WOW Ride #13 - Steese Highway Climber Gravel Ride
Where are all the WOW? Nobody has showed up except me for the past 2 weeks. It was just, me, myself and I again. Was it the fact that we had planned a climby gravel ride? I know that WOW love hills! Was it the fact that the only time we got any precipitation this week was during the two-hour ride tonight? Anyway, after procrastinating for five minutes waiting to see if the drizzle would stop and if there were any late riders showing up (no to both of those), I got out of the car and decided to ride by myself.
It was actually a great night for this ride. The slight drizzle kept me cool on all the climbs – I definitely did not overheat. I had put together the route on RidewithGPS but hadn’t totally vetted it. So I’m glad I rode it tonight. There were several places where the RidewithGPS map said the connection went through, but when I got there, it didn’t. I had to reroute several times (i.e, backtrack up steep hills for more climbing!) to keep going. I promise I will make the needed changes to the route before we do it again! But it was a really fun route. Sorry, everybody missed it.
Next week is the Annual Butterfly Ride where all FCC members are invited to do this fun ride up and down a lot of hills with us. And there will be cookies afterwards.
Stats:
Distance: 24 miles (was supposed to be 21 but I got all those bonus miles with backtracking several times)
Elevation Gain: 2940 feet
Average Speed: 10.6 mph – I tried to go hard but with no other WOW to chase, I know I eased off more than I would have with others around.
