September 10 rides

[Crankin]

We were on the Cape, staying at friend's house. On Saturday, the 4 of us rode about 26 miles, from their house in Orleans, up the Cape Cod Rail Trail, to the end in Welfleet, where we got on a road, went up a hill, and stopped at a beach. The weather was picture perfect. Riding on this trail is always, ah, challenging because of the tourists, but in the off season, it's usually OK. However, there was an MS Walk, partly on the trail. We managed to get by the walkers, with the exception of very large woman, when we said, "on your left," she responded, "where do you want me to go, on the grass?" in a very mean way. I told her, yes, that would be good; there's plenty of room to move over. Oy
On the way back DH almost got taken out twice, once on the trail, by a guy pushing a lawn mower across the trail with his head down, and the second time, on the road in Orleans center, a guy from that state, south of here, not in New England, in a huge Cadillac, was turning left and just decided to "gun it." Fortunately, DH has great yelling and handling skills, to which I assisted him with (the yelling, at least). For all of these reasons, I don't really like riding on the Cape.
Today, 3 of us rode 10.5 miles around town, after taking a 5 mile walk on the beach. My friend's husband is not much of a rider and the 26 miles on Saturday did him in. My Shimano mtb shoes are fixed, but using the Frogs had me on edge. I'm having a bit of trouble clipping in, not because of the cleats (they are almost too easy to get into!), but because the position is in such a different place than my regular Speedplays. I feel like i am not getting the leverage I need from a start because I am futzing around. Well, they are coming off of the road bike, so I can break in my new road shoes. God knows, I will kill myself when my Guru arrives, with the new pedals and getting used to a compact double .

[zoom-zoom]

Did my first ever cyclocross race. It was really hard, miserable, and fun as heck. Got pretty choked-up listening to NPR coverage of the 9/11 events on the way too and from the race.

[azfiddle]

Solo ride a few miles up Mt. Lemmon this morning. Very cool out this morning after a massive thunderstorms last night dropped over 2 inches of rain in a little over an hour yesterday evening. I didn't even get out of the house until 8:30 am and it was in the 70's still. When I was going uphill a lot of cyclists were already riding down again.

I got my first flat in a while- it was a thorn in the front tire, before the road starts to climb. 2nd pic is right after the start of the climb up the mountain, where Soldier Canyon comes down and the road makes a sharp horseshoe bend. Third pic is as far as I went today, 3 miles, to the Babad Duag (Frog Mountain) overlook.

[bmccasland]

I rode the Green River trail, a not heavily used MUP. 6 miles downriver from where I parked to the trail's end, turn around and come back. Lovely day for a ride. Saw a hawk on the ground, lying prone but turned to stare at me when I passed. I think she/he just got a critter and was hunkered down to protect her kill. She was gone when I returned. By local standards, it was hot - to me it was warm but rather pleasant.

About 2 miles from my car realized that my rear tire was running low. I didn't hear a hiss, so thought I'd try my CO2. That sort of worked, and limped back. Could ride in faster than walking. Stopped at my LBS on on the way home and bought 2 new tubes and 2 new CO2 cylinders.

[pll]

@Fredwina: Best of luck in the new job and new city. Sad to hear about job loss (that is terrible).

I did two 32-33 miles rides, yesterday by myself, and today with women who are much faster than I am. It is fun and challenging.