The Long Rain

After getting rained out last week I finally got my Cocoluxe ride in this weekend. Its seems this summer the rain has been persistent and endless. This past week was a dreary rain filled week and I was concerned that it would spill over into Saturday but it didn't. Saturday turned out to be cloudy but no chance of rain. A few of my regulars had to beg off the ride so it ended up being just me Ricky and Pete.

I have started from this location 6 or 7 times and have been tweaking to route to find some good road, good downhills and minimal traffic. This is a hilly area so you can't avoid climbing but what I tried to do is to do the easier more gentle hills. Of course the climbing starts 3/4 of a mile from the start and doesn't really stop for 20 miles but its mostly in the 3-4% range with a few downhills along to way to recover.

Even though Ricky was on his new old 2001Cannondale (Sorry Jim forgot to get a picture) he was still faster than me up the hills. Pete wasn't far behind him and I was bringing up the rear. We did this route. This route was the same as last years as I couldn't find any way to improve it.

The longest climb of the day was up Rockaway and Guinea Hollow. In 6 miles we gained about 600 feet. It's a slow steady climb so its not a problem and the scenery is good. The climbing continued until we got to Long Valley where we had a screaming downhill before getting to our rest stop at Quick Check.

We had a few more hills to climb on the way back with a few more good downhills including a few we could have taken air on if we wanted to. Besides the roads by the lake at the end of the ride all the other roads were pot hole free. I think I called out "Hole" maybe once during the ride.

For 3000 ft of climbing I felt pretty good at the end of the ride and stopped by Cocoluxe for a couple brownies on my way out of Gladstone.

I know there is more rain ahead as the remnants of Florence are headed this way but hopefully the weekends will remain clear so we can enjoy the fall weather.