Don’t ride with me. Just sayin’, I get lost in town, riding
my bike, running, even in the car on roads I’ve traveled forever. I manage to
get lost. Last week’s bike ride we got lost, but only added a few extra miles.
(really would have been ok if I hadn’t chickened out on the little tiny road
with giant dogs coming straight at us) Saturday we did it again.
This past weekend’s ride was supposed to be 53 miles. We had
a cue sheet, a car GPS, and the Garmin 305 loaded with the course. We still got
lost. 81 miles for the day. Lot's of these small country roads twist and turn, have no signs, or don't even show up on the GPS.
It was a great morning for a ride, not a single cloud. Chilly
start at about 48 degrees, even wore full finger gloves and a long sleeve base
instead of arm warmers. It didn’t warm up until 20 miles or so into the ride. That
was the first stop, ditched the full finger gloves and traded for the
fingerless. Little bungie thing on the back of the saddle bag held them
securely the rest of the trip.
Lots of lessons to take from this ride, the two biggest;
money and energy gel. Really didn’t think I was going to need either for 50
miles. Need to be prepared for things that may go wrong. The same reason I always bring
a spare tube, some tools, a patch kit and a pump. Those items are always along
on each ride, in an large saddle bag.
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| frame pump and large saddle bag |
Cell phones, I take them on every ride. Even if it’s just
down to the greenway from my house, I’ve got my phone. It’s been used once in
a emergency and on this last trip way more than I would have thought. Luckily
it was charged before we left and even way out in the middle of nowhere it had
coverage. Though I'm probably the only hold out who still has just an ordinary cellphone and not a smart phone.
Well, except for Angry Runner.
Also was reminded why that little Velcro strap around the
frame pump and top of the frame is a good idea. I lost my strap some time last year and never replaced it. G and I were riding along side by side on a
flat and his pump fell off. No big deal right? This time no; but sure did make
me nervous when it bounced between my wheels, one pedal stroke from taking me
down, ouch.
Supposedly the pumps come in handy to whack a dog that gets to close.
I've never waited around long enough for any aggressive dogs to get that
close where I'd even consider taking a swing. I try to out sprint them,
most of the time that's all they're interested in anyways. Not that we
haven't had close calls with dogs before, not on this trip.
The courses function on the Garmin 305 is pretty basic. I
should have tried it out on a shorter route first. It told us when we were off
course. I didn’t ignore it, but thought it was just losing satellite reception
because of the hills. Had I known that it would help us get back on the right
course, we would have used it. DC Rainmaker has a great site that reviews all
of the latest GPS wizardry for runners, cyclists and tri-athletes.
This link,
shows the course function that I should have read before trying it for the
first time out in the middle of nowhere.
I’d spent a hour or more the night before trying to get the
course and cue sheet to load on my car GPS, a Garmin Nuvi. Never could get it
loaded. Don’t think it has that capability, its several years old and just the entry level model. It worked
last week to get us back on track after we got lost. I’ll continue to bring it
on the longer bike rides. What I really would like to get is a real map. One
that folds, do they even make them anymore?
The wrong turn we took did
make us allowed us to go up one of the big
climbs for the area, Burt Bergen
Road. I’ve run up one of these climbs on Burt
Bergen road a couple of years ago, don’t think this was the same section of
road. It’s definitely the toughest climb I’ve ever ridden on the bike. Really enjoy the way
Strava has the segment function on their website to compare times on sections
of road and to find new climbs. This climb puts you on top of a table top sort
of ridge, really expected to come back off this and roll back downhill home
for the last twenty miles.
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| Burt Bergen segment from Strava |
This is also where everything started going wrong. Missed
reconnecting with our original route by a mile or two, because I was convinced
we were going the wrong way. Instead we turned around and went about 10 miles
to far south. This is the point where we decided to ask for directions. First
guy we ask, at a garage sale, says “he hasn’t been to Murfreesboro in forty years”. Roll out from
his place wondering if his directions were right. Stop a guy, heading the
opposite direction on a four wheeler ATV and ask him. His directions were
different. Damn. We continued down the road with his directions in mind and
what the car GPS was telling us.
Stopped at a tiny little Baptist church to rest and fill our
water bottles. Mt.
Aarat Hoodoo
Baptist Church
established 1810. Corner of Hoodoo
Road and Paul
Harrell Road. It was 11:00 at this point. More
calls home. I was out of food. G took his only energy gel. We got directions
from two different people at this church. After we rode off we joked
about the type of directions we would be getting for someone wearing an
Arrogant Bastard jersey.
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| favorite jersey |
At our farthest point out, we stopped at a country store. G went in to ask directions, I sat on the bench outside. We were 15 miles from Murfreesboro, 14 miles from Manchester and 23 miles from where we started. The road back to Murfreesboro was a busy 2 lane, highway 41, parallel to Interstate 24. Luckily it had a wide shoulder. Head wind the entire way, we hadn't felt any wind all day except on top of the ridge. We traded leads, pulling each other along the best we could. We were both pretty well spent at this point. I hit bottom about miles 70, the last miles were a struggle.
