Cycling – Turning a Tadpole Trike into an Offroad Sandhog

Okay, this had the potential to be one of those “Hey honey, hold my beer and watch this!” moments that have provided amusement for the ladies in our lives.  This one involved a 14.5 mile round-trip ride from the Bluffton Post Office on FM2241 to RR261 to the east/south, to Shaw Island Road, to the end of Shaw Island and then across the dry lake bottom to the ruins of Old Bluffton. It is a Mountain Bike Ride due to the segments out and back on the lake bed which is very sandy in places.  

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This ride is not suitable for road bikes, motorcycles or cars/trucks (the latter being subject to some hefty fines if caught.)  While I describe it as a mountain bike route, it is not very technical… except for the deep, soft, sandy parts.

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A couple of cycling friends, John Chalmers and Don Senzig rode mountain bikes out from the end of Shaw Island Road, across the dry lake bottom to the remains of Old Bluffton a few weeks ago. They said it was a tough ride because of the stretches of deep granite sand and the eroded dirt path where the sand was not just a deep bike-eating morass.

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Since my faithful very low-slung steed, a Catrike Road, is just not gonna do that, I had to get creative to come up with a way to make that ride. We have Peggy’s first tadpole-style trike, a Sun EZ – Tad sitting on the carport collecting spider webs and bird droppings, so it became the basis of a solution to the challenge of being able to make the ride out to Old Bluffton’s ruins.

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First the front tires were removed and replaced by Schwalbe Marathon Plus tires. These tires have a thick foam anti-puncture strip molded in, so that the indigenous curse of barefooted Texan Boys, the goat-head sticker (a seed of Satan himself, I am sure) would be frustrated in its collective effort to ruin cycling for everyone in the state. Then the rear tire was replaced by a standard Schwalbe Marathon which has a relatively thick tread and rigid sidewalls to give better push through the sandy stretches and provide fair puncture resistance.  I removed excess lights and made sure that shifting through the lower gears was going to work well and then called John up to see if he would be my guide for the intended expedition. Sounding somewhat bemused that I would even attempt to ride a low-slung tadpole-style trike in the sand he warned me we would be encountering, John agreed to “show me the way to Old Bluffton”, if not San Jose.

Starting from the Bluffton Post Office, the route map – shows the lake as it would look if full.

The route, shown on Google Earth, shows the last 1.4 miles on dry land not under 18 feet of water, and there is another 3/4 of a mile that we did not ride on out to the east.

The tires on the front are relatively low pressure rated and made my Catrike just plain scary to ride as the machine tended to rock and roll about “the roll axis”.  In cornering they made the Catrike exhibit the terrifying understeer of a 1955 Buick as they would deform so far that they looked like they might peel right off the rim. But this mission was not about speed, it was about not sinking up to my eyeballs in sand.  Still, the ride from the Bluffton Post Office where we started, across RR261 to Shaw Island Road and then down to where the pavement ended was a hand-full on that rig. Rather than the understeer that I had experienced with these tires on my Catrike, this beast had more oversteer that a 1955 Porsche, but retained all the body roll of the 1955 Buick. At around 15mph, I just stopped all pedaling out of a very heightened sense of self-preservation. And if the beast was still gaining speed I VERY carefully applied some brakes. And we made it down to the end of the pavement without the loss of any skin. Then it got very different… not the skin part, just the riding surface and terrain.

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Leaving the pavement involved dropping off the pavement down a roughly 20 foot-long incline which descended by about 8 feet, with gulches a foot or more deep eroded down through it, on which I barely kept the trike from rolling over. That was short but intense.

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We then proceeded east on a dirt pathway beaten (and softened up) by numerous idiots in 4×4 dually trucks seeking a place to get stuck. The many deep tracks suggested that a bunch of those duffuses had succeeded in their quest for hub-deep decomposed granite sand. We worked our way around those and through several long difficult patches of loose, very deep, sand.  At one point I came out of a 50 yard stretch of that stuff, with the trike geared down to its lowest gear and glanced at my heart rate monitor to see that I was at 145 beats per minute.

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On my Catrike out on paved roads, it takes climbing a 10% grade for a couple of minutes to get my heart rate that high.  This was tough. My thighs were screaming from the effort, though they handle 30-50 mile rides in the hills with little real discomfort and have made plenty of much longer rides with minimal suffering. This was really tough at times.

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At that point, I looked in my rear view mirror and saw that John was a long way back, walking his mountain bike.

I stopped and took a picture back towards John Chalmers as he remounts after a soft/deep stretch.

I stopped, took a picture and rested while he caught up. He expressed some surprise at how easily I had made it through that segment. He noted that with three wheels I could power through the bad spots where the rear wheel would start digging sideways. In those cases he had to bail and walk it or take a tumble in the sand (and goat head stickers), while I just steered into the skid and maintained steady power (no matter how much it made my thighs burn). Since I did not worry about falling over, I could wear cleats and both push and pull on the pedals to keep the power to the rear wheel from surging and therefore digging in. Knowing what he faced, John had not worn shoes which allowed him to cleat in. We had found a surprising benefit to the trike.

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We eventually made it down to the area of the ruins. The area would be under about 18 feet of water if the lake were full.

Old Bluffton starts just ahead and to the right. There is more of it to the left and across the peninsula.

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Looking south towards the dam from the position of the previous picture, one looks across 5 miles of wide-open, beautiful, sailing water! And the lake is down 33 feet in this picture! Bloody big lake!

There is an old well, foundations of several buildings and lots of broken glass which was, except for a few broken beer bottles (no doubt delivered via dually duffuses),  very old glass from the looks of it.

John peers down into the old well shaft. Water is there maybe 10 feet below.

As taking ANYTHING from this site is a serious violation of the law, people gather the bits and pieces of glass and metal they find and place them on chunks of old foundations for others to see. This must drive the archeologists mad.

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I know that most people mean well. But archeologists want to find it undisturbed so they can see what is with it.... sigh.

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There is also the remains of the old cemetery. When the lake was being built, most of those buried there were disinterred and then reburied in the new cemetery on what is now FM2241, about a mile west of the Bluffton Store (which had also been relocated.) There are signs asking visitors to not drive through the old cemetery as archeologists have discovered that there are still some possible graves there… the Dually Dumb-Ass Society members clearly cannot read, since there were fresh ruts where some had been stuck deep and been dragged out.

John and I wandered around, each thinking our own thoughts about the people who lived and died here from the 1850s until around 1930. There was a ferry at one time for crossing the Colorado River at Bluffton on the way from Burnet to Llano. Later a bridge was built, but what ever may be left of it is still well below the surface of Lake Buchanan.  A couple of miles east there was once a salt seep which was VERY important to settlers.  Soldiers at the fort in Burnet were shown this by Comanches (they were not ALWAYS taking scalps.) Old Bluffton was supposedly sited to be near both the salt works and a stretch of the river which would accommodate a ferry boat.

