Just thought I’d do a brief report on the rides I did. Both were a blast. It’s fun to really make use of one’s training and experience mountain rides.
My first ride was on routes 30/11/121/Windham Hill Road and back to the campground. The pavement was OK for most of it. There were definitely some cracks to watch out for but most of the time the traffic was light enough that I could take more of the lane to avoid them when necessary. Route 11 had the most traffic and the most times that cars came close as there wasn’t always a wide shoulder. The best pavement and least traffic were on 121 and Windham Hill Road. The latter being my favorite part of the ride. There were some straight parts that allowed for decent speed. I topped out at 46. But the most fun was the last couple of miles with its grades up to 15%. This was my first experience with the need for high speed braking. Most of the steep grades I’ve done in the past were fairly straight and I would just go. The combination of me not knowing the road, the steepness and the twists meant I had to brake. Even with the braking, I still took most of the last part in the low 40s. So much fun!
Stats:
56.01 miles
3:07:37
17.91 average
5222 feet elevation gain
My second ride was pretty much an out and back from Bald Mountain campground to Mt. Snow. It involved taking route 30 to 100 south. Unlike the first ride with its undulating terrain, this ride was consistently up on the way out and down on the way back. The last six or so miles featured grades of between 8 and 11%. After reaching the highest point, there was a brief 8% descent and then shortly thereafter I turned around at Mt. Snow’s north access road. I admit to holding things in check on the main descent. I knew the road as I had just come up it but the pavement was far from perfect and there were some corners. Mostly I held my speed back by just sitting up and rarely had to apply the actual brakes. I still topped out at 47 and had a big smile on my face. After the big drop, the rest was still steadily downhill so I kept up a good pace and partially offset the slow ascent.
Stats:
44.60 miles
2:29:30
17.90 average
3787 feet elevation gain
It’s cool how fast one can acclimate to that kind of terrain. It makes most of the hills I regularly ride look very small. Most of the hills I do aren’t long enough to get in a steady rhythm but you do get into that on the long ascents. You get used to the speed of the descents too.
