Ride day! And hopefully, a good ride – not long, maybe, but lots of climbing. We HAVE to get our riding ability back!

So, we’re going to go back to Rattlesnake Recreation Area and try to find the trail we couldn’t find last time. We’ll see how it goes.

So, how did it go. Not so well. I looked at the map and came up with a plan – a good one! Forgot one little detail – always, ALWAYS verify on the map that you are going the right way when you get to an intersection. Did I say ALWAYS? Yeah, I meant that. So, I missed a turn. Took us back half-way up the trail we took up last time – you know, the one from HELL. At least we knew not to go THERE. Well, we DID go up a little bit, to get to the Wallman Trail. I thought I read that that one was not TOO tough – not a lot of climbing. Yeah, well, I might have been confused about that as well. It WAS a very beautiful ride, extremely scenic on the way down – here’s a shot of that:

See? Beautiful! The first half-mile was flat, as was the last (since it was the same trail!), but that was all. If I thought the climb was steep, the downhill on the other side was even worse! Ok, very glad we did not ride it the other direction, because it would not have happened – we were not about to take our bikes on a two to three mile hike up a hill – did that last year, thank-you-very-much. And the bad part is, it was SO steep, it was not any fun to ride, as you were always worried about slipping on the rocks, or the brakes giving out, or overheating, or … constant worry. What do I mean? Here’s the elevation profile:

Click on it to get a close look at the numbers! Now, once the REALLY steep part ended, THAT last part was fun, but way too short. Almost 1,700 feet of climbing, all told. Whew! And only nine miles! Great ride, though! Oh, and a steady, STEADY climb – that little dip at the 3.5 mile mark? That’s where I rode back to check on The Bear. There was no respite, ’cause I just had to do it again!

Ok, ride done, BEER! Went to the KettleHouse in the South part of town, and they had a pretty good Bongwater Hemp Porter. A little on the bitter side, but otherwise very good.

After that, GSD – stuff for the trailer, skull caps to see if they work better than the sweat bands, and food. Can’t wait for tomorrow – maybe TWO rides!