Holiday weekend rides

[MojoGrrl]

X-posted in Newbie Achievement thread...

Went on my longest ride to date, going around all ~75 miles of Lake Tahoe in about 7 hours (including several breaks!) and how I climbed those hills, at a 6200+ feet altitude, I don't know...must be the new Ti bike! And managed to do this on what turned out to be NOT the right saddle for me.

Then yesterday I bought a new saddle and went for a test ride on it, and I'm not sure what I was thinking because it was 95+ degrees out. I still managed to do 11 1/2 miles with an average speed of 17 mph - much better than my average on the Dolce Sport!

[luv2climb]

Went on my longest ride to date, going around all ~75 miles of Lake Tahoe in about 7 hours (including several breaks!) and how I climbed those hills, at a 6200+ feet altitude, I don't know...must be the new Ti bike! And managed to do this on what turned out to be NOT the right saddle for me.

Then yesterday I bought a new saddle and went for a test ride on it, and I'm not sure what I was thinking because it was 95+ degrees out. I still managed to do 11 1/2 miles with an average speed of 17 mph - much better than my average on the Dolce Sport!

Was that the ride around the lake? I watched and recorded a bike race that went around the lake last September. I recorded the riders climbing Spooner Summit, which has to be the easiest high altitude climb I've ever done (I climbed it after the race was over).

I'm climbing the Tahoe side of Kingsbury Grade Saturday on my new Dahon Speed D7, since I'll be renting a car and it's a PITA to put a full-size bike in a typical sedan.

I have a Dolce also and sometimes I wonder if it's the slowest road bike around. I think the Sirrus I bought used last summer for $250 is faster than my Dolce.

[Realgone]

My sister-in-law is visiting from Michigan and we took her took Mt Rainier. I saw many cyclists. Pretty hardcore too. The area we saw them was at the NE entrance to Sunrise which is all uphill and the end is at 6600 ft. Not sure of the starting elevation there, but itnis a minimum of ten miles all steep uphill. We saw a black bear on the side of the road on the way up until a motorcycle scared it which was annoying, yet cool at the same time because he jumped into a nearby tree. Great trip!