Cycling Ellen

33 miles today
502 total

The good news this morning was that it wasn’t raining yet. It was cold, 45 degrees, and everyone was bundling up in the clothing that’s been hiding out in the bottom of their suitcases for the last 10 days. At last night’s map meeting, Michelle made it clear that we might not be able to ride past Superior at mile 30. There would be some climbing to get to that point but after that town, there were no places to pull over the van and trailer to pick up riders who got into trouble. There was no shoulder on the road and only occasional pullouts where a car could stop safely. Rain and snow were in the forecast and safety had to come first. She said as we reached Superior, the sag driver would go ahead and check out the weather up the mountain and report back. Michelle would call the ride off if it was too dangerous.

At that point, there were many members of the group who knew that Superior would be the end of their ride today. With 10 miles of more of climbing ahead, going up over 4600’, especially on a cold and/or rainy day, they knew that sagging was their best option. There were a few of us, though, who stayed after the meeting to strategize how to decide whether to try for it.

We headed out of town with our lights flashing. It was daylight but dark and cloudy. We were on a rough road with a shoulder filled with rumble strips. The cars were dangerously close to us and not giving bicycles any room to move. I was in a pace line with Debbie, Carol and Ann and we were moving as fast as we could both to finish that part of the ride with the scary traffic and to get going up into the mountains before the weather got worse.

After the sag stop at mile 20, a new road appeared ahead. Fresh pavement, one lane still under construction but this being Sunday, no one was working on it. The other three decided to go for it hoping that it would meet up with the old road. Seeing the cactus and dirt between the two, I kept hugging the shoulder as I climbed, now alone with the traffic. After awhile, I spotted a ramp onto the new road and on a quick whim, decided to go for it. There was no sign of my fellow riders so I headed up (literally) the road. Later, I spotted Jane in my rearview mirror on the main road and waved her over to join me. It was so sweet riding alone on fresh pavement, climbing without worrying about traffic. As we looked up though, the new road ended. Being adventurous, and the old road not very close, we headed up riding over the packed gravel. It was like some back road riding. I got to ride up between the giant trucks and luckily, finally connected back to the main road.

When I got up to mile 30, there was the Buckboard Restaurant and the van. Michelle said as far as she knew, I was good to go so I gobbled a quick bar, since I didn’t want to take the time to eat. I was feeling the first few drops of rain and the clouds were gathering. Jane and I headed up the climb. We made it about 4 miles up to the tunnel where Micki, the sag for the day, was waiting with lights flashing. She had just come down and told us it was snowing like crazy just a little way up. She strongly advised against going any further as the visibility was terrible as well as dangerous riding conditions. We decided to go through the tunnel up to the next pullout and wait there. There was a state police car parked nearby so I asked him if he could follow us with his flashers in the tunnel. At that point, the ride for everyone was over as he told us we were crazy to go up there as it was snowing and dangerous for both the cyclists and the drivers.

With some regret, we headed back down to the restaurant where they were loading up all the bikes for the first of two trips over the mountain. By the time we got up there, the weather had cleared some so it was hard to imagine what it had been like earlier. Mountain weather changes quickly so it was a smart decision but not easy for everyone to take. Riding in the van for the last 20 miles, I realized how long these rides really are! It seemed to take forever to get to Globe and that was in a van! We have over 80 miles tomorrow and several more serious climbing days so there are more challenges ahead. At least I know I was willing to try it and feeling strong on the parts I did do.