Moving On

The original purpose behind The Fourteen Percent Ride has long since been fulfilled. So, I've decided that Mighty Proud will be the last posting. It just seems right.

But, don't worry. Or maybe you should. In any event, I plan to continue. I'll keep riding. And writing. Click here to come along in my new blog ~ The Long White Line. <-- check it out!

Thanks

As I've ridden for the last two years, I've picked up on the fact that Shirley, my darling wife, has been more worried about my safety than impressed with my "accomplishments." How do I know this? Well, when I'd come back and tell her, for example, that I'd hit 53.6 mph going down FO, she'd reply, "I don't want to hear it." Being the sensitive sort I figured out, after many such comments, that just maybe we were not on the same page here. But last week, she told me that she would "greatly reduce her focus on the 'fear for my safety' issue." We talked about the tour, looked at some maps, researched nutrition suggestions on the internet, and so on, just enjoying the idea of the ride. How nice is that? Thank you, Shirley!

Sunday, June 3, 2007

Not OK, But an ok Ride Nonetheless

It was going to be an OK ride today. Go to Stoddard then a mile up 162 to County O. After the climb on O, ride on across the ridge to the top of County K. Down K into Chaseburg then up K to Hamburg and the church at the high point. Descend and head home. An OK ride.

Before taking off, I looked at Weather.com. Radar showed rain encircling the city. Storms to the east were moving north, then circulating back around to the south. The nearest threat seemed to be a cell north of Winona. It looked as if I could get the ride in, so I headed down the river. The sky was mostly full of clouds, but patches of blue were peeking through here and there. Puffy white clouds, lit up by the sun at their lofty peaks. There were also sheets of blue-gray clouds to the south and west, some of these extending right to the ground, revealing heavy rain. But nothing, I thought, to interfere with the ride.

It is a nice ride up County O, the most uniform of the climbs around here, I think. Long, but without a lot of changing from steep-to-gradual and back as is the case on many of the hills. There is an elk (red deer, I've been told) ranch right at the top. A number of the large, majestic bulls were near the fence, watching with an alert curiosity as I rode by. It was at this point that I could look north, back towards La Crosse. Uh-oh. Really ugly storm clouds were rolling across the next ridge, right where I was heading. I rode on a bit, trying to gauge the situation. It did not take long to decide that I wasn't going to keep going and risk getting into the storm with the possibility of two descents on wet roads. Turning around, I headed down O and back into Stoddard where it was raining lightly. The ride up the river was dry, though, until the point where County K comes down to the highway. Light rain was falling here, but as I looked over my shoulder, up towards the bluffs, I could see the storm with sheets of rain sweeping out of the clouds. It was farther east than I had thought when looking at it from the top of County O, but I know I would have had to ride through it had I continued.

It wasn't the OK ride I had planned, but it was an ok ride of 29.6 miles.

Total ~ 1818.1 miles

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

A really bad pun! County O & K - an OK ride!*

Anonymous said...

I've seen others do that...how did you get elk with a slash through it? Some fancy-schmancy HTML that I don't know, no doubt.