After a while we climbed back aboard our trusty steeds and started pedaling back towards the Shaw Island area. We followed a different path back, hoping for a bit less deep stuff to deal with but both had to walk through one area.

The trike performed well and all went quickly until we arrived at the short steep wash out that connected the lake bottom to Shaw Island Road. When the lake is up, this is kept smooth and is a neighborhood launching ramp. I made it about 2/3 of the way up when, with my left front down in a deep wash the trike’s right wheel began to come off the ground. I stopped and carefully extracted myself from the trike while John chuckled about my near-rollover. I then dragged the darn thing up and onto the pavement.

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John and I stopped briefly once back on the pavement at the end of Shaw Island.

We stopped for a couple of minutes for me to make some adjustments to try to make riding the “dirt-trike” on pavement less “exciting” (it was better, but still nowhere near as stable and quick as the Catrike). Then we rode on back up to RR261 and on to our starting point at the current Bluffton Post Office.

It worked!  I had, with little effort, turned a tadpole trike into a pretty good way to go where mountain bikes often bog down.  John was impressed and said so, but I want to make it better yet. To make the EZ-Tad a better machine for this type of ride, I need to try putting a 20 inch BMX bike tire on the rear wheel and maybe on both fronts to keep from sinking into the deep and loose stuff, but the handling on the road may get even scarier with those changes. I guess it is inevitable that no one machine will perform well in sand and at high speed on pavement.  Still, I just must try to make it work even better!  More later as that develops.

The ride was, in total, 14.56 miles in length and took 2 hours and 9 minutes including the time we spent walking around looking at the ruins.  My heart rate Maxed at 153BPM with an average of 110 and I burned 896 calories (but it felt like more to my thighs during those stretches of soft/deep sand.

Cycling – Ride to Walden Planation for Lunch

On October 26th, John Chalmers and I decided to ride from Lake Buchanan over to Walden Plantation, a really nice Bed & Breakfast that also has a grill and does gourmet burgers at lunch.  It is a good thing that it is a 55 mile round trip.  The 4,500 calories that Garmin thinks I burned on this ride might, maybe, offset the calories supplied by the burger, fries, sweet tea and Pecan Pie Muffins (oh!  those were good!) that Angie Walden was dishin’ out that day. 

We approached our destination from the south on Llano County Road 102 and the view, even with the river down a bunch, was impressive, long before the aromas coming from the Cabana/Grill were detectable.

The Walden Plantation facility ( red roof) across the river

Crossing the river, just below the Walden property, we saw that there is still a nice, if below normal flow on the Llano River.

Crossing the Llano River on CR 102

My wife and mother met us at Walden and were already well into their glass of wine when we arrived. 

From Right: Ann Bynum, John Chalmers, Achmed The Dead Terrorist???

 A quick review of the menu led to two of us ordering a burger (lean beef, all the normal veggies plus sliced avocados, mushrooms and jalapeno) while the other two ordered a Bruscetta Chicken Sandwich.  I will personally attest to the gourmet status of the hamburger.  Well, OK, it was a Texas Gourmet Hamburger since it was both really good AND way bigger than the cookie-sized finger food, claiming to be a hamburger, one might be served in Newport Beach. 

Angie asks John if Achmed is really dead.

The best I could tell, the cow that supplied the lean beef had never even seen any tofu, much less been served any.   Nor was there any hint of a tofu sin being committed while preparing a hamburger.  Nope, this was the real deal and it was really good. 

For those bewildered by the Achmed reference please see:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1uwOL4rB-go 

Try not to hurt yourself laughing. 

Anyway, we had a great lunch.  I can recommend a ride out to Walden Plantation for lunch.  Call ahead to be sure that they do not have an event scheduled; the grill may not be open to the public on those occasions.  See the route map below.

Lake Buchanan is on the right and Walden Plantation on the left.

 Stop by the Lake Buchanan Chamber of Commerce or the Llano Chamber of Commerce for a free Llano County map.  The Staff in either place can show you where you are heading.   The Buchanan Chamber is located on the north side of TX29 just up the hill to the west of the Inks Lake Bridge.  The Llano Chamber is located in the city of Llano on the east side of TX16, just north of the Llano River Bridge and about 3 blocks south of TX29.  You can reach Walden Plantation by phone at: 325-247-2046.

Happy pedalling and Bon Appetit, y’all!

Cycling – 101.5 miles! … No! … 101.5 Hilly Miles!

 Waiting for the day’s ride to start, a Sunrise fit for the adventure

 

Last Saturday (22 Oct, 2011) Gil Jones and I cycled from my home on the west shore of Lake Buchanan, TX to Junction, TX.  Gil and I cycle to many nice little towns in central Texas.  Junction just happens to also be 101.5 miles away, if one takes the scenic route.  I may mention that 101.5 thing again somewhere.

The route - click on the image for a larger version.

Our route would start on the western shore of Lake Buchanan, then go west on FM261 and FM2241 to TX29 on the east edge of Llano, then down TX29 to TX16 where we would go south to Fm152 at the northeast corner of the Llano Courthouse square.  At that point we would be 17-1/2 miles into the ride. Then we would head west on Fm152 for 18 miles to the little town of Castell, where we often ride from/to on the famous Tour de Longneques.  Then we would continue east another 10 or so miles to the intersection with US87 and then north into Mason for lunch at the Willow Creek Cafe.  We would leave Mason heading southwest on FM1871 through unending climbs and descents, one beautiful crossing of the Llano River, and yet more climbs and descents before reaching  FM385.  At FM385 our route would take us north, almost immediately coming to another Llano River crossing, Yates Crossing.  There we would stop and soak up the place while recharging our energy reserves for a few minutes, then face a tough climb up the north side of the river followed by a turn onto FM3480. On 3480 we would immediately confront a short but thoroughly gutwrenching climb and then a slow climb until we hit US377 and could go left to Junction (or to the right back to Mason, if we were daft).  Going left for about 12 miles on US377 we would hit US83 on the northern outskirts of Junction and proceed south to cross under I-10 and carry right on down the main drag of Junction to a city park, with which a couple of friends and I have some history dating back to 1962. 

The Elevation Profile for this ride is enough to get my attention.

The route clearly provides plenty of exciting descents and challenging ascents. Our starting point, Lake Buchanan, is at the left end of this chart.

Junction’s elevation ends up a bit over 700 feet higher than where we started, but one makes that much climb several times in the course of going there via the route we chose.

We did it.  We feel good about having done it.

At 7:40am, Saturday morning, Gil and I are ready to roll out from Lake Buchanan, bound for Junction, TX - 101.5 miles away

Gil has posted a very good report on our adventure and I commend it to your attention.  What I have tried to do is create a crude sort of pictorial report with minimal palavering from this point on.  As always, in these posts, to see a larger picture, click on the image.

This was an incredible experience.

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Arriving at Castell!  36 miles behind us!

Entering Castell, TX

 

Victor says "You are doing what!"

