This is a great ride. I think the last time I rode this was with Jason.
Sorry about the formatting.
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East Temple Road.Today's half-century-plus took John, Friday Ride newcomer Andrew, Tom and I to a place where winter actually visited, and still lingers. I had a heavy sack of rain and warmth gear on my back, but the promised rain never came, except in spits. It was much warmer than yesterday. We did however meet with lots of wind and plenty of mud.
We started at the Scoop for coffee. John was eager to get going. We made our descent on Bernard, and headed out Centenial Trail. We climbed deadly Lehman Hill and made our way to Temple.
The climb up Temple is double-deadly, but the views are great...
...in all directions.
The guys waited for me to catch up on the hills.
At the top of the hill, the eastside gravel road turns to dirt. There was snow, mud, lots of water flowing.
The temp dropped in shaded, protected parts of the road, though there was little ice.
I walked some of the slipperiest sections, but still managed to fall off the bike once in some snow. (The others rode the whole of it.) But the descent was a blast, and the woods a beautiful place to be.
We stopped for some gas station food by Newman Lake, and I took a look at my shoes under the table. Heh!
The ride home back on CT was up tempo, into the wind. That section of the CT is pretty on the river side, but bleak on the other. I was getting tired. Tom and I high-fived when my odometer hit 50, then again when his turned 50 a mile later. By the time I got home I was at 57.1, my longest single ride of the year so far.
Nate's (excellent) private blog. John's inability to accept the fact that Nate's (excellent) blog is private. Something was bound to give. I think it just did.
ReplyDeleteJohn, Thanks for sharing with us common folk
ReplyDeleteAwwwww crap that looks fun. I've got to start riding in more dirt. My CX bike gets lonely when it's not 'cross season.
ReplyDeleteIf I ever have time in Spokane for a ride like this, I'll have to get some route info from you all.
Jeez, John. When you _steal_ my shit it kinda prevents me from _contributing_ it. So much for my rewrite.
ReplyDeleteNow the world will never know about the wild zen turkey of Lehman Hill.
I want to keep my blog's circle small, but I will contribute to Cycling Spokane sometimes.
But only if you get a copy editor who knows how to format.
Maybe you could find someone with experience in the software industry.
Nate -- sorry. I"m an impatient bastard. Post your good/public-facing one too. I'm curious about the turkey angle.
ReplyDelete