EPIC bike ride

I think today's adventure would be blog-worthy regardless of the focus here now. The funny thing about this ride is no one will even take credit for coming up with it. I think what happened was that earlier in the season we were talking about organized rides we could do this fall. We talked about the Buffalo Classic Century but Al was gone that weekend and I didn't want to do such a large ride. So Someone suggested that we just ride to Horestooth Reservoir on our own.

Our intrepid group included Al, Sarah, Marcy (my irongals) and Rachel and her husband Justin. We started a bit late, around 8:20 (there's a good story about Al and Animal Control involved) and got to Hygiene around 9:00, where we met Rachel and Justin.

We got to Carter Lake around 10:15 and had break at the marina store.



Rachel and I:



Rachel and Justin:



Me, Marcy, Rachel, Sarah and Al:



After Carter Lake, the true adventure began. None of us had ridden north of there before. I was equipped with the Buff Classic map courtesy of my dad. And evidently I am not capable of reading a map. We made it to Masonville ok, though we did end up taking a different road than the route suggested. But somehow at Masonville we went left instead of right and that's where our troubles began.

Here is Al and Rachel climbing up Horsetooth Reservoir Rist Canyon:



And here we are overlooking Horsetooth Resevoir Rist Canyon:



So somehow (and in my defense this road wasn't even on the map) we ended up climbing part of Rist Canyon. We finally thought we were at the top of a dam and were very surpised to crest and see... no lake. We met a VERY friendly cyclist (who, incidently, was not wearing a helmet) and he let us know that Horsetooth was about 10 miles east. Huh. So back to Masonville we went, with the Friendly Cyclist. He was so friendly that we had to lie and say we were heading back to Boulder to get him to leave our group.

At Masonville we had to decide if we wanted to continue on to Horsetooth, or call it a day. I tried to take a vote and got no "ayes" for continuting and one "nay" and 4 "I could be presuaded either ways." Eventually we figured we were too close to go home. So 5 more miles and then we could see the Resevoir (or at least a small inlet):



So it's always a bad sign when you reach your turn around point at 65 miles (even when you did a 10 mile detour up a canyon). The way home could have been much worse. We did not get any vicious headwinds and no one bonked too badly. However, I did anticipate finishing around 3:00 and not 5:00. Total for the day: 109.59 miles. And if I had more time, I would have gone 2 1/2 more miles to round up to the ironman bike distance of 112.



So will every weekend for the next year include a century ride? NO. Today wasn't really a training ride. Today was a "we have all this bike fitness from training this summer, let's do a fun ride" ride. It was a beautiful day and we might not have many more like it left in the season. We probably won't ride like this again until next June/July.

My fabulous adventure would not have been possible without the help of my fabulous sister. Becky had a sleepover with the boys last night and took them to the zoo today. And was only a little bit pissed off when I could finally call her after getting out of the no-service Bermuda triangle surrounded the Masonville area. Sadly, my kids behaved so poorly that I doubt I'll be able to use this arraingment again.