Ride Report Little Red Riding Hood Ride, Bountiful, Utah, June 4, 2011
This was the 24th annual repeat of this women only ride to raise money for cancer research. The ride is held in the Logan/Lewiston area of the Cache Valley in Utah. The Cache valley is a typical river bottom valley between the mountains north of Salt Lake City.
My sister does this ride every year and each year tries to get the other three of us to join her. One or more of us usually makes it. This year it was my turn to be the lucky one.
The theme of this years ride was "the rockin 50's" with an emphasis on poodle skirts, saddle shoes, tight bluejeans, white t shirts and leather jackets (a la James Dean.) There is always a BIG BAD WOLF and guy dressed as Little Red Riding Hood. This year the Wolf was definitely a james dean look alike except for the whole head wolf mask, Little Red was in a polka dot skirt with a poodle on it, a peasant style blouse and a red cape.
The pre ride dinner the evening before was held in a tent decorated as a 1950's diner with lots of silver, a juke box, and some stools. The band out in the park was great and about a dozen vendors, bike clubs, and informational groups had booths set up.
Glitter tattoos were the highlight along with various dance contests and lots of ride related swag for sale.
The ride itself had a variety of mileages. Roll out started at 7:30 for the 100 milers, followed by the 80, 50, 35 and 18 on a forty minute cycle. Waves of riders were led out in groups of 50-100 every 10 minutes by a pair of motorcycle policemen.
The park/starting area/ ride venue was large enough to accommodate the pre ride breakfast, lots of "honey wagons" and the booths were all open. Each distance had a fashion show/contest before the ride with gift certificates to the winners.
The weather was absolutely perfect. Up until June 1 they were predicting still more snow and rain, but fortunately that didn't happen. Because of all of the late snow and rain they have had, the land is incredibly green and lush, and the snow level of the mountains was way low, nearly down to the valley floor. The ride temperature was a gorgeous 75, with bright, high altitude sun and a light breeze. The ride itself was on very quiet two lane farm roads which were in remarkably good shape, with lots of police presence at the major intersections. The terrain was mostly flat, with some gentle climbs.
The rest stops were all run by or supported by guys, in various wolf modes from whistling to actual costumes and well supplied with the standard fare along with lots of samples of things like cliff bars, shot blocks, gu, new energy bars etc.
There was a great after ride lunch, lots of fun dance contests and give aways. The entire ride had such a great atmosphere of fun, silliness, camaraderie and support that was amazing.
I rode a hybrid borrowed from my sister and she rode her road bike. Since she hasn't had much training time, and I was riding a bike that didn't quite fit, we only did the 35 mile ride,and kept our speed down to 10.5 an hour, but we had a lovely time cruising along, chatting with each other and other riders.
We drove up and stayed in a motel in Logan the night before and the night after the ride. We had dinner out on the town and had chocolate mousse and coffee at the Bluebird Cafe after, which in a touch of nostalgia was where my father proposed to my mother in 1938. Not much has changed in the internal decor which I find very comforting.
Sunday we drove back to Salt Lake City, did a short ride along bike friendly streets in and around the University and then went out to dinner with a cousin whom I haven't see since she was about 9 years old and I was 11 and baby sitting for her.
Tomorrow I get up with the trainer for any assessment of strength, weight and measurements so that I have an idea of what to aim for when I can start training again after the mastectomy. We will have two final work out sessions, and hopefully the heat and humidity and wind will co-operate so that I can get in a final presurgery ride sometime this weekend.
In the meantime I am feeling very soothed and relaxed from the ride and sister therapy, so relaxed that I am finding it difficult to get back into the swing.
All in all it was a most excellent ride and I even scored a cool pair of socks for entering the essay contests (although I would much rather have won the first prize which was a Terry Symmetry road bike.
marni
