Three of us drove down for the roving Saturday ride sponsored by the city club. It was a good hour from my friends' house, but the scenery was worth the drive for sure, down in the Hocking Hills with quiet streams, spectacular ridges and abundant sandstone outcroppings.

The ride had a reputation of being super-hilly, but at our relaxed pace I didn't find it so. No doubt climbing 350' in the first two miles is part of the mystique.

One of my friends doesn't ride quite as much, so we set out a few minutes early, thinking the rest of the ride would come to us. Instead, we missed a turn early on, did an extra 7 miles, and wound up at the back of the pack.

Unfortunately, at one intersection where I stopped to wait for them, I turned my computer off, then forgot to turn it back on when we set off again. I'd gone nine miles (I later figured) before I realized it wasn't on, and I'm especially bummed because one of the ride's three big climbs was on that section. I sure would've liked to have that elevation gain in my track.

Just 60 miles by my friend's computer (and it would've been 53 if we'd been on the route the whole time ) - not normally a distance I'd drive such a long way for, but for a change of pace, it was absolutely beautiful.