 

 

Turn right at US87 10 miles later

We turn right then cross the Llano River about a mile north

Yup, hang a right!Crossing the US87 Bridge across the Llano River

 Lunch was at Mason’s Willow Creek Cafe

Gil mugs at Peggy through the window upon arrival

 A BLT sandwich and gallon or two of iced tea does wonders!

We head north on US 87, getting really hungry

 Time to roll out of Mason

Tanks full - ready for FM1871 ( wanna bet on that?)!

Then we hit that first BIG climb out of Mason on Fm1871

60 miles out, the climbin' gets serious

It was tough

The first big climb out of Mason

And there were lots of climbs, most were straight into the wind!

Gil drafts the trike into a headwind

They seemed never-ending!

Finally we went down and crossed the Llano,... and then up again

But there was hope for a cooling downhill ahead!

Woo-hoo! Gil and I descend at 30-35mph!

 The Llano River really was a pretty sight.

This is a beautiful crossing where FM1871 crosses the Llano River.

We zipped across way too fast to soak up the sights here! 

Then we start a 2 mile avg 4% grade grind

 

A humdinger of a climb it was.

Finally finished THAT climb!, but there are more

Along the way we passed a small herd of Longhorns.  Peggy got some pictures.  The drought this year has been very hard on these animals.  Look how skinny that cow with the calf is.

Thin Longhorn cow shows ribs while she keeps an eye on us

We go on and on, up and down, and then… finally we come to FM385 and hook a righty toward Yates Crossing!

Turning north on FM385 we came to Yates Crossing.

 Gil and I stopped at the top of the hill, overlooking Yates Crossing, and read a historical marker.  Yates Crossing was used by the Indians and later by the cattle drives heading north and needing to cross the Llano River.  I don’t know why Captain Call did not bring the herd from Lonesome Dove here to cross at this nice concrete low water bridge.  That kid would not have been eaten up by those water mocasins!

 

Gil and I just stopped to read the historical marker above the crossing

Then we rode down to soak up the sights, smells and sounds of the living Llano River as it winds its way across Texas’ semi-arid western Hill Country. 

Yates Crossing, looking upstream on the Llano

 

Gil is perplexed by the lack of a Verizon signal, 3G or otherwise. I snarf a Roctane gel.

Refreshed and ready to carry on our Quixotic adventure we had to make the steep climb out of the river bottom, then right at the top of that take a left on FM3480. 

The bug is on the gut-wrenching climb. Tough.

There we did a small climb then zipped down into Red Creek and got slammed with an absolutely gut-wrenching climb out of that creek bottom.  This climb, while short, exceeds a 20% grade momentarily and is well up in the high teens for about 50 yards or so.  At 86 miles into the ride, this climb was hard on us.

 

Awful climb on FM3480

Once up that crushing climb, we had a gentle, 2-5% climb for a few miles over to the intersection with US377.  There we had to decide whether to carry on the 11-12 miles to Junction to the left or ride 25-30 miles back up to Mason.

Not being daft, we turned left toward Junction!

 

From here, it was only 9-10 miles to the intersection of US377 with US83 on the north edge of Junction.  From there, we just cruised on into Junction!

Cruisin' on into Junction... at about 99 miles at this point

 

Tired, hurting a little, and most triumphant! 

A short distance farther downhill through downtown Junction and we arrived at the Junction City Park.

We made it! Gil straightens his back and arms, while I keep my weight off my right knee. We were both fine by the next morning.

This is the park where in August of 1962 Bob Dawes, Eric Brewster and I parked my old Jaguar XK-140 and camped for the night on our way to a pre-college week in Garner State Park.  I believe we camped just a few feet from where the picture above was taken.  We had some memorably funny moments involving a hand-axe, a flashlight and some mischievous local teens, but I will leave that story for Bob or Eric to tell.  That was so long ago.

We loaded up the machines in the truck and went to the Valero Truckstop at US83 and I-10 and got showers there ($5 each nice facilities).  Then we went down to Lum’s BBQ and seriously pigged out before driving home. 

Lum's BBQ - On US83 south of I-10 about a mile - Go There!

This great adventure would have been very difficult without the help of my wife, Peggy, who drove along near us  carrying water, bananas, apples, spare energy gels, almonds, and her ever present camera. She made sure we would have help if we had a breakdown out in the boonies, and that was a great comfort and help on this adventure.

All told we rode 101.5 miles.  Garmin thinks I burned 7,005 calories and climbed something like 3,800-4,000 feet.  Not bad. 

 

Cycling – New friends met through the blog

A couple of weeks back, I received a comment on the blog from a woman in Wisconsin.  A google search about cycling in this area had led her to my humble blog.  She and her husband were coming to a family reunion in the our area in a few days and wanted to do some cycling while here.  Beth Peterson and her husband Pat are avid tandem bike riders and go to tandem rallies all over the country when they can get away.  The reunion they were coming for was going to be based at The Heart of Texas Resort, located on the upper reaches of Lake LBJ, just below the Inks Lake Dam and Fishery and about 1/2 mile from the Hoover Valley Store on Park Road 4.  I put out the word to The Hillybikers and we quickly pulled together a small group to do a 40+ mile tour around the area with Pat and Beth.

Route for the October 14th ride with Pat and Beth Peterson from Wisconsin

On Friday, October 14th, we all met at The Hoover Valley Country Store on Park Road 4.  Park Road 4 is a serious favorite road for me.  It runs south from TX29 on the eastern slopes of the pink granite ridge that sits to the east of Inks Lake.  Going south in very hilly terrain PR4 skirts the lake, providing great views, a couple of which are “take my breath away” beautiful. Often, when riding early in the morning, we see  a lot of wild-life such as deer, turkeys, red-tail hawks, osprey, foxes, raccoons, and even the occasional skunk.   In the spring and fall, if there have been any rains, there are wildflowers that can be very showy.

Start at the Hoover Valley Store, head south on PR4/FM2342 to FM1431

From the store we headed south on PR4 to its intersection with FM2342.  We bore right onto Fm2342 and carried on to the southwest to FM1431, across 1431 from Spykes BBQ (worth a visit if you are in the area and need to treat a protein deficiency… very good BBQ).

We turned right onto FM1431 across from Spykes BBQ, wandered through part of Kingsland then joined River Oaks Drive and eventually left on Slab Road to the Llano Slab before heading on west to TX 71 where we turned around and headed back toward the slab.

But, it was early, so we had to fore-go a visit to Spykes.  We turned right (north on 1431) and crossed the Colorado River arm of Lake LBJ then about a half mile north we turned off into a maze of local surface streets that wandered through the “Llanorado” area of Kingsland until we came to RR2900.

There we crossed 2900 and joined up with River Oaks Drive, which rolls along beside the Llano River arm of Lake LBJ for a few miles.  Eventually we made it to Llano Slab Road (AKA FM3404) and turned west.  Just after joining 3404 we descended to the Llano River where the road crosses at a geologic formation known as The Llano Slab.

