We decided on a 75 mile loop that extended west and then south of Eminence. We took 106 west out to Summerville and then 17 down to Mountain View. The ride down to Summerville went through Alice Springs - steep drop into a river valley which we then had to climb out of. The climb was very challenging and was made worse by a couple of extremely annoying horse flies that kept buzzing around my head as I climbed. I hate things buzzing around my head in general, and it's made much worse when I can't swat at them because I'm gripping my handlebars and trying to maintain my balance while climbing up a hill at 5 MPH. As soon as I crested the hill I rocketed away to shake the annoying flies.
We cruised down 17 which was a fairly busy highway but once againt the drivers were very courteous. More mental notes - double digit roadways were a little busy and connected strings of larger towns. Lettered and triple digit roadways were local town to town or "backroad" roadways and were relatively free of traffic. More adjustments to the routes.
We stopped off at a gas station in Mountain View to top off our water bottles and get some food. Several locals looked with curiosity at us and our bikes. The girl working the cash register said they rarely see cyclists down there.
We took SR W out of town and connected to SR TT which turned into SR T. Along these roads everyone seemed to have dogs. The dogs were not chained. The dogs were either very fast, very peristent or both. One Basset Hound chased us for a 1/4 mile before finally giving up. He never got very close but persistently loped along after us. If either of us had crashed he would of eventually caught up to us and probably drowned us in slobber. Fortunately, neither of us got bit and we both got in a couple of pretty spirited sprints along this portion of the route.
From SR T we took 99 up to 60. Despite being a double digit highway 99 had pretty low traffic. It weaved through a portion of Mark Twain national forest that was absolutely stunning. The rest of the road ambled past horse and cow farms as it made its way north up to 60. Another jog on 60 to 19 and we were home for the night.
That evening we ate at the same restaurant as the night before because the only other restaurants in town were closed for dinner. In addition there was no pasta, and they were out of chicken and fish.
Workout Summary
2 comments:
what happened to Eminence days 3, 4, 5 and six?
Click on the May archive links - all of them should show up then.
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