Bitten by the Snake..

Carey and I rode up at Snake Creek Gap today, with plans to ride the entire 34 miles and then ride the roads back to the cars at Dug Gap. I started out feeling fine (probably because it is mostly downhill) but on the first extended climb out of Red Wine Cove?? I was starting to feel a bit tired. Normally I hate the rolling sections and like the long climbs, but today was the total opposite...loving the rollers and hating the longer climbs. When we got down to the parking lot on Hwy 136, I told Carey I wasn't really feeling up to going the whole way AND riding 20+ miles back to the car, so we decided to ride up Horn Mtn, descend back the same way and then take the roads back. Well, about 3/4 of the way UP, a rock came out of nowhere, jumped up, and mangled Carey's rear derailleur. It was bent up so bad that she had to remove it and convert the bike to a singlespeed. So it was DEFINITELY back to the cars now.

Her gear choice was too easy for the flat paved roads, but once we started climbing back up to Dug Gap, it seemed like a good gear to have. We still managed about 3.5 hours of riding, even with cutting it short, so it was still a good day.