In this area the river flows directly on a bed of the pink granite bedrock for which the area is well-known.  Due to recent rains we were treated to the sights and sounds of the water swirling and undulating across the width of the slab (around 70 yards across at that point).   I did not get any pictures, but Beth was snapping furiously away as we pedaled our way across the low water bridge.  About 2/3 of the way across we stopped and let our visitors enjoy the sights and sounds.  Being from Wisconsin they are not strangers to running rivers, but I sensed that they somehow also picked up on the reverence and awe that most Texans feel for that particular river.  If Beth sends me any of those pictures I will post them in this report as an update.

Rolling on west from The Slab we joined Llano County Road 307.  We cruised through hilly green (thanks to recent rains!) ranch land and through “pecan bottoms.”  Pat and Beth saw large stands of mature pecan (pronounced “puhh-con” in the civilized world, never, ever say “pea-can”) trees and herds of grazing cattle, including a calf that stood in rapt attention as the tandem cranked past it… all the while Beth was balanced precariously on the back seat shooting pictures like crazy. The one moment she did not have the camera up and ready to shoot, a road runner dashed out into the road ahead of them and across and off into the nearby brush.

Eventually CR307 brought us to TX71 where we took a break and then returned to the east.  We crossed the slab again and climbed out FM3404 to the east until it intersected FM1431.  At that point we turned north on 1431 and headed up toward Lake Buchanan.  Along the way my wife, Peggy came across us and got out her camera and got some pictures of the group as we proceeded north toward FM261 (Lakeshore Dr) along the west shore of Lake Buchanan.

The last half of the loop

The ride north involves only one hill worthy of any notice, and not a really steep one, but it is about 3/4 of a mile long and will get your goat given the chance.

Doug Miller and John Chalmers lead the way as Pat and Beth have just crested the long climb on the way up to Fuzzy's Corner (Fm1431 and TX29)

Pat and Beth arrive at Fuzzy's Corner with Pack Saddle Mountain in the backround

After riding on to where FM1431 intersects FM261 we turned south, riding along the west shore of Lake Buchanan to TX 29.

Doug Miller leads the group up to the intersection of FM261 and TX29

John Chalmers and Pat and Beth, also approaching TX29 on FM261

I don't know how to describe those smiles in Wisconsinese, but in Texan we would say "they're smilin' like a jackass eatin' cactus!"

The group stopped at the Buchanan-Inks Chamber office and Visitors Center so Pat and Beth could stock up on maps and area information

With Inks Lake in the background Pat and Beth experience one of the MANY short, but steep climbs on Park Road 4

Pat and Beth, having lived through the climb to the overlook at The Devil's Water Hole, look like they may be having a good time.

Surrounded by the rugged beauty of the Texas Hill Country, Pat and Beth climb one last hill before we arrive back at The Hoover Valley Store.

Back at our starting point, we all, including my wife Peggy (she took all of these pictures and many more), descended on the cafe and had lunch while we seasoned the memories we had made during the morning’s 42-mile sharing of our love of cycling, and for us local rustics, our love of the special place in which we are lucky enough to live.  Beth and Pat, y’all come back any time you want!

Cycling and other stuff

Several friends have pointed out that I have let them down by not providing much in the way of entertainment from my blog in the last few months.  It seems that some people get a laugh out of reading about the suffering of others.  If one’s character is known by that of one’s friends, I guess I am in trouble.

The summer was pretty hot this year.  In human terms it was historic, but in the less egocentric geologic terms it was just a modest warm cycle in the climate history of this part of what we currently call North America. Due to the heat, I did not cycle as much as I would have liked. Much of what I did was so early in the morning that memory is sorta foggy about those.  However, by the end of August I had raised my year-to-date mileage to 2,132.7.  Garmin estimates that I burned 119,041 calories… and I STILL weighed 220 pounds +/- a couple of pounds on any given day.  While the rides I had managed were fun, few were on new routes and, therefore, were not worth blogging about.  Likewise, sailing had been pretty sparse since it has been a long trek down to the water all summer.  A long way to drag a beach dolly bearing my royal yacht.

Then came September and the Austin Yacht Club Regatta and our Lake Buchanan Sunfish Regatta, both of which I did posts regarding.

Once through those two regattas, I skipped the other September regattas due to other commitments, but did start getting in a few more rides.  By the end of September I had added 235.76 miles to the year’s total.  One of those rides was a really nice new route added to our inventory of rides worth repeating, while the rest were repeats of previously blogged routes and offered only faster times as being worthy of note.  The one new route was Buchanan to Cherokee, with a great burger and some Miss Sue’s Sweet Tea at the Cherokee store.  The burgers there are made on a freshly baked bun that makes an amazing difference in the experience.  It is worth the trip and, as you will note as this post continues, we have repeated it a couple more times.  But… back to the the inaugural Cherokee Burger Raid Ride…

Five of the notorious Hillybikers Cycling and Geritol Swigging Gang set out from the Bynum Estate and Boat Graveyard on the west shore of Lake Buchanan, on the morning of September 17th, bent on a visit to the Cherokee store for a burger and Tea ( Peggy and I had scouted it earlier in the week )

From Left: Doug Miller, Gil Jones, Richard Golladay, Don Senzig, and Don Bynum prepare to leave on the 53 mile Cherokee Burger Raid of September 17, 2011

Our route took us west on FM261 then on  west on FM2241 to CR216, where we turned north by the Lone Grove Community Center.  We rode the bumps and many cattle guards of CR216 north and west to TX16, where we turned north to climb over the pass at Babyhead and onwards to Cherokee.

As we climbed toward Cherokee on TX16, after crossing the pass at Babyhead, an EMS unit came up behind us.  We were wondering if they had ESP or something or had just heard that a bunch of old guys had escaped a local nursing home and had been seen grinding north on presumably stolen bikes and trikes!

Way back in the distance the lights of an overtaking EMS unit are visible.

The fun was only beginning!  We did make it to Cherokee without being arrested or anything and had a great break with burgers and tea.  I think Gil could not resist gobbling down some Blue Bell ice cream for dessert.  We then headed back south on TX16 retracing our outbound route.  We took a short break at the roadside park just south of Babyhead then on, via CR216, to the east and south.  A few miles into CR216 we encountered some horses that seem to be regular escapees (I have seen them out on the road several times).  They were unsure about the bikes and VERY unsure about the trike.

Don Senzig is pretty nervous about dogs, but horses did not bother him as much as he bothered them.

The horses nervously let the guys on 2 wheels pass them.

Doug Miller (right) and Gil Jones (barely distinguishable from the rear end of the horse on the left ;0) passed through the group.

Shortly thereafter the horses saw the trike coming and all moved off into a gate area and studied the strange looking threat for a while before bolting, repassing all the cyclists and eventually galloping madly through the entrance to their own pasture.

The trike scared the hell out of the horses!

We rolled on east and eventually south on CR216 climbing the hills and roaring, all grinning like jackasses eating cactus, on the descents that followed each climb.  At about 41 miles into the ride Peggy caught the picture below.  The best I can figure it the average age of this group is about 69.  Surely there must be something in us that makes us have these moments, not unlike when Lt Dan, in the movie Forest Gump lashed himself to the mast and rode out a hurricane on Gump’s boat while shouting challenges at the gods.

