Left EARLY Saturday morning...up 77 and 81 to Pa. Pretty uneventful trip, thankfully. But a question popped up? At what point in life does a 9 hour trip in the car become really GD long? I used to do this trip 3 or 4 times a year...like it was nothing. Saturday felt like it sort of went on forever....
No matter. The weather was good, and traffic wasn't terrible. Beats the hell out of driving up I-95 through Richmond/DC/Baltimore.
Got up Sunday, kitted up and headed out. I had a little bit of a plan, but you know how plans go.
Didn't really get punched in the mouth, but I missed a turn, which took me on a different route than I had mapped out. Oh well. It felt like a normal Sunday ride with Dean. "Hey...where does this road go?"
As you can see, it's fairly terrible here. I ended up with right at 39 miles and 2900ft. of climbing. It ain't flat in SE Pa. Plenty of 10-12% pitches, and one that was was a miserable 17%. If you come this way, bring a compact. What the climbs lack in length, they make up for in steepness.
So yeah...the "day-after-a-long-car-ride" easy spin plan was shot in the hiney.
Yesterday, it was rainy and gray. CX bike it is. I headed over to Marsh Creek State Park to hit the service roads, and a few of the easier sections of singletrack. Again...missed a turn, and a ended up on a few trails that were CLEARLY not designed for 35c tires. I'm a better-than-most bike handler, but there were more than a few sections that were WELL outside my skillset.
Really? A rocky, rooty, creek crossing that went UP about 6 feet. Erm...nope! Good thing I had the toe spikes.
About 90% of the trails were great. Smooth, flowy, nice ups and downs. The other 10% required dismounting, so I took it as an opportunity to practice some CX skills. Off-Run-On. Worked pretty well until I rounded a corner on the bike, and slipped off the completely superfluous boardwalk. Landed squarely on a big root, & BOOM! Rear flat.
Time for a nice little walk in the woods. Hiked about a mile to a gravel road, and changed the tube.
As I had no more spares, I skipped the rest of the singletrack, and finished up on the gravel and MUT. Another fun 2 hours, though my ankles and knees are a bit unhappy with me this morning. Running is bad for you.
The remainder of my day was filled with a trip to Whole Foods, and a nap. ManCation.
The plan today was to get up, and get on the road bike for about 3 hours. It's 51 degrees, the wind is blowing, and it's pissing rain. It's June! Get your shit together Pennsylvania!! I brought a baselayer and a vest, but no armwarmers.
There's an LBS around the corner, so I guess I'll hike over there and see what they have. The only problem is the fact that they don't open until 11. EVERY DAY. Oh, and they're also going out of business. I don't have an MBA from The Darla Moore School of Business, but methinks there may be a correlation.
I guess today will be my 'rest' day. Or I'll go out later for a bit. Whatever. I'm on ManCation...gotta be fluid.
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