Sunday, July 1, 2012

Mt. Adams Bike DeTour II

Did this one last year. Liked it. Did it today unsupported. Brought our good friend Mike.

Quick Stats
Ride Distance: 101 miles  
Elevation Gain: 6,530 feet  
Average Moving Speed: 15.25 mph  

This ride consists of two 50-mile loops out of Trout Lake, Washington. We did the valley loop first this time, in order to avoid the traffic and hopefully minimize the wind. Seemed to work fairly well, though the westerly wind was stiff at the end, just like last year. But I'm guessing it would have been even stiffer four hours later, and particularly more difficult at mile 95 as opposed to mile 45.

We decided to do the forest (mountain) loop like it was done last year: as two out-and-backs instead of an actual loop. This works better for an unsupported ride since we could get water at Trout Lake as needed at the midpoint.

The only real issue was some rain at the top of the first out-and-back segment. Being the rain haters that we are we decided to avoid it and simply turned around. Another huge advantage of the out-and-back format. We missed out on 3.5 miles of climbing, but avoided the nastiness that is rain and road grime.
PHOTOS (IN FLASH PLAYER):

So on the second out-and-back segment we did an extra mile just to ensure the ride, originally a 105-mile ride, now shrunk to around 98 miles, would grow back over the 100-mile mark.

I am quite pleased to see that our average moving speed increased significantly from last year's ride: from 14.65 mph to 15.25 mph.

Oh, and for the last 5 or 6 miles we were blessed with a glorious tailwind. Now THAT is how you end a hard ride!

RIDE MAP IN GOOGLE EARTH:

Maps showing all rides: 2012201120102009All Rides

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