"Where's the next hill we get to climb?"

The ride was 53 miles and it was a ton of fun.  The scenery was darn nice for a place in the grip of a bad drought and my companions made it all the better.

A couple of weeks later, our Son Brad and his family came down for the weekend and we had a great time.  Elder granddaughter, Anna, and I got out for a short ride on our trikes, somberly observed by younger granddaughter, Chase, who is no doubt wondering when she will be big enough to join us on our cycling outings.

But those events took place in October, so they will just have to await the next post…  still… just to tease a little…

Anna and I enjoy the moment

When will I be big enough?

… oh, and in the course of the 235.76 miles ridden in September, I burned 16,208 calories!  Don

Sailing – 2011 Lake Buchanan Sunfish Regatta

On September 10th and 11th, 2011,  the first ever and hopefully annual Lake Buchanan Sunfish Regatta was held.  We sailed off the beach at The Edgewater Resort and had tons of volunteer support from both the Lake Buchanan – Inks Lake Chamber of Commerce and the Lake Buchanan Conservation Corps.  Due to the heat of this summer depressing people into giving up on sailing this year, the high price of gasoline, and a scheduling conflict with the Fort Worth Boat Club’s Old Man of the Sea junior regatta.  Still we had six boats and from all comments, they would like to come back next year and drag along fellow, less fortunate, ’fish sailors who missed this one.

To those who were able to come to this regatta, our heartfelt thanks for the competition you brought and for the very positive impression you left on the people who came out to help put on the event.  To those who were unable to attend, maybe you can make it next year, you were missed and you missed sailing on a truly unique inland lake… fix that oversight next year, please.

Race 1 was sailed in light, but fairly steady wind (an advantage of being on a HUGE lake with no large hills near the shore).

Race 2-6 were sailed in 5-8mph winds with periodic shifts of 10 to 15 degrees.

Races 7-11 were sailed in light wind, 4-8, with occasional gusts around 10 and winds that slowly rotated from west-southwesterly to west-northwesterly.

Some pictures are shown below the body of this post.  Others can be found on the Lake Buchanan – Inks Lake Chamber of Commerce Blog, some others on the chamber’s web site and some other good ones can be seen at:

http://flic.kr/s/aHsjwctbJG

We had a small turnout, but really good racing.  Being such a  large lake, winds here tend to behave more like would be seen on a large bay.    As expected, Paul Foerster cleaned our clocks, but with the grace of a true champion.  It was an honor to be pounded by Paul!

The ladies, in addition to being half the fleet, did very well.  Annie Lancaster took second place and Carrie Foerster won a tie breaker with Pat Manning to end up 3rd.  The tie breaker was settled at the third place level of the process, showing how tight the competition really was (after Paul).  Neither had any first places; Carrie and Pat had the same number of second places but Carrie had more third places, which broke the tie.

Our ladies are warriors, taking positions 2-4!

Vic Manning went the wrong direction slightly less often than I did and ended up 5th. Five of the six competitors were from outside Llano and Burnet Counties, but next year we will have some Sunfish sailors here to stir things up a little.

One Fish owner was on one of the powerboats and got all excited and took my fish out after we were done Sunday.  She then came in and confessed to having a 1972 vintage Sunfish (those were the really great Sunfish… stiff hulls!)  in her garage (it was her dad’s boat) unsailed for many years.  Jay McGranahan is now going to clean it up and come do some sailing with us!

I will leave it for the participants to share their impressions of Lake Buchanan as a sailing venue, through comments posted on my blog and/or on the Chamber blog.

Pictures!

First race Saturday in 3-5mph, but steady, wind the fleet goes upwind. From left are Vic Manning (80119), Paul Foerster ( 8 ), Don Bynum (79138), Carrie Foerster (79551), Patricia Manning (80120), and Annie Lancaster (80640)

Even in the light air, the first boat easily finished inside the 30 minute time limit.  We were in VERY light air, but it was steady and there was virtually no powerboat traffic making us bob around.  The powerboats that were out were either part of the regatta support team or knew what was going on and stayed well away or at “no-wake” speeds.

The winds were better on Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning.

The Fleet approaches the windward mark with Paul in the lead and me, and this was rare, in hot pursuit!

There are so many great shots to show…

Olympic Sailing Champion Paul Foerster leads the fleet downwind on Lake Buchanan

Even old men get lucky sometimes!

Race 5: Paul Foerster and Don Bynum start at the windward end of the line while others go for the leeward end.

Later in the race Don and Pat Manning, seeing favorable wind developing on the left side of the leg, went left while everyone else followed Paul to the right.

The wind really was where Don and Pat saw it (Don has a history of imagining wind off across the lake)  and they ended up with a large lead over the rest of the fleet.

Don Bynum, Lake Buchanan local sailor, tacks to cross the finish line in first place with Pat Manning about 30 seconds behind. This was the only race that Paul Foerster lost all weekend. It was also the first time EVER that Bynum has beaten Paul to the finish line in many years of racing.

More pictures will be posted here and on other sites in the next week.  I will update this site with links to other sites as they come online with their pictures…

This coming weekend (September 24-25) is the Arlington Yacht Club’s annual Oktoberfish regatta.  Both Sunfish and Lasers will be sailing so there will be more single-handed boats out to draw the attention of sailors tired of expensive larger boat operation and crew scrounging, as well to provide good spectating for those who have not yet fulfilled their longing to have our sort of fun on the water.  I hope everyone who can possibly make Oktoberfish does so, as turnout at regattas has been weak this year and we need to all get our “sailin’ grin” back working.

If you are going, please drop Steve Blake ( s_blake99@yahoo.com ) a  note to help them gage how many boats they might have.  If you are not goin’… fix that, it sounds like a personal problem to me.

Sailing – 2011 Austin Yacht Club Centerboard Regatta (CBR)

There has been plenty to think about for folks who live in the Austin area these past few days. What I am going to blog about is pretty trivial stuff.  My heart goes out to the over 500 families whose homes have been destroyed and the countless others who had damage or had to evacuate their home for several days due to the wildfires that have raged across the area.   But  the 2011 CBR was  fun!

The annual Austin YC centerboard regatta is a fixure in the racing schedules of several classes. My focus is on the Sunfish class.  This year attendance was low, as has been the case at many regattas.  But even so, of the approximately 40 boats registered, about 1/3 were Sunfish.  Many stayed home having given up on sailing due to the most immoderate heat that has vexed us this year, but 14 intrepid Sunfish Drivers got out and battled the elements while sitting in slack-jawed astonishment every time John Bartlett, a sometimes Sunfish Guru would go screaming by in his current “hot toy”, a Moth.

A moth preparing to jibe. Not one with John Bartlett sailing it, oh noooo... his is black and sinister looking as well as insanely fast. See picture credits at the bottom of the image.

