Name Your Hill.

[10ch]

You know the one... on bad days you dread it (or avoid it if you can), on good days you take it ON! It potentially divides your ride... Part 1: Pre-Hill, Part 2: Post-Hill. Maybe you have more than one... maybe your "hill" is a pot-holed road with no shoulder or a hard left turn. Name it!

Here are my "hills":

"Dead Man's Hill" a massive climb located in Maple Wood cemetery.

"The Last Hoorah" another challenging hill just a couple blocks from my house.

"The Tightrope" a stretch of road where there's no shoulder, the road is crap and the cars are plentiful.

"The @#$%^ you ALL turn!" a left turn on a very busy road that I have to cross over to get to. Sometimes I go through a bad neighborhood w/an annoying hill just to avoid the $%^&* you ALL turn.

[mimitabby]

Well, Beacon Hill is where I live, and every single street that accesses it is a hill.
The one in particular that kind of gloats at me when i ride by it (avoiding it) is Graham street's hill.
Then there's HOLGATE...

[alpinerabbit]

The "you can kiss my @rse" inroad where I admittedly take the sidewalk to get past the traffic jam.

the bitçh - a local pass that is just close enough to do it on an afternoon but 10 km long and pretty steep

the ramp of Wetzwil (a hamlet) where a local pro race passes 5x and I used to struggle and will still only do it once

Etzel, a biker's worst enemy with a 17% grade and the rest is 10-12%.

the time trap - 3 switchbacks that nearly killed me the first time and they look identical so I thought I was in a time trap.

[Kimmyt]

from my commute:

-the 'you're not there yet' hill, a long hill on a busy highway followed by a slight break where you think you're done, followed by a steep climb, followed by a slight break where you AGAIN think you're done, followed by an insanely steep section that leaves huffing and puffing at the gates to get into my workplace (no doubt the laughing stock of all drivers and security people)

from my normal rides:

-Mt. Misery, a mile-long hill of long slooooow climbing that leaves you wondering why on earth you ever took up cycling, and if it's possible that you could WALK up the hill faster

-Mt. Joy, a steep and switchback-y hill that, surprisingly, compared to Mt. Misery, IS a joy!... also followed by a screaming descent on a road with no opposing traffic and lots of fun but scary turns looking over the spread of Valley Forge park

-the Wind Tunnel, not actually a hill, but instead a deceptively flat section of bike trail that runs along the highway and sometimes feels like a hill, when you're headed home on it (west-bound on the Schuylkill trail) and you break out into this section from the shaded and tree-lined part of the trail it can feel like someone punched you, the headwind is that strong. For some reason it's always more windy in this section, only about a half mile long, but it's usually at the end of a ride so it's the last thing you need...

K.

[Geonz]

Snork.

The "Hey! This could almost be called a hill!!!" coming out of Prospect that I can actually get out of breath on. Then the "Hey! It must hve been a hill because I'm going down it now!" hill where I try to hit 25 mph if the school traffic permits.

Welcome to the prairie :-)

[MomOnBike]

Going to work it's called The Commute. One grind uphill 'til I get to a screaming downhill (up to 30mph in 2 blocks) that is interrupted by the busiest street in town. "But Mommy! I don't wanna brake!" screams my inner 2-yo.

Going home there is a block-long hill that some days I'd swear is vertical. I've logged as low as 3.2 mph on that section. When done with that, its downhill rollers all the way home. Wheeee! I haven't named the hill, but it has my number.

[Trekhawk]

the time trap - 3 switchbacks that nearly killed me the first time and they look identical so I thought I was in a time trap.

LOL - sorry rabbit that can't be fun but it nearly made me snort my tea.

[singletrackmind]

What my husband refers to as the Seven Hills Of The Apocalypse. Twenty miles with a succession of seven of the nastiest hills we can get. UGH! Thank goodness a MO hill can only go up for so long, too bad they don't seem to have heard of a switchback around here so straight up is how it goes.

Then again, it's always kind of cool to realize - as you're throwing your weight at the pedal in the tiniest gear cause it's the only possible way to move forward - that you don't weigh near enough. More chocolate, please.

There are several hills that rival these, but not all in a row like 'em.