Birdlady42
This morning started out well. We stayed in a guest house, which doesn’t serve breakfast, so we crossed into town for a diner breakfast. After pancakes the size of our heads, we crossed the street to the bike shop and found some chain lube. We had washed the grit off our bikes yesterday morning, but they squeaked all day after that. Brian got the chains taken care of and we got packed up and headed out. We had even seen a peek of the sun before we set out. Good omen, right?
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| Just a little rock…. |
We had 30+ miles of climbing ahead of us, but we’ve done it before, so it seemed doable even without training. We knew that not far ahead was where a large rock slide had occurred last Saturday, but that they had cleared the small rocks and built out the trail a bit to the other side to keep it passable. Kind of terrifying, knowing it had just happened, but what are you going to do? Then shortly after that, a pair of cyclists going the other way stopped to tell us about yet another new tree across the trail. We joked that was nothing new! They said they had broken a bit of a path around it to the right (our left) of the trail. Ugh! We have a friend that does Adventure Cycling and we’ve said we’d never be interested in that. I think we’ve earned our member card this week. Getting down around and over the trunks was not easy, but then coming from our direction, we had to get back up a small embankment to get back onto the trail (they had only gone down it since it wasn’t very steep going the other way).
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| Going off trail to get around yet another tree |
The rest of the trail was really uneventful in terms of conditions today. About 18 or 19 miles through we got into Rockwood where we knew there was a great little place for lunch. After an amazing lunch and picking up some Amish pastries for the road, we went back out – to rain. We had packed away all our now dry rain gear. In a highly optimistic move, we only put on our jackets and the covers for our helmets. It really did end up being the right decision. The rain was never extremely heavy, but we were definitely getting wet. But it wasn’t too cold, so it wasn’t bad.
I did get frustrated with my stupid lungs. I’ve got mild exercise asthma. It’s been so under control most of my adult life that I forget what it feels like to get into trouble. Strange, right? Anyway, I started the week with a mild, but annoying chest cold. Also, did I mention we’ve climbed 1600 feet in the past two days? Higher altitude equals less oxygen density. And the cold meant my lungs were already being taxed. I started coughing and then realized the reason my muscles were not happy was because they weren’t getting quite enough oxygen. I finally wised up and took my rescue inhaler. Yay! Suddenly my body was happy with me again. I honestly need to take it at the beginning of rides at these altitudes with my cold.
One of the things on this leg of the trip that I was worried about is a gigantic bridge over a gorge. That gorge contains a large river, I think a railroad track, an interstate and another road. I swear it’s a mile long! Last time, there was a woman at the west end that could NOT bring herself to get onto it. Part of her group was on the other side waiting and some were on her side trying to help her get over it. I just went by and pedaled as fast as I could. Today it came up unexpectedly because I couldn’t remember what mile marker it was at. Again, I just pedaled as fast as I could and got over it. The adrenaline that dumps is insane when you have an irrational fear. So I just used that, focused on the far, far side and got over it.
Not long after that (so there was still plenty of adrenaline), Brian hit his brakes suddenly, I look down and it was because there was a snake on the trail. It was little, but next to heights, it’s up there on my irrational fear list. All that adrenaline helped carry me through to our stop tonight. We’re at a cute old building that’s converted into an eclectically decorated guest house right by the tracks. And for the 3rd night in a row, we’re the only people here. The proprietors of the places are saying people have cancelled due to trail conditions and weather. And that the hurricane coming towards the coast right now is already starting to hurt next week’s reservations. It’s kind of creepy to be in a big strange house all by yourself in a tiny town in the mountains. Very Stephen King story line evoking…..
Sweet dreams!