On several occasions John went zig-zagging downwind through the fleet like some giant creature out of a science fiction flick hunting for live prey… at 30-38 mph!  We all watched for him when tacking because we were pretty sure he could whack a sunfish clean through when up on the foils. He raced with the Catamarans, for lack of a less baffling place to slot the Moth, but provided so much entertainment for us that he was very much a part of the Sunfish experience this weekend.

The races started with the wind out of the northeast (uh-ho, not good on Lake Travis!) and predictably very shifty due to the large hills that slope steeply right down into the lake.  Based on past experience I was expecting a poorly contrived course, but Dane Ohe, our PRO was not going to let an impossible wind direction/terrain combo screw up his race course.  Dane and his band of helpers pulled off a course which was both challenging and fair… and yes pretty shifty too.  The wind was sorta 8 gusting to 15 for the first race.  It was a serious workout getting in and out of the hiking straps as we neared the weather mark.

Another challenge facing Mr. Ohe was that he had to manage 5 different starts.  He did it and did it well using the 3 minute collegiate starting sequence.  Not a hitch!  As a fleet would finish they got teed up for a start pretty quick even as other fleets were heading for the start/finish line.  That was a recipe for conflict, but the R/C pulled it off with sufficient attention to exactly when to start a new sequence in order to minimize conflict balanced by the need to keep fleets racing, not sitting around waiting for other fleets to finish or get started and out of the way.  Impressive job, Dane!

In the first race, Paul Foerster won, as would be his habit for two days, but he got a bit of a come-uppance in that first race when as he approached the first leeward mark he realized that the boat that was about to round ahead of him was… his wife Carrie!  Carrie had rounded a boat or two behind Paul at the weather mark and while he focused on the people he thought were likely to be a real threat, she chose a different lane downwind and got better air and just plain beat him on that leg of the race.  I am going on about this because I have NEVER passed Paul downwind.  NEVER! Way to go, Carrie!  And the one who seemed most pleased was… Paul.

I had a really dumb start and rounded the windward mark 3rd from last, but took the outside lane as Carrie had done and passed 3 boats on that first downwind leg. Everything stayed sorta in order until the last weather leg. Then the wind freshened a little and I passed a couple more boats to end up in a very satisfying 6th (considering the handicap I gave myself at the start.)

The wind continued to gradually strengthen throughout the remaining  3 races with Paul Foerster finishing 1st in each race, closely followed by Ravi Submaranian each time.  Ravi was seriously making Paul work to win the races, not just cruise to the finish in 1st.  In the final race of the day, I got moving early and arrived at the windward mark seconds behind Paul and Ravi and stayed close to them all the way to the finish, though I doubt that they worried too much that I would somehow get past them.

In that last race Saturday the wind was getting up over 20 in the gusts and providing some excitement at times.

Sunday we awoke to a forecast of north winds gusting over 40 miles per hour.  The weather prophets nailed that one.  It was a fight for survival, though given, again, what others in central Texas were enduring while I was out playing on my Sunfish, maybe that is too strong a term… but it felt about right.

The wind was simply too strong for many competitors to even attempt to sail.  Only 8 of the 14 Sunfish started the first race Sunday, though at least 3 others started out to the course before deciding that it was just too much wind.  Shortly after the start one competitor broke a rudder and had to withdraw.  In the chaos involved in getting started in that much wind, another failed to notice that the course was to be an Olympic triagle,windward, leeward, windward route and failed to sail over to the jibing mark at the corner of that initial triangle.

I am not sure whether Paul Foerster got to the windward mark first or maybe Tony Collins or Ravi did, but they all three took off down wind while I rounded and headed off on the triangle with Vic Manning in close pursuit. Paul and Ravi quickly realised what was happening and altered course in time to make it to the corner of that triangle just ahead of Vic and me.  The run down to that mark was wild with gusts near 40 shoving the normally docile little Sunfish to speeds that would at least worry Bartlett and his Death Moth.  Tony had, I think, decided to save his energy for the next race rather than jibe and come over to sail the triangle as he then withdrew before finishing. He did sail the two remaining races (which I did not.)   Once we completed the run to the bottom of the triangle and started upwind, I powered past Ravi.  His superior sailing skill was not matched with enough height and mass to keep the boat flat and moving when sailing upwind.

I rounded the windward mark in a solid second place and feeling pretty spiffy about my most manly sailing…. then we turned straight down wind.  For the uninitiated, straight down wind in a sailboat in very strong wind is where most capsizes broken masts, broken booms and cracked rudders occur.  I did pretty well as I only did one of those; I capsized in a very high-speed, slow-motion death roll in the midst of a gust that was well over 40, maybe near 45 mph.

I righted the boat and resumed the race, but from behind both Ravi and Vic.  The final windward leg of the race was just brutal, even for a guy my size.  While cycling has given me legs of steel, riding my recumbent trike has done nothing to keep my upper body strength up-to-par.  I found that I really could no longer pull the sheet in far enough to drive the boat forward very well and if I got it in then hiked out enough to flatten the boat and a little windhsift required tweaking the sheet even tighter, I could not.  I just could not do it.  So I carefully finished, but behind Paul, Ravi and Vic.  Ted Owens and Bonner Cordelle came in not far behind me in 5th and 6th places.

At this point I let the Race Committee know that I was heading in and would not be sailing the rest of the day’s races.  I felt that I was tired enough that I could be a hazard to the other competitors.  That was a tough decision because, aside from the pain and suffering, I was having a blast.  I guess being 67 carries some costs that I had to pay.  One other competitor, Brian Metz, was gutsy enough to start that first race, but he dropped out at some point, I think maybe on the first off-wind leg.  It was hairy.

Paul, Ravi, Tony and Vic Manning all started the second race of Sunday.  Paul won with Tony doing extremely well to finish second ahead of Vic (3rd) and Ravi (4th).  Tony is recovering from a horrific fracture to one of his legs and sure as heck deserves the Tough Guy award!

In the final Race Paul, Ravi and Tony started without Vic (age also an issue?) in the last race of the day and the weekend and Tony wore away at Ravi and ended up with a VERY respectable 2nd place.

