Little Red Riding Hood Ride

My two sisters and I rode the Little Red in Lewiston, Utah today. My older sister Kris did the 26 miles and my younger sister Luli and I did the metric century. As is usual with the Little Red, the pre ride activities the night before and on the day were great fun and excellent. We did the costume bit for the dinner and showed up in tutus with color coordinated kitty masks, jerseys, spangled scarves and feather boas for our tails along with matching capri/tights in a print and color scheme that can best be described as a psychedelic lamp run amuck. We didn't win but it was fun, and the tights elicited many comments today on the ride. The theme this year was carnival so the "wolf" a sag guy in full wolf regalia dressed in full carnival costume, and Little Red ( ditto sag guy, ditto regalia) gave a lesson in samba and then formed a samba line to dance around the field in and among the various vendor.

This ride put 3500 women out on small two lane farm roads north of Lewiston, but the preparation and organization is such that you rarely encounter clots of riders or pacelines. The ride is in the Heber valley which is broad, flat and agricultural, and basically level except for an occasional gentle swell. The Sky was cloudless until mid afternoon, the temperature started at about 65 and climbed to 78 by the end of the ride. the air was clear and very low humidity and the sun was just right. In short it was a perfect day for a ride.

The metric century route took us about 12 miles into Idaho and had one amazing steep down hill just inside Idaho.

When we finished the ride we were treated to soda, a ride bracelet, extra beads and an ice cream sunday to eat while we wandered among the vendors.

As always the rest stops had an excellent of fruit, snacks, water, ice, and non gatorade electrolyte powders and plentiful porta potties. The Sag vehicles passed frequently along with ride marshals both on bike and motorcycle. It is one of the safest and best prepped ride I have ever ridden.

It was a delightful day, made extra special by being able to ride with my sisters and the Bonneville Bike Club and the Hunstman Institute for cancer research who sponsor it.

I will post pictures when I get them downloaded from my phone. I have no doubt that the extremely comfortable but extremely bright and noticeable tights will feature extensively.

country roads, tutus, samba lines and ice cream with lots of other women is my kind of ride. Sounds like a wonderful sibling get together!!!

YES PHOTO’S!!!!!!!!!!!!

We really enjoyed LRRH as well, it was a beautiful day. My daughter and I did the 70 (she hurt her hip last month and wasn't up to the 100) and I must confess that it sure was nice not to tackle that extra 30 miles this year! I don't think the 70 actually went into Idaho, but that downhill at about the 56 mile mark was great! I hit 38 mph and my daughter hit 40.3. I loved the lime rickies at the finish line (non-alcoholic - we are in Utah after all!) - totally hit the spot.

More than 1000 fantastic volunteers helped make this ride a great success!

we did ride into Idaho on the 70 mile route even though we got there after the closing time for the 100 miles, but we agreed with the organizing volunteers that we were on our own recognizance. By the time we crossed the finish line they were out of lime rickeys which was disappointing. Our total was 67 so not quite the 70 we were aiming at but close enough. Today we did a lovely leg stretcher 30 miles on the Jordan river parkway/bike trail. I am so in love with the climate up here after coming up from Houston. According to my hubbie the temps in Houston are in the mid 90's with matching humidity so we are already in the white sweat rings on the garage floor stage of summer.

1000 volunteers for 3500 riders is a pretty amazing ratio. No wonder the ride is so popular.

That sounds like a wonderful ride :) Glad you guys had a good time!

I can't wait to see your pictures Marni. This sounds like so much fun. I need to also find out what a lime rickey is. :-)

A lime rickey is not an alcoholic drink, though I suppose you could put some vodka in there! It's an awesome combo of club soda, lime juice, and sugar. Very popular here in New England. And then there's raspberry lime rickies.....

slowly wending my way houstonwards. Left Salt Lake with sister Kris yesterday, hit Mesa Verde on the way thru to Albuquerque today. Rest day tomorrow and another two days to Houston on my own so I hopefully will be posting pictures sometime this weekend. hang in there, I will get them posted.

Here is a link to an article about the woman who founded this ride. 90 years old and still riding.. wow!! What an incredible story and an incredible lady.

http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/58...tml.csp?page=3

excellent article and good pictures. Everyone (myself included) tries to get up to this lady and thank her personally. She is my inspiration. tomorrow is the last leg of the drive home- I will be so glad to get out of the car at last. Planning to sit and do a brief report and download photos Sunday so stay tuned. Thanks for the article AppleTree.