dirt roads)? Myself comes to mind and so does the SeanMan. We seem to like adventurous, torturous backroad rides - roadbikes are for wimps seems to be my most recent moto. Anyway I invited the SeanMan but he had some sort of undisputable family obligation today in some Idaho town renown for its redneck, hickness. Let me say that you missed out SeanMan!
It was a nice long 35-miles uphill. Well not all of it was hard - only about 13 continuous miles of pure steep uphill caused leg-burning pain and about 20-miles of it were done at super-sonic speeds just so the legs would understand that the burn is normal (climbing or not). There were times during that continuous 13-mile stretch that my legs felt numb, but they kept on turning the pedals. Maybe next time a mountain bike with slightly easier gears would be a wiser choice over the cross bike with its bigger gears.
My real intent today was to do a loop, but my spring ambition is far ahead of the snow melt at the >5000 foot elevation level so half-way into my ride (that was 35-miles after I started) I ran into impassable snow fields. I had already waded through several knee deep runs of snow, but at the top it was endless knee deep snow on my chosen route. I was not very happy about going back along the same route, but the smoking fast downhill got me smiling again. By the time I got home my legs were fairly toasted. I'm sure that riding for the last 6-days did not help - I need to start working again so my legs can get some rest...dang being a nurse working 3-days a week is tough.