Final standings are shown below:

2011 Centerboard Regatta

Class=Sunfish ScoreMethod=One
design (Finish position)

Overall Results

	Sail	Skipper	Club	Total	Race 1	Race 2	Race 3	Race 4	Race 5	Race 6	Race 7
1	8	Foerster,Paul	RCYC	6	1*	1	1	1	1	1	1
2	37340	Subramanian,Ravi	AYC	14	3	2	2	2	2	4*	3
3	79321	Collins,Tony	RCYC	20	2	7	3	4	15*DNF	2	2
4	79138	Bynum,Don		38	6	5	5	3	4	15*DNC	15 DNC
5	80119	Manning,Victor	AYC	44	15*DNC	8	8	7	3	3	15 DNC
6	78045	Owens,Ted	AYC	45	10	3	4	8	5	15*DNC	15 DNC
7	7	Cordelle,Bonner	AYC	50	9	4	11	5	6	15*DNC	15 DNC
8	3248	Tye,Dennis		56	8	6	6	6	15*DNC	15 DNC	15 DNC
9	80640	Lancaster,Annie	AYC	63	4	10	10	9	15*DNC	15 DNC	15 DNC
10	76062	Faust,Sarah	AYC	65	7	9	7	12	15*DNC	15 DNC	15 DNC
11	79551	Foerster,Carrie	RCYC	73	5	11	12	15*DNF	15 DNC	15 DNC	15 DNC
12	80743	Bryan,Scott	AYC	73	11	13	9	10	15*DNC	15 DNC	15 DNC
13	101	Metz,Brian	AYC	79	13	12	13	11	15*DNF	15 DNC	15 DNC
14	80120	Manning,Patricia	AYC	86	12	14	15*DNC	15 DNC	15 DNC	15 DNC	15 DNC

As previously noted, Dane Ohe ran excelent races in sometimes challenging circumstances and condition and deserves a serious “Thank You!”.

Regatta Chairman Vic Manning (and his nearly silent Co-Chair Pat Manning)had everything organized around the club and this was just simply a really good regatta.  Thanks to all involved.

This coming weekend is the Lake Buchanan Sunfish Regatta.  This is a first of its kind event on The Big Lake and all are invited to bring a fish and come sail.  Paul Foerster will be here and needs the competition almost as much as YOU need to be able to brag to your grandchildren that you once sailed on The Big Lake” in competition with a Gold Medal Olympic Sailor.  Come one!  Where is your ego?  Come on out.  The NOR can be viewed at:  http://www.buchanan-inks.com/sailing-regatta-info.html

There will be some after-hours activities for sailors and mere mortals alike.

At 7pm Paul Foerster (4 time Olympian, three time Olympic Medalist and one of those times a Gold Medalist) will give a slide show about his Olympic experiences.  This will be at the recreation hall at The Edgewater Resort at Lake Buchanan from 7pm to 8pm.  Paul’s presentation will be followed by live music by the Lake Bottom Jazz Ensemble starting at 8pm, which is also open to the public.

Edgewater is located on the west shore of Lake Buchanan off FM261 about a mile north of TX29.  Come meet an Olympian and enjoy the music.

Cycling – Pushing the limits of geezerdom – PR4 – Kingsland loop @13.3mph

Inspired by the mindboggling endurance of the much younger men riding in Le Tour de France, I decided to see just how hard I can push myself.  For this effort I chose to ride the Golden Beach- RR261-TX29 East – PR4 - FM2342-Kingsland - FM1431 - RR 261-Golden Beach loop.  The route is 33.1 miles, pretty hilly and I have ridden it quite a few times, so I have a good record of past times for the ride.  The best previous time in my log is 2hrs and 40min (but I think that one may be a little “oranges vs apples” since I rode with John Chalmers and we stopped at the Subway in Kingsland and I stopped my timer while inside the restarted when we were ready to go.  Anyhow… that is the best time in the log I keep.

Route Map

I got up at 5:30am, started the pump going to water the yard some while I got ready, had my coffee and ate a bowl of cheerios and fresh blueberries.   I also drank a half-liter of water and took 2 Endurolyte capsules and a Roctane energy gel (also know amongst my cycling friends as “cyclocrack”).

Come 7 am, I was about ready to roll out and beat the heat.  The temperature was a nice 78 degrees.  It warmed up quickly.  On the segment of the ride from the start to Park Road 4 at TX29, my average speed overall and while moving was 15.9mph.  The descent from about where RR261 hits TX29 down to the Inks Lake bridge on TX 29 was mostly done in the 20-30 mph range with a top speed of only 33.8mph (I was holding back because the hills of PR4 can chew up ones legs very quickly, if you hit them already tired.)

Elevation Profile - This ride can eat old legs!

The ride took 2hrs and 29min, including all stops.  This sets a new personal best on this sorta hilly route.  Overall (including the time for stops) I averaged 13 .3 mph, and while moving (excludes the stops) I averaged 14.5 mph.  Not bad for a 215 pound geezer on a 40 pound Catrike Road with 3.5 liters (about 11 more pounds!) of water onboard.

There were brief stops at the turn onto PR4( Honey Stinger, 2 Endurolytes, and 4-5 almonds), at the Hoover Valley Store ( download and replenish water, Roctane ultra-endurance energy gel and 2 Endurolytes), and a last stop about half way through Kingsland in a shady spot for a drink and another GU Rocktane energy gel.  I also sucked down another Rocktane just after crossing TX29 on FM1431 northbound into the Buchanan Dam area.

Once back home, it is time to rejuice myself and get some yard work done before the forecast 102 temp hits today.  This ride brings my July totals to 233.95 miles and 16,407 calories worth of cycling.  There have been several rides about which I have not blogged, but should have.  The best was a 43 miler with Gil Jones.  We started on FM2147E and looped over to Spicewood then out Old Spicewood Springs Road and around to Round Mountain and back over Old Marble Falls Road (parallels US281) and back to Fm2147.  There are a couple of hills that will get one’s attention on the segment between Spicewood and Round Mountain! That ride was a 3,096 calorie, almost 5 hour fight for survival which included Gil having a flat.

A week later a group of us did a 3,094 calorie, 43,7 mile, 4 and a half hour ride out of Kingsland which included riding in two different passing hard rain showers.  Boy did those showers feel good, though we got soaked… or maybe they felt good because we got soaked.  I had another failure on one of my Scorcher Slicks.  It developed a blister about 10 miles from the end of the ride, but I was able to let a little air out of the tire and nurse it the rest of the way in.  That was on my right front wheel.  The weekend before, the rear tire had done the same.  As seems to be the norm, these tires each had about 650 miles on them.  So far, Greenspeed has simply sent a new rtire to replace the bad one (and they are at 5 tires so far).  Easy Street Recumbents, where I buy these tires and Greenspeed have given good customer service.  That said, Greenspeed has a process problem to get fixed.  All 5 tires have failed when the belt pulled loose at one end and started chafing the inner liner then separated from the outer body, producing a diagonal blister across the tread and sidewalls.

Time to THINK RAIN!

Cycling – FM2147E and County Roads to The Narrows and Back – 30 miles of Hot!

Saturday morning July 9th came early for me.  A group of fellow cyclists were to meet on FM 2147 just east of US281, south of Marble Falls at 0800 for an easy-paced ride on some serious hills.  Six made it out.

John Chalmers, Doug Miller, Guy Taylor, Jay McGranahan, Angie Sierra and I rolled out heading east on 2147 to The Narrows recreation area on the south shore of Lake Travis.  Though the ride quickly presents a good “wake-up climb”, we were mostly going down-hill all the way to The Narrows.

The map below has notes about things we encountered along the way, including the considerable elevation changes.

Interesting route with lots of climbing and descending through very pretty country as well as getting to watch an old Steerman biplane do a loop.

Now for the narrative to go with that map!

