What's a man to do? I go to a work luncheon and am given the rest of the afternoon off. Daunell is physically relegated to her recliner. I must go on a bike ride.
I am a little annoyed at my phone since it's GPS is sporadic. I can't really trust what it says. I see the gradients at the steepest parts are not even recorded. I had to use the "replace elevations" button. I don't like doing that. Luckily, my new phone arrived today, so I need to get it read to use.
I know I climbed some hills that were over 17% gradient today. Over a certain steepness, I am guessing about 15%, the front wheel can't stay in a straight line and pulls to the left when I pedal. I had to reach down which my left had and push the left wheel like I was in a wheelchair in order to keep the front from sliding all the way to the left. Needless to say, it was very slow when I had to do this. However, it worked! I feel a great sense of accomplishment. These are the types of hills that scream for a differential on the rear wheels to make it two wheel drive.
After these climbs, I rode up Mt Lemmon to Babad Do'og Vista. It is three miles up averaging 5% gradient. I had no problem climbing this. In fact, I remember thinking, "I could do this all day as long as I have the water and nutrients I need and I keep ingesting them at the correct rate." That feels good to feel like that.! There were a number of times when it leveled off a bit, where I up-shifted for a while.
Riding down the mountain was not as bad as I feared. The corners were not tight enough that I needed to worry about going too fast. I was able to take them without braking at all coming down the mountain. I was travelling in the upper 20's most the time, but reached a maximum of just over 43 mph.
My metrics say I hit a maximum speed of 50.2 mph. I don't know where that was. I would assume it was probably on the 17% gradient coming down, but I rode my brakes quite a bit there as I was afraid of going too fast. But, that is really the only place it makes sense.
I really had a blast. I have been very driven to try these super steep climbs, and I have now finally done it.
After coming down the mountain, I rode toward home down Soldier Trail, but decided to explore east of there. I took a number of jaunts down eastbound roads. I even took a gravel road for 1/2 a mile before it ended and I had to turn around.
I also took a road that Randy and I have considered making part of a route. There is a short dirt part between two paved roads. It is sufficiently good to ride. Each end has a little stream/wash to go through which is passable as long as you don't stop in the middle of it.
I refilled my three water bottles at Agua Caliente park, which was about 20 miles into the ride. I started out with three water bottles, but also two 32 oz. Powerade bottles in my back on the back of my seat. I was about 1/2 bottle of Powerade left with everything else gone by the time I got there.
I really enjoyed this 31.6 mile ride with 1624 feet of climbing.