the bike ride
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Friday I biked up to camp Nauvoo. The trip is almost exactly fifty miles by bike, all up hill.
I planned to leave by 7:00am, yeah right, I left around 8:30. the first leg is easy hop on the bike path at Arden and follow it into Folsom, and the morning was great out. Lake Natomas was like a mirror. In Folsom I waited for the bike shop to open so I could buy some bike shorts, they were more expensive there (a lot more expesive) then they would have been at my usual place but it was on the way and I needed the shorts.
Anyway, it is about 10:30 when I reach Green Valley Rd where I refill my water at a Taco Bell and begin the second leg. This is the stretch from Folsom to Placerville, the steepest stretch and the longest. At Cameron Park I stop for Lunch. I have the chose between Quik stop, a Mexican place, and a Chinese food place I went with the lunch special at the Chinese food place figuring the rice would be a good chose. The rice was the beef and broccoli on the other hand, not so much.
The second leg ends at Missouri Flats Rd where the is the fist real shopping center on the route I stop and buy a Sobe and a bottle of sunblock, then I sit in the shade of the parking lot and deliberately slather myself with it and sip the Sobe. The people passing seem to think I am dying, I had thought that about myself more that once on the ride up.
The third leg was the mystery. I had never gone those last ten miles and I had some concerns about biking down a street named “pretty good rd.” The first problem with the third leg is that the roads are busier than the second leg and in many places they have no shoulder to bike on. This means I ended up walking my bike on the gravel at the side of the road for several stretches of indeterminable length.
The next problem is the directions that I had found in an attempt to avoid busy streets
Took me .4 miles down a street that had a sign at the main road reading “road ends 3/10 mile” at the bottom of the hill there is an empty field and a house. I knock on the door and nobody answers even though I hear people inside, I suddenly feel like I am on my mission again. I start back up the hill to where I there had been good pavement leading off to the right I figure it was just a drive way but I figure it is worth checking. It was a drive way but this lady actually answered her door, she told me the neighbors behind her where on “pretty good rd” and she thought that if I could get through the field at the bottom of the road I should be able to get on it. I had to carry my bike through a creek bed full of poison oak but I found Pretty Good Rd. It was of course dirt and it took a while headed the wrong direction for me to get oriented but I did.
Once I was back on the pavement it was fun time I took a lane and began the decent into the valley. I don’t have a computer for my bike so I don’t know how fast I was going, but the wind in my ears sounded like a train passing me (without the click-ity-clack of course.) when I got into camp I left my bike at the meadow and walked into the creek like some kind of zombie. I had done it.
And oddly enough for the second time this summer I felt out of shape.
pedal pedal pedal pedal pedal pedal pedal pedal pedal pedal pedal pedal pedal pedal pedal
Friday I biked up to camp Nauvoo. The trip is almost exactly fifty miles by bike, all up hill.
I planned to leave by 7:00am, yeah right, I left around 8:30. the first leg is easy hop on the bike path at Arden and follow it into Folsom, and the morning was great out. Lake Natomas was like a mirror. In Folsom I waited for the bike shop to open so I could buy some bike shorts, they were more expensive there (a lot more expesive) then they would have been at my usual place but it was on the way and I needed the shorts.
Anyway, it is about 10:30 when I reach Green Valley Rd where I refill my water at a Taco Bell and begin the second leg. This is the stretch from Folsom to Placerville, the steepest stretch and the longest. At Cameron Park I stop for Lunch. I have the chose between Quik stop, a Mexican place, and a Chinese food place I went with the lunch special at the Chinese food place figuring the rice would be a good chose. The rice was the beef and broccoli on the other hand, not so much.
The second leg ends at Missouri Flats Rd where the is the fist real shopping center on the route I stop and buy a Sobe and a bottle of sunblock, then I sit in the shade of the parking lot and deliberately slather myself with it and sip the Sobe. The people passing seem to think I am dying, I had thought that about myself more that once on the ride up.
The third leg was the mystery. I had never gone those last ten miles and I had some concerns about biking down a street named “pretty good rd.” The first problem with the third leg is that the roads are busier than the second leg and in many places they have no shoulder to bike on. This means I ended up walking my bike on the gravel at the side of the road for several stretches of indeterminable length.
The next problem is the directions that I had found in an attempt to avoid busy streets
Took me .4 miles down a street that had a sign at the main road reading “road ends 3/10 mile” at the bottom of the hill there is an empty field and a house. I knock on the door and nobody answers even though I hear people inside, I suddenly feel like I am on my mission again. I start back up the hill to where I there had been good pavement leading off to the right I figure it was just a drive way but I figure it is worth checking. It was a drive way but this lady actually answered her door, she told me the neighbors behind her where on “pretty good rd” and she thought that if I could get through the field at the bottom of the road I should be able to get on it. I had to carry my bike through a creek bed full of poison oak but I found Pretty Good Rd. It was of course dirt and it took a while headed the wrong direction for me to get oriented but I did.
Once I was back on the pavement it was fun time I took a lane and began the decent into the valley. I don’t have a computer for my bike so I don’t know how fast I was going, but the wind in my ears sounded like a train passing me (without the click-ity-clack of course.) when I got into camp I left my bike at the meadow and walked into the creek like some kind of zombie. I had done it.
And oddly enough for the second time this summer I felt out of shape.
posted by a.lost.boy | 10:00 PM
3 Comments:
D.C. mayor makes blogging debut
In his first and only entry since the blog launched last week, Williams--or Tony, as he nicknames himself on the site--muses about what he should post on his "modern high-tech" diary.
Regards
Duncan
Helping you buy and sell your house at
connecticut
Wow. Didn't know that you could get Blogged-Spammed.
That bike ride sounds crazy. Whatever possessed you to do it, and how did you get home?
I think that's awesome Darren. You set a goal and accomplished it, and that's one of the best feelings. I am glad to hear it was quite an adventure, particularily because I feel most people don't go on enough adventures. Or even try to venture outside of thier normal mundane routine. It really is important to as they say stop and smell the flowers or see whats just around the bend or in your case go on a 50 mile bike ride. I applaud you in you spirit of adventure and determination. Let us know where the next 50 mile bike ride leads you to. :-)
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