True Lies

The fact that I have a ride called the "Lying Bastard" that I look forward to every year no longer seems strange to me. Lying doesn't seem to have the same impact it use to any more since there seems to be a lot more of it now. In fact someone this week said "truth isn't truth" so maybe I will just call the ride "The Bastard" in the future since that is the way most of my fellow rides refer to me now.

If you are unfamiliar with how my Lake Nockamixon ride became the Lying Bastard ride you can read this post. The short version is I sometimes under represent the difficulties of some of the climbs and that seems to drive some people to profanity. At this point however after doing this ride for over five years most people know what to expect and just use this ride to abuse my character.

The hot and humid weather had finally broken so the weather for this years ride was perfect, sunny, cool and low humidity. I had the usual gang join me, Jack, Ricky Laura and Blake and even had some unexpected people like Joe M and Paul I. There was also a new person on the ride Laurie who was not fazed by the title of the ride.

We started from Frenchtown and did this route. The ride starts with a slow easy climb to Ottsville on Headquarters Rd. Since there is a bridge out there is almost no traffic and except for the part near the bridge out (which is easy to ride through) the road is in decent shape.

After Ottsville we road along the ridge where we got some good views of the valley. The roads aren't flat but it is more rolling than hilly.

Some where along the way Laura had a flat. Her fourth one this year, even though she just put on new tires. I saw something fly off her tire as I heard it go pssst and go flat so she definitely hit something in the road. So this was a case of bad luck. A close examination of her tire showed a tiny hole in the side wall. A new tube and a dollar bill to patch the hole and we were on our way to Perkasie our rest stop. I had to put the rest stop early in the ride at mile 20 because there aren't may places around the lake to stop. Our usual coffee shop was out of business so we had to do with a CVS and Dunk'n Donuts.

After the rest stop I put in the FU hill for the ride because there always has to be one steep hill nobody was expecting just to make sure someone calls me a bastard during the ride. This climb was not as hard as expected. It was over 10% but less than 15% and was short. It was probably the best way to get over the ridge to the north side of the lake.

 From there we road through the roads and forests on the north side of the lake. These are quiet roads with no traffic and a great place to ride. There are no flat spots and you are always either climbing or descending so it is a bit draining. There are even a few annoying little climbs along the way. I think part of why people think this ride is harder than described is that there is really no easy spots that we can just cruse along on.

The people on the ride kept asking when we are going to see the lake and I had to remind them that the ride description said this would be a ride around the lake. There was no mention of actually seeing it. However we did get a glimpse of the north east side where see saw a radio controlled boat ripping around the lake.

We had another quick rest stop at a Turkey Hill store on 413 before heading downhill to Frenchtown. Last year I took Quarry Rd back which some gravel (OK foot deep gravel for a mile) that some people complained about because of like almost killing themselves and stuff. I don't remember it being that bad but I took a slightly different way back that didn't require go over gravel. We did go down the Red Circle of Death (Red Cliff Rd) again which is a some what dangerous but fun downhill before making our way back to Frenchtown.

The TRUTH about this ride is that it is a good route if you don't mind a few hills. This ride is FUN because of the healthy dis-R-E-S-E-P-E-C-T (RIP Aretha) and playful banter that come with riding with my somewhat insane friends. I'm happy to be called a Lying Bastard if we can do more rides like this. 

PFW Metric Event Ride

The first Saturday in August is usually the day of the PFW event. The club decided not to do the event this year because of falling ridership and the hassle of staffing it. I agree with the decision but still wanted to ride an event type route so I put a few routes together and posted them to the PFW Facebook account to see if I could get some other leaders to join me. I was thinking it might be like a adhoc all paces ride but it didn't really work out as I expected. I think the main problem was the weather.

I put posted a metric for Saturday and Laura posted a Century because she always does a century on the day of the event. We ended up getting rained out on Saturday so had to reschedule for Sunday. Like most of the PFW event days it was a hot and sunny day. I rode down from my house to Mercer park. Chris and Linda were already there and we were soon join by Andrew then Laura, Jack, and Ricky rode in. The last person to arrive was Sergey. Because of the heat Linda wasn't sure if she was going to do the century or metric but since we were going to ride together until mile 45 she didn't have to decide now.

It in the mid 70s when we started but the humidity made it feel a lot hotter. The route I had planned was similar to a century I had done a couple of years ago. I made some modification so that we would pass by enough Wawa's and other stores to keep us well fed.

We maintained a nice relaxed pace as we went through the Assumpink and wound our way down to the Wawa in Jackson. The first stop was only 21 miles into the ride but I wanted to stop early because I knew it was going to be a long ride and because I know a lot of the other people already had a 8-10 miles before the start.

From there we headed to Cassville and then on to New Egypt for our second stop. The humidity had decreased but the sun was still hot. Besides the water in my camelback I also had a bottom of pure Gatorade that I was drinking through out the ride so I actually felt OK at the 45 mile mark. Not good enough to do a century but I knew I shouldn't have a problem making it back.

New Egypt is where the group split up. I headed north with metric ride and Laura, Linda (who decided to do the century) and Ricky headed south for an extra 35 miles. When I created the metric route I decided to come back Hill Rd. In hindsight it probably wasn't the best idea putting the hills near the end of a long ride. The group spread out a little but nobody had a problem with the hills.

By the time we got to Allentown I was starting to feel the heat and miles. I asked if anybody needed a stop but we decided just to grind out the last 8 miles to the end. We actually did make a quick stop in Allentown as I saw Ron by Woody's so we stopped for a few minutes to talk to him.

As we crossed 130 and rode on Meadow Rd I was starting to fade a little. I had drank as much Gatoraid as my stomach could handle and taken a clif shot. It definitely helped me make it through the ride but I had weird sugar buzz on while feeling dehydrated.

I led everybody back to the park then headed for home. Jack followed me to get a few more miles. He had ridden in from home and needed the extra miles to get a century in. I was happy to get 74 mile in. I cramped up about a mile from my house but was able to push through it and get home.

It felt really good to finally be off the bike and in air conditioning. After Jack left I had to sit down on the floor for 15 mins just to get enough energy to clean up and get something to eat.

It took me a hour and a half to be able to be truly functional again. I'm glad I didn't try for a century especially after hearing that Laura cramped up at the end of the ride. In heat like we had today I can only stay hydrated for so long so 74 was more than enough for me.