We started at about 925 feet (elevation) and quickly descended to 825 feet and then climbed back to 1,000 feet at the 1 mile point (the summit of this ride) then rolled quickly back down to 713 feet by the 5 mile point.  Just after passing that 713 foot elevation we rolled past a pasture with some longhorn cattle that were enormous.  One has a horn-span of around 8 feet!

Leaving those huge longhorns chewing their cuds and watching us pedal past, we  climbed back up to 917 by the 6.7 mile point in the ride.  Everyone was getting to practice shifting their gears and stabilizing their heart rate up in the aerobic zone.

As we were cruising along about 9.5 miles into the ride my attention was drawn by the unmistakable rumble of a radial aircraft engine above me.  I managed to avoid running off the road as I watched the pilot of an old Steerman biplane execute a loop 2000-3000 feet above me.  Immediately after the loop the plane turned off to the east and began descending.  As Steermans are usually flown from the back seat and the passenger rides in the front seat, my guess is that someone in the front seat expressed an urgent need to go home.  Pity, as the pilot was most likely having a good time and had executed a very clean loop with little, if any, altitude loss.

We continued descending and climbing, mostly in 75 to 100 foot increments, but generally descending.   At about 14.5 miles we dipped through 813 feet and quickly back to 830 feet to find ourselves looking down a 20% grade with a hair-pin turn near the bottom and the valley of the Colorado River/Upper Lake Travis spread out below us.

We all rode cautiously down the steep grade.  I was thinking “we are gonna get to climb this bugger back out of here after a short break and that is gonna hurt!”  Odds are that others were engaged in that thought as well.

Upon reaching the parking area and most welcome porta-potty in The Narrows Recreation Are,a we took a break and discussed the ride down.  We had ridden endless up/down action,  seen cattle so big they must be mutants, watched an antique airplane do a loop and gotten to practice our steep descent techniques.

Then it was time to climb that bugger of a hill.  For several seconds in the middle of the climb, my Garmin FR305 was showing a grade of 20%.  But it took a couple of minutes of 15%+ grade climbing to beat the steep part of that hill.  I ground away at it in my lowest gear and was making just over 3mph for much of the climb.  During that segment I hit my maximum heart rate (maxHR) of 150 beats per minute.  That was encouraging; only a month or so back I would have surely maxed out around 160bpm on that climb.  All this riding seems to be making me stronger, not killing me, so it must be good.

The rest of the return ride was pleasantly anticlimactic after that climb!  The valleys were still pretty, the longhorns were still outsized, and the company muy amable, but the hills seemed to become ”sorta uphill but not exhausting.”

After the ride I pondered the data from the GPS and found that my average heart rate was only 105 (gosh I may have fallen asleep along the way).   Garmin thinks I burned 2,158 calories.  Total Ascent showed to be about 1,700 feet.

Angie, John, Guy, Jay and Doug;  Thanks for the company.  It was fun riding with you.

Cycling – Tour de Longneques Saturday June 25th

21 intrepid, including a few who were also increpid, cyclists made the Tour de Longneques of June 25th, 2011.  18 started from Castell to make the 36 mile round trip and 3 started from Llano to do a less punishing 18 miler.

18 riders prepare to roll out on the 36 mile Castell-to-Llano-to- Castell route.

The day was warm, about 78 degrees at the 0830 departure time from Castell and about 80 for the 3 cyclists who rolled out of the courthouse square at Llano on the one-way 18 mile ride.  Winds were light and mostly a crosswind and were not a big factor in this ride.

Early-on those of us who left from Castell saw Mike McKenna (Llano County’s bike repair guru and virtual superman on the road) and Dan Hansen (Dan was riding a Catbike recumbent) disappeared over the hills and into the distance.  I heard a rumor that they made it back to Castell about 15 minutes before they left!  Time-travel!

Ah! Youth and determination can overcome any hill!

Captain Justice leads Jay "The Enforcer" and me up the hill

Matter of interest:  Jay “The Enforcer” is preparing for a 250 mile great epic cycling adventure in August.  Several of her cousins are making a northern tier ride across America.  Jay will be meeting up with them in Indiana in August. She will then ride with them for 250 very hilly miles across Indiana and most of Ohio in 5 days.  Tour de Longneques rolling hills were perfect conditioning for her great adventure.  Yea Jay!

After a few on the hills and a steadily rising temperature "grim determination" was a useful attitude!

Richard Golloday drafts John Chalmers and Don Senzig up the hill as Bob Thomas pursues them up the hill

Bob Thomas continues his pursuit of the geezer brigade.

One after another, the 18 riders from Castell get a taste of "Les Cols des Longneques." Rachel Wicker leads this group of 4 including Pam Thomas, Mike Thayer and Rachel's dad William (on the recumbent) up the hill.

Pam Thomas and Mike Thayer give "lookin' hot" a new meaning!

William Wicker is smiling in the knowledge that he has tastefully accessorized himself by selecting a shirt which matches his GPS!

Tim "that which does not kill me makes me stronger" Gardner grinds it up yet another hill! Sometimes they seem to come in an endless stream.

I find that phantasizing about the post-ride healing soak in the Llano River's rapids keeps a smile in place and makes people who would otherwise bother me suspect that I am deranged.

Now, if you look back up a few pictures, you may notice that several riders attempted the Tour de Longneques on mountain bikes, rather than road (skinny tires, lighter frames, …).  Those folks give special meaning to the term “Iron Men (or women)” because mountain bikes take way more effort to roll down the road for substantial distances.  They are great at jumping stumps, riding over rocky trails and chasing mountain goats across cliff faces.  Most road bikes would be a twisted mass of metal, carbon fiber and mangled tires after an hour on a mountain bike trail.  This ride is on roads, and they were on mountain bikes, so we got to see some gutsy riding.

I am not certain, but I think that Pam Thomas was the ONLY mountain bike rider to make the full distance from Castell to Llano. Here we see her "in recovery" on the lush lawn and shade of the Llano County Courthouse. Pam, AWESOME! More than one Big Strong guy bit the dust trying to do what you did!

Robyn Hansen (right) and her sister Liz enjoy the post-ride wind-down after the ride 18 mile ride from Llano. Robyn and Liz started out with Joyce Berecki, but Joyce went so fast that she was in Castell and down soaking in the river by the time the camera babe (my wife Peggy) got back to Castell and started taking pictures.

Back at Castell about half of us and a few friends who had not ridden made the pilgrimage down to the Castell bridge on the Llano.  With great reverence we sighed, laughed, moaned and giggled as we sank lower in the swirls of the sacred healing waters of our beautiful Llano River.  The river was flowing nicely, contrary to the typically weird ( meaning “screwed-up” ) Austin TV coverage of the drought.

So the June 25th edition of the Tour de Longneques is now in the record books, and, more importantly, in our memories.  It was hot, really hot, by the time we finished, but the Llano and a few Lone  Star Long Necks cured what ailed us.

We will be doing the ride again in a couple of months, I am sure so watch this blog for updates so you don’t miss it next time!