A Couple of Good Days

The weather still sucks -- winter just won't leave -- but I can't wait any longer.  Cohutta 100 is just six weeks away so I have to ride or not go.   I cleared Saturday afternoon after piano lessons and logged 67 miles by looping through north columbus and back.  A cold windy day, but the strong winds were out of the west and so I got a nice tailwind push on the way home.  Oh, and fatbike all the way.

Today I took a day off from work to log another long ride.  This time I went to Dresden, South to Zanesville and then back through the hills home.  Stats were 85 miles, 6:15 on the clock, 5100 ft vertical.   The ride was truly epic in a number of ways.  First the weather was cold and super blustery -- air temps of 32 deg with 25 mph winds from the west giving a windchill of about 22.  It also rained a ton yesterday which factors in the story too.

My route started heading east on flat bike paths and country roads.  I hit 25 mph with the strong tailwind push and averaged 17mph without working.  I got to race a train through Newark which was a treat since there are rarely trains on that track.  I could almost reach out over the 3ft fence and touch the box cars moving right along side me.  I snapped this nice pic of a dilapidated farm house; seemed scenic framed by that tree.  I wonder who used to live there. 

Once I hit Dresden things got tough.  I turned south on SR666 and had a glancing wind from the side and partially from the front.  My speed slowed to 10-14 mph.  To make things more interesting, there was a stretch of SR666 advertised as closed, but it was nearly all the way to Zanesville.  I decided to take a chance that I could somehow get around it instead of heading back already. 

When I got near the construction zone it was clear that a long part of the road was closed so it wasn't suitable for a simple walk-a-round.  I detoured further east on some remote gravel roads.  The climb up from SR666 was super steep (20% in places) and a real tough dig.   The detour added only about 3 miles extra distance, but it was a super tough 3 miles. 

I got lunch in Zanesville and then started the hard slog home.  3+ hours straight into a 25mph headwind.  At times I was struggling on flat ground to go 10mph.  It was that impossible.  I knew today would be a character building day.  I knew it would be a mental slog home.  I made it.

The first stretch back had two major ascents followed by hilly ridge top riding.  It added substantial climbing and the fatbike is a super pig when the road goes up.  I hope that if I train enough on the fatbike, my race rocket will feel extra fast come race day.  

After the two ridges, I dropped to Toboso and got on the Blackhand Gorge bikepath.  Snapped a nice pic of a waterfall.  With all the rain, there were lots of healthy runs coming down crevices in the ridgelines.  

However, my next big obstacle came at the stream crossing at mile 3.5 on the gorge trail.  There is a stream crossing which is normally an inch or two deep.  But today it was 2 to 3 feet deep in fast moving water.  With temps around 25 deg it would be suicide to get wet.   Initially I thought I would have to go all the way back to Toboso and then make my way north back to the bike path.  This would be at least an 8 mile detour.  I really didn't want to do this.  Then I noticed a fallen tree across the creek.  It seemed big and sturdy enough.  But one wrong move and I'd plunge in to deep, cold, fast moving water.   Or I might drop my bike and watch it go floating out to sea (with little chance of retrieving it).  It was a big risk but I decided to take it.  I inched my way across the narrow, mossy, slippery log.  The 35 lb fatbike made things very difficult.  I took it one slow, careful step at a time.  And made it high and dry.  Problem solved.  Adventure by Bike indeed!  

On the way back, Mother Nature threw some snow in my face for good measure.  As if the 25 mph headwind wasn't enough.  I think MN was afraid I was going to win and make it back home safely!