North Carolina...That's a wrap!

I finished my North Carolina trip with two more rides.

Ride #1...I will call this the no sense of direction ride.

I knew I had a longish ride planned, so I did not want to start by going up hill from the get go.  This was definitely the correct decision!  There was plenty of climbing, and almost nothing flat on the route.

If you remember from a previous post, I was having shifting issues, well everything came to a head on this ride.  I quickly discovered that the bike would not shift into the big ring, which meant I would spin out around 23 mph.  You might think this is not a major issue, but I like to build speed and power into climbs.  This makes the start of a climb a little bit easier.  I also like to power down descents and hit high speeds...There is no real reason for that, other than it is a lot of fun.  Even with all the climbing, a 37 mile ride becomes very long when you cannot access your big ring!

While on the ride I was able to take in the beauty of Lake Glenville.  Surrounding the lake are beautiful HUGE homes and lots of rolling hills.  There were also lots of people enjoying the cool waters, while I was "suffering" in the heat an humidity at a brisk pace of 20 mph (on flats), 12 mph (on climbs), and 35 mph (on descents).

About halfway around the lake I was surprised to find quite the climb.  Actually the climb was not really that, but it was pretty cool.  Why?  Because I was able to ride over the Eastern Continental Divide.  After the Eastern Continental Divide, I continued to ride around Lake Glenville taking in the sights, sounds, and smells of the good ole south.

I was getting to the point where I needed to turn around and head for home.  Sense I am directionally challenged, I did not realize I was actually close to my final destination, so I turned around and round the same route home...check out how close I was

black line shows how close I was to home...Oh well.

Once back to Trillium, I still had the hard climb to my Dad's house...OUCH!  All said, the ride was great, hard, and fun.

Ride #2...the hurt locker

This ride consisted of me torturing myself for an hour and a half, with 3,251 ft of climbing.  It was not the most exciting ride as I just did short loops around my Dad's development.  There were some exciting parts though.  Since I did the same ride my first day (one more loop this time) I was more familiar with the descents.  As a result, I was able to go faster each time though the hairpin turns. 

I really enjoyed my time in North Carolina.  I was able to see family, celebrate my grandfather's 90th birthday, and get in some good riding with extremely steep hills.  I hope to go back and ride again in the near future.