this weekend is 11 weeks post-avr, time for some real bike riding. well,
no off road stuff, just a long ride up in the hills.
headed north of town to the dam and lake where i took one of the side
roads that would make a circuit, cause i hate going up and back. i didn't
know, no-one told me, china does not have decent maps! how could i know?
one map doesn't show the village, another call it west-happy, another
north-happy, the sign reads happy-occupation. and that's on the "happy"
occasions that i can read the damn characters.
started out easy enough, but a few km on, started going uphill. steep
uphill, long uphill, like 15 km uphill. holy crap! i estimate the climb at
about 2000' (i've done plenty of mountain roads, 2000' is probably accurate),
followed by a 1/4 mile long unlit tunnel, and a long downhill cruise. if
you're familiar with the blue ridge, it's similar to climbing afton mountain.
stopped at a village at the next junction for juice & snacks, then off
to continue the circuit. holy crap, part II! now i've gotta cross the
same freaking mountain range again? this time 14km uphill, which took
about 1-1/2 hours, due to being in the little gears and not wanting to
exceed my hr limit. it just went up and up and up, and every time i
came to the top, there was yet another bit of mountain to climb.
the downhill would have been great, but due to a heavy storm and hail
last night, trees were down, there were patches of hailstones, and at
several spots, usually around a blind corner, half the road had washed out.
interesting note: when you're trying to cycle through 6" deep mud, half
the road is washed out, and if you look down over the edge you can
see the bottom is 1000' down.....your heart rate goes up. wonder why.
by the time i got home, i was covered with mud and completely exhausted
from covering 100 km. it was all i could do to carry the bike into the
bathroom so we could shower together.
celebration ensued. chicken hamburgers from the kfc-clone!!! it's finger...
no, don't do that here.
no off road stuff, just a long ride up in the hills.
headed north of town to the dam and lake where i took one of the side
roads that would make a circuit, cause i hate going up and back. i didn't
know, no-one told me, china does not have decent maps! how could i know?
one map doesn't show the village, another call it west-happy, another
north-happy, the sign reads happy-occupation. and that's on the "happy"
occasions that i can read the damn characters.
started out easy enough, but a few km on, started going uphill. steep
uphill, long uphill, like 15 km uphill. holy crap! i estimate the climb at
about 2000' (i've done plenty of mountain roads, 2000' is probably accurate),
followed by a 1/4 mile long unlit tunnel, and a long downhill cruise. if
you're familiar with the blue ridge, it's similar to climbing afton mountain.
stopped at a village at the next junction for juice & snacks, then off
to continue the circuit. holy crap, part II! now i've gotta cross the
same freaking mountain range again? this time 14km uphill, which took
about 1-1/2 hours, due to being in the little gears and not wanting to
exceed my hr limit. it just went up and up and up, and every time i
came to the top, there was yet another bit of mountain to climb.
the downhill would have been great, but due to a heavy storm and hail
last night, trees were down, there were patches of hailstones, and at
several spots, usually around a blind corner, half the road had washed out.
interesting note: when you're trying to cycle through 6" deep mud, half
the road is washed out, and if you look down over the edge you can
see the bottom is 1000' down.....your heart rate goes up. wonder why.
by the time i got home, i was covered with mud and completely exhausted
from covering 100 km. it was all i could do to carry the bike into the
bathroom so we could shower together.
celebration ensued. chicken hamburgers from the kfc-clone!!! it's finger...
no, don't do that here.
