Beautiful Day, Terrible Decisions

The Thanksgiving long weekend gave me one more chance to get in a long ride before hockey starts to dominate every weekend. Saturday wasn't the kind of day that I wanted to spend on a long ride weather wise but Sunday was a beauty.

My first mistake was not eating. I've done a lot of two hour 50km rides this year on nothing but a cup of coffee and a bottle of water. My original plan was to load up Lael with all of the frame bags, a camera and lunch to catch some fall colours. For some reason when the time came it was Sophia that emerged from the basement. I headed out towards Westfort, down Broadway and through Whitewater. When I hit 130 I was planning on cutting back to Rosslyn Road, then 17 to the second overpass and back in on Poleline and Oliver. Sophia turned left on 130 and headed south. 

I ended up going west on Candy Mountain Road, climbed for a bit as I got close to the actual mountain and stopped to get rid of some clothes as the temperature rose. I crested the hill and found another but this one was loose gravel and wet mud. Sophia's skinny 100 psi tires are not a good choice but turning around seemed a bad idea. I checked my gps and it appeared I would be back on the pavement at Barrie Drive in no time. I heard a car coming and a family asked if I knew where Gammondale Farms was. I punched it into the phone and handed it to them, without my glasses I didn't trust my eyes for giving directions. They turned around and headed back, I should have followed.

The condition of the road wasn't great and going down the back of the hill was harder since I had to hold the brakes to keep from building up too much speed on the loose rock. I came to Aspen Road and turned towards Barrie but this one was freshly graded and the rock was so loose I had to ride in the mud on the 8 inch wide edge. Sophia has never seen rain let alone mud. 

I finally got back to the pavement on Barrie Drive and felt like I was flying back towards town. Down through the Kam River Valley and up the hill to Whitewater where I started feeling the bonk. My quick two hour ride had turned into a three hour grind and my body was hungry. No solution but to keep on pedaling. Lesson learned, again.

I finished 64km in three hours with over 2000 feet of climbing. Looking at the schedule for the coming week I might be able to get in another ride Sunday but I doubt the weather will be as nice. This time we're packing a lunch.

from Victor St. just off Broadway