~ some cycling related adventures ~
The weekend before last, I had the opportunity to go on two very awesome road cycling rides. The first one was that Saturday, when I rode out to Hidden Springs and back. This is one of my favorite road cycling routes...sure, the hill up to Hidden Springs can have a bit of traffic danger, but it's scenic and I absolutely LOVE the hill climb. I enjoy climbing the hill and then descending into Hidden Springs, and then I like to turn around and do it in reverse back into Boise. Anyway, on that Saturday when I did this ride, I was feeling so amazing...so amazing that my amazing-feeling is worth writing about. I even passed five people on the hill climb - - sure, two were mountain bikes, but two others were road cyclists (a male and a female) and the final one was a fit-looking dude on a cross bike. Also, no one passed me, which is a feat in and of itself, especially considering the phenomenal numbers of road cyclists out on that day. By the end of it, that is exactly a 20 mile ride which I averaged about 15mph on - - which is pretty good considering the hill climbs.
The next day, Josh and I went on a road cycling ride. We rode out to Hidden Springs, but instead of turning around or of continuing on and doing the Dump Loop, we took a left at Hidden Springs and rode on a gravel road several miles out to the highway. Once at the highway, we rode south for a bit to Beacon Light and then rode north on Eagle road through all of these horse pastures. It is also worth writing about how amazing I felt. There were quite a few hill climbs, followed by fast descents, and I had such an amazing amount of energy and felt so good. I even passed Josh a few times, whether or not he 'let' me pass I do not know, but regardless, I was a rockin' and a rollin'. After we got to the end of the pavement, we went a bit further, until I decided that I was done with road biking on gravel, and then we turned around and did some more hill intervals on one of the side streets. The whole ride was about 40 miles, but I think that it should 'count' as a longer ride because of all the hills. On the way back, at about mile 30, I suddenly went from feeling amazing and riding fast to feeling utterly crapped out and riding about half the earlier pace. I did not initially recognize that I was having a massive low-blood sugar attack, which is why I delayed eating an energy bar. But a few minutes after I got some more calories into my person, I was feeling pretty good again.
Yesterday was my first opportunity to have fun and go for a bike ride since then (been pretty busy since), so Josh and I loaded up the mountain bikes and drove out to the Owyhees and spent the whole day exploring. We initially went out to the area behind Barking Spider and spent about three hours riding all around. It's such a neat area - - there's so many little rocky canyons and ravines, buttes and plateaus. It's a designated off-road recreational area, so all of the hundreds and hundreds of ATVs and dirt bikes have done a good job of tearing apart the landscape (which I feel rather sick to my stomach about) but they have also carved some fun trails to ride a mountain bike over. After our Barking Spider adventure, we got some lunch at a gas station, and then went out to the Wilson Creek area to find its alleged singletrack. All in all, it was a fantastic ride. The terrain was completely different than the Boise foothills. Whereas I have all of the trails in the foothills memorized, I had to ride in a much more alert and agile way in the Owyhees because I never knew what was going to be around a corner or over a hills. And it was great! I think that if I rode in the Owyhees more often, there would be a dramatic increase in my skill set. If only because there was a much greater offering of technical aspects to the trails that is just not to be found in the Boise foothills. Some people have made the point that the Boise foothills are too well maintained and that they are only good for exercise. And while I think the foothills are loads of fun, I also understand how having access to unmaintained, rough and rugged trails with all kinds of technical obsticals can be a great time as well. There were a few points on the ride in the Owyhees that I weenied out on, but overall, I am quite enthused about how much I did not weenie out on. One section, in particular, was when the trail became crazy rocky (and not just small rocks, but big rocks across the trail) winding through this rocky ravine area, and I rode right on though it. By the end of the ride, I could not stop exclaiming about how much fun I had. It was wonderful.
You rode very well. I judge how well you ride based upon how many times I come upon an obstacle and think, "oh uh! Fern might have a problem with that" and you ride over it anyway. There were several moments like that yesterday, so, Good job!
By the way, I think I may have discovered Wilson Creek's primary singletrack complex. Perhaps next weekend we can have another Barking Spider/Wilsom Creek adventure.
Finally, I wonder if I left my camera's downloadin' cord at your place?... As soon as I find it, I'll post photos from Sunday.
Posted by: Josh | September 10, 2007 9:45 PM