| Quick Stats Ride Distance: 109 miles Elevation Gain: 7,306 feet Average Moving Speed: 14.76 mph |
We have ridden this pavement before. We've done several Out-and-Backs like today, but they've all started at the other end, either Carson or Stevenson. And of course it all started with our first time on this route doing a training ride of the Lewis and Clark Ultra back in May of 2010. With how tough the 109 miles were today I find it hard to believe we actually did all 140 miles two years ago.
Anyway, Amy had the idea of starting from the other side, and it sounded great, so I planned it all out, thinking we would start about 4 miles this side of Carson. That would give us 8 miles to warm up before climbing 900 feet between Yale and Swift Reservoirs. Well when we got to my proposed starting spot the highway didn't look all that great: no shoulders. No shoulders can be fine, but this is essentially State Highway 503 and it does have some traffic. We decided to drive further to see if the situation improved. It didn't really, but we hoped that the town of Cougar was perhaps the destination for some of that Woodland-to-Cougar traffic, so maybe beyond Cougar the traffic would be minimal. So we parked at the rest area in Cougar and hit the road by 8 a.m.
To our delight traffic was almost non-existent in our direction. There were plenty of log trucks rumbling down the road, but thankfully in the other direction.
The downside to starting in Cougar was we only had 4 miles to warm up our legs before the climbing began. It wasn't ideal, but we survived.
Before the ride I suggested we each take an extra water bottle in the event the store at the end of Swift Reservoir might be closed. We've stopped at Eagle's Cliff General Store quite a few times, and it has always been open. Not today. Good call on the extra water!
We topped off on water at Carson and headed back in the afternoon sun. On the way back I was running a tad low on water so we stopped at the ranger station and got water. We were within 20 miles from the van so it wouldn't have been that big of a deal, but I don't like rationing water if I don't have to.
All in all it was a beautiful day for a ride, and we're thankful we could take advantage of it!
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