brrrrrrr

had to get out of the house on Sunday...I feel like I"ve been couped up all week..hadn't been on the bike since last Saturday...so I braved the cold and rode for 2 hours w/ my hubby. We headed out down some alleys in the neighborhood..then rode the Rke River Greenway through Wasena Park. Headed over towards Rivers Edge & rode through the tunnel to the other side. Took another couple of alley ways to get to our first part of the ride..Ferncliff Park. We rode up this trail then crossed over Fishburn Parkway to tackle Woodthrush Trail on Mill Mtn. As we headed down Woodthrush I noticed a rolled up mattress stuffed inside a garbage bag.....there have been some homeless people setting up camp on this part of the mountain. My friend Paul Chapman, Mill Mtn Supervisor, has been working diligently to get these people off of the mountain....you're not supposed to camp out on city property...luckily we didn't see any of these folks..
We continued on..climbed the loose steep part..(I had to walk 20 feet or so), then jumped on the lower portion of the Star Trail so we could get back to Fisbburn Pkwy I had to walk part of this trail too.. We descended down Fishburn Pkwy, then turned left on Sylvan Rd and climbed the road to Monument trail where we started to ascend. This was very difficult for me for some reason. By the time we got to the Star trail intersection, my back was in agony. I kept plodding on, slowly......Finally made it to the zoomy part which makes the climbing worth it. We crossed over the road and headed on to Car trail. From Car trail we climbed back up the old road to the Discovery Center. Then we headed down the Zoo trail. I goofed on the switchback & had to walk it straddling my bike. I hopped back on..& kept going.
When we got back to the intersection where you can go right on Car trail, left to go to the road, or straight to climb..we decided to climb. so we could take Ferncliff trail back. ...That didn't last long...it was so icy & snowy that we made it about 40 feet & decided to take the road back down to pick up Ferncliff Trail (I know it's named something else but I can't think of the name so Ferncliff will have to do).....We dumped back on a small section of Chestnut Ridge Loop (shhhh!) so we could go on to Ferncliff. I sure do like the Ferncliff trail better in this direction..not as much climbing. We took a few more alleyways to get over to the Greenway and headed home. My legs started giving out on the Greenway...I was cooked so I pedaled the best I could to keep moving.
Total ride time was roughly 2 hours 15 minutes. My hubby continued on for about another hour. I didn't start to get a chill until my legs gave out....so I was dressed appropriately for the weather. I wore ski gloves b/c my other gloves just don't keep my fingers warm..surprisingly the ski gloves seemed to do the trick. They were quite cumbersome though. I need to get some warm winter riding gloves....
It was cold but it beats sitting on the blasted trainer for an hour!