cocoluxe to turkey top

If you're looking for information about the ride listed for June 23, click here.

I'm still not sure whether I could actually do this ride. 46 miles with 4300' of climb. I did it today, and was out front for a lot of it, but it's completely beyond my means, as far as I'm concerned.

At least once a year, Tom H does a Cocoluxe ride (check the link; it's a chocolatier of some excellence, and well worth the trip).

Early on, we stopped there mid-ride, until Tom got the idea to start there, which means we could end there, which means we could pick up some stuff there to bring home. Then some of our number decided that too much of the good stuff was gone by the time we got back, so some of us started arriving early with coolers so that we could buy stuff, leave it in the car, do the ride, and get home without the choco-goodies having completely disintegrated in the hot car. I brought a cooler, which The Excellent Wife (TEW) thought was just the height of foolishness, so the picture below of the cooler in Laura OLPH's car is a probably-ineffective shot at redemption of my credibility from TEW:

Six of us started: Tom, Laura, and I, of course, and Ricky G, Peter G, and Ken G.

Ken, Ricky, and Peter are not related to the best of my knowledge, despite the similarity of last initials.

Those of you who follow Laura's blog will know she has written exhaustingly extensively about her recent trip to Maine. She is back with Maine tchotchkes, on her bike...

...and off:

Oh yeah, the ride. We started climbing right away. Tom set a route that would come down the euphoniously-monikered Turkey Top, on the way to the top of Schooley's Mountain. It added some climb and some miles, but when I heard Schooley's Mountain, I'm afraid better judgment left and I decided to do the ride anyway.

It was a great day. I don't remember where these were taken.

Difficult climbs often lead to speedy descents, and today I learned why cyclists often prefer tight jerseys - the slightly-loose fit around my torso meant that I was wind-whipped on some of the fast descents. My ride page says my top speed was only 39.8, but the Garmin device said that it was over 40mph. (The average speed, though, was only 13.2: another testament to the hilliness of this ride.)

Turkey Top was at the top of a descent that went down about 360' in a mile. When I got to the bottom, we turned right onto Penwell, on which the climb began immediately; I was in too high a gear to get started, and had to roll down until I could get into gear and get some momentum, and then catch up to the ride... which I did, and I still can't imagine how; I'm just not that strong.

We continued the climb to the convenience store and post office on the top of Schooley's Mountain.

And back; mostly downhill. Some of these pictures were just too good to miss:

And Ken insisted we get these flowers:

And I'm back.Stuff is put away, chores are done, files are uploaded, and why am I not exhausted and napping on the couch? Could it be I'm in better shape than I thought I was?

Naaah, couldn't be.

Hope to see some of youse tomorrow when we go visit the Pig.