supposed to be some showers, an in the upper 60s.  so either bring rain gear or wear wool.  to those sans fenders: ha!

i pre-rode 90 percent of the course yesserday, and it has some great scenic views.  i took damien’s brother hal out for a 5 hour ride, and he told me it was easily one of the best rides he had ever been on.  i’ll post pictures in a few minutes, after i eat some toast and drink some tea.

ok its 3 hours later.

this post is an amalgam of a bunch of recent rides, sorry.  above is vonada gap road, which climbs 600 feet in under 1.5 miles.  on loose dirt.  i climbed it on my whitcomb, which recently got a pair of GB rando bars from my guess, the late 50s.  really comfortable, and nice looking.  anyway, its a wonking hard climb, similar to the roads on the ‘hardest ride ever’, (spoke cards pending…cory).  the whitcomb only has one waterbottle mount, to go with the one speed.  consequently, i was out of water about half way up the climb, and so i decided to refill at a mtn stream that went along the road.  usually i try to just drink out of water thats coming right out of rock, but i was really thirsty, with about 30 more miles to go.

so below, we have nice picture of my butt, refilling my bottle.  a rock was nice enoto take the picture for me.

before all of this though, i passed some scenic stuff, out on mountain back rd and upper georges valley.

later, as i was exploring the current conditions of a few dirt roads i originally intended for the ramble, i triple flatted on a recently regraded road, and being in the approximate middle of nowhere, i rode home on my flat, wrecking a super dubious old rear wheel and a 50 dollar continental tire in the process.  i could hear and feel chips and splinters of the rim cracking off and hitting my legs as i decended boal gap road at about 30 miles an hour.  a bit unnerving, but it was getting late and i didnt have lights, so i wanted to get out of the woods, stat.

yesterday i rode with 3 of the boalsburg bikers, bob, rob and john, as well as damien’s inlaw hal, from p-burgh.   bob was wearing a hypnosis suit that made it hard to ride behind him.  i kept veering off into farm fields and falling asleep at the helm.

we had to part a sea of cows who were off to get milked.

 at spring mills, the boalsburg guys left to attend to familiar duties, and hal and i pushed on, an 85 degree wind at our backs.  we stopped at the shure fine for some food and water.  we pushed on through milheim and coburn, and up beaver dam rd, easily one of the most scenic roads out here.

it was here that i started to really lag behind hal, who doesn’t take breaks, and lives in the land o’ hills.  so the pic below shows a typical scene, me trudgeing up a hill in the godblessed granny gear, while hal is taking water at the top of the hill.  that’s hal, the tiny speck at the top of the hill.

after this point, i was too tired to break out the camera, and spent most of my time panting and lamenting my fatness.

the ride finished well though, because we eventually ended up at Zenos and drank some beer and ate some greasy bar food.

my new odometer hit 500 miles on that ride, which made me feel something.  not sure what yet though.