What a day. Erin’s grandparents were hosting a picnic this afternoon up in Thompsontown so as planned I wanted to ride up to enjoy the festivities. Get a ride in, work up an appetite, eat my ass off. Simple plan. Simple formula. The essential basis to why I ride a bike.
So I begin my journey into somewhat unknown territory. I had a choice right off the bat. Looking at a map, I knew I could cruise up thru Enola and hug the river north into Marysville (Home of Kuhn ‘Cross) and take Rt. 850 west out into the valley and then north again OR I could chop at least 6-8 miles off and instead go over Lamb’s Gap and catch 850 much further west. So, ride longer or climb a wall just 13 miles in. I’ve never climbed Lamb’s but knew from the years of mtb’ing up there what kind of climb it is. That’s the way I went. It went well. I’m not a big dude. I should be able to climb at least decently. I can’t. Nevertheless, I made it over the top and picked up 850. Not even two minutes later I find young Hammaker rolling east towards me. He turned around and joined me. Sweet! Company.
Good thing about having Kyle along at this point is his local knowledge of the roads in those parts. I’ve never ridden up Perry-way. He steered me clear of a road I was planning to take which would have been a steeper harder climb than the one we did instead. KHam stayed with me until we reached Newport. That was 40 miles in. Up until that point I have to say those back roads we rode were the smoothest most scenic roads I’ve ever ridden on. A good bit of up and down stuff but not near as much as I had expected.
Once in Newport I stopped for fresh agua fria and a Snickers Almond bar and hit the homestretch. Or so I thought. A quick 6 miles into Millerstown and the final climb I knew I’d be faced with. I knew it may be a dirt road in which case I might have to navigate around it and add 5-6 miles to the ride. At this point I’m at 46 and feeling the effects of 96 degree sunshine. 46 ain’t much really but add in the alpine nature of this ride and the heat and, yeah, I was feeling spent. And sure enough, it was a dirt road. I didn’t want to backtrack and add miles so I forged ahead. Dirt road. One mile. Straight up the mountain. Very little shade. The PowerTap info for this particular one mile stretch is rather comical. Not at the time, mind you, but much after the fact. 11 minutes. Avg power - 227. Avg HR - 176. Avg cadence - 46! Avg speed - 5.1 mph!!
After that little bastard it was cake the rest of the way in. In the end it was 56 miles. Three and a half hours total. For the next week or so I will be avoiding any road that has Gap, Hill, or Mountain in it's name. I've seen enough for the time being.
I won’t get into the ridiculous amount of food I ate. Too much to list.
On to the unveiling of The Wifey’s anniversary gift. I bought her one of these. She loves it. I think this covers her birthday and Xmas for this year and next. I’ll be accepting applications to work out at KAC (Kessel Athletic Center).
I’m sleepy. Goodnight.
4 comments:
Wow, sounds like a great ride. Does powertap give you the %grade of the climbs? I can't even imagine how steep Lamb's Gap is let alone that other stuff you did. The unexepected dirt road on the road bike is always fun though.
No altitude function on the powertap. All that's missing in my opinion. The dirt road(Iron Mountain Road) was cool. It was definitely an "HC" climb considering it was brutal and so close to the end of the ride.
I used to ride out to 74 from steelton and up and over the mountain there, come back east on the perry side, then back up over 34 or further along to 850 and then up and over Lamb's gap.
hmmm. Miller's Gap is a fun one. I did intervals on it once or twice. Idle Road coming up is cool. the descent down the south side of Lamb's is killer.
great riding, I miss the area.
if you really want a challenge, ride up 322 to 225 and do a nice long loop up there by the old state TT course. oh and there's always blue mtn parkway on the eastern shore (rte 443) my knees hurt thinking about it.
Adam I've never really ridden over on the East Shore all that much. I have a friend up near Halifax who's been telling me for years how great the riding is up in his neck of the woods.
My buddy VisitPA Ray does hill intervals on BM Parkway all the time. No secret why he's a skinny fast sucker.
If you're ever back here in South Central and want to get out for a ride let me know. See you in the fall. dk
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