Ride Report: Beauty and The Beast- Tyler, TX

[Aggie_Ama]

This weekend DH and I did the "Beauty and the Beast" in Tyler, Texas. It was a 64 mile ride with 3,000 feet of total climbing. At mile 32 is "The Beast". We made a little anniversary trip (anniversary is 5/24) and camped at Tyler State Park.

First of all the park is amazing. It is tucked in a nice forest of pine trees. I loved that they have actual tent pads, no guessing where to put your tent on level ground. There is a nice reservoir for swimming and we also went kayaking (first time for me).

Now the ride... No one in North Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas or Louisianna should miss this ride! The course has a lot of steep climbs and rolling hills. The roads were quiet and went through the Piney Woods. The scenery was wonderful. The volunteers were fabulous as well. There were plenty of rest stops, lots of people directing traffic and helping to keep you on the route. The route was well marked and the roads were decent for country roads.

The Beast lived up to the hype. It was a steep climb and it turned at the end. I hated the turn because I had no clue I was so close to the end! I was able to keep my speed above 6.5 all the way to the top. A lot of people were having to walk up The Beast. I bound and determined not to be one of them. The people working the top of The Beast were all elderly and so nice. They offered to fill my water bottle and took a picture of DH and I. They were really a nice sight at the end of that climb!

At mile 60 is the meanest part of the ride, "The Baby Beast". I had more trouble on the baby than the other one. My legs felt as though they were filled with lead. I wanted to get out of the saddle but my quads wouldn't tolerate it. The last part of the ride is uphill and the temperature was soaring at that point.

We made it in at 3 hours, 50 minutes. We took one rest stop along the way. Our average speed over all those hills was 16.4 mph. I wasn't too upset with that, I think DH was a little disappointed.

This was probably my favorite one day ride. Nothing compares to the MS150, but this ride was great. Below is the elevation map of the ride.