Ride Lugged

john dunlop is my new hero. i was out on a ride today, against centre county weather advisories. i forgot my helmet and my gloves. i was going to do a 50 mile loop with roughly 7000 feet of climbing, and just as much descending…on 90% gravel roads. i wanted to ride in the mountains, as its cooler, and the shade is fairly consistent. also, i knew i would be downing some serious water, as it was almost 100 degrees out, so i plotted my route near 3 springs.

before i even got to the mountain, my shirt was soaked though, and i was dripping sweat from my elbows onto my pants, which were becoming saturated. let it be known here that i have forsaken all non natural materials for road cycling, and i was wearing a seersucker shirt and cotton shorts with cotton underwear. i started my climb up tussey mtn, which starts around 700 ft, and climbs to over 3000 in about two miles, all on nicely graded ie smooth, but rather steep roads. i climbed and climbed and climbed, for maybe 20 minutes, before i started feeling a bit woozy.

the cool mountain air i had banked on wasn’t coming through… then i flatted, which was a good excuse to stop. it was a pinch flat, which made me slightly nervous, as i only had on spare and i was scarcely 8 miles into my trek. i figured though, ok its a pinch flat, i’m riding fairly narrow tires over kinda nasty terrain, i’ll just pump the new tube and my front tire up higher… with that done i set off again. shortly after that, my cycling cap was saturated to the point where it was letting a constant stream of sweat roll down my back and face, causing droplets of moisture hang perilously from my eyebrows, only to splash onto my glasses at various inopportune moments. but i kept going. soon my cotton bar tape was so wet that i could wring it out just by grabbing the brake levers or shifting.

i rode through various switch backs and eventually the air became cooler. i rounded a bend and saw my first car of the ride. it was parked to the side, and there were 3 asian people sitting in the road, as if at an impromptu picnic. however there was no food being eaten, no blankets out, they were literally just sitting in the road. the father was washing the car with a large bucket of water, no soap. he accomplished this by throwing water at the windows and letting to roll down. further adding to this curious carwash conundrum was the car floor mats, which were layed out as if on display on the opposite side of the road. none of the mats matched. mind you, this is all quite aways away from the nearest town, so it would have struck me as quite bazaar, but i was buggered from the heat and climbing. but as i started to ride by, i noticed a spring, between the car and the road sitters. so i stopped, ditched whatever hot water was left in my bottles, and filled up. goddamn that water was good. it was cold, clear, and 5 hours later i still havnt shat myself. i finished my climb with vigour. the top yielded a vista of surrounding green mountains, and a stiff breeze.

i rested momentarily and wrung my hat out. even when i wasnt on the bike, my bar cons dripped sweat at an alarming rate. i continued on my ride, over a ridgeline that ended with a thousand foot decent over loose gravel and 180 degree guard rail-less turns, past various hunting lodges and minor views. i then turned on the road that would mark 1/4 of my journey complete. the road was steep, steep enough to warrent traverse climbing, but the pitch of the road, and the thick pile of loose gravel prohibited this. so i buckled down, tighted my toe straps and lurched up 1000 feet of climbing in under a mile. this climb was followed by a 6 mile 2000 foot decent to whipple dam where i had planned to swim, and get more water.

i began the decent with little trepidation, but my worries quickly mounted as the gravel became thick, and tire tracks from cars could not be relied upon to show the safest route. within a mile i flatted again, but with out a spare tube or patch kit i had to ride on. riding on a flatted rear tire is hard when you are on dirt or the pavement, but with millions of chunks of loose gravel, the bike refuses to fly strait, and the rear end is in a constant state of drift. the flat had somehow knocked my rear brake pads askew, leaving me with only my front brake. i had new pads, though, and they were koolstop salmon pads, so thick, with no glazing, but within a mile my rim was so hot that i couldnt touch it at all, and my pads sounded like a ref’s whistle. i stopped and doused them with water, but to no avail.

continuing down, at a decent clip i might add, only marginally slower that one would with a functioning rear tire, as my front brake was becoming less and less affective, i soon rounded a bend and saw a large rattlesnake, at least 5 feet, but more probally 6 stretched across the road. his midsection was as big round as a mans arm, and he seemed to glow a fluorescent green. anyway, i hate snakes, but couldnt control my bike enough to miss his head by more than a few inches. i flew by screaming like a girl. for those who dont know, i once ran over a copperhead, mistaking it for a stick, and it tried to bite my leg, but instead was chopped up in the rear spokes. i finished my decent, and had to climb 500 feet into whipple dam state park, which was much nicer, except my fenders made a huge racket only slightly less annoying than my refs whistle front rim. mel rescued me from the park’s store.

my rim needed a bit of fileing after 5.5 miles of gravel roads at 20 miles per hour, my tire was shredded, and my tube in tatters. but, the rim is still true, and only slightly dented, and in perfect round. so those who doubt my wheel building skills be damned. mel bought me an ice cream cone for my heroics.