Who needs Vermont?

I remember stories of Almira and Art Gustason (Grandma and Uncle Art to the Chorman girls) taking bus rides in the fall to enjoy the fall leaves. The timing sometimes could be unpredictable as the leaves change according to the weather, as much as the time of year. But they lucked out more than not and fully enjoyed the company and the glorious colors of fall -- the brightest oranges, the full reds and varying shades in between, splashed on a canvas against a bright blue sky, rolling casually over the horizon.

This weekend my friends and I replicated their trip. Granted we were on our bikes not in a bus and we stayed in Central Ohio, not through Pennsylvania and New York but you get the picture. Jim hosted us at his lake house in Apple Valley and started a new annual tradition -- The Apple Valley Bicycle Challenge (see the logo I made below! Next year we're going all out with T-shirts, registration materials -- the whole shi-bang!). We typically travel 4-5 hours to the Hilly Hundred just south of Bloomington. We got the same scenery, the same tough hills, with a mere 1-1.5 hour of driving!

Our timing was great as we seemed to catch the trees at the peak of their most brilliant color display. The views up over the crest of the climbs was worth stopping for -- the fact that we were out of breath and exhausted from racing up the climb had nothing to do with stopping. OK the boys were really waiting for me but if they had just continued to race forward they would have missed seeing God's greatest canvas! So I was happy to have helped them out!

Climbing up to another scenic stop Dave shouted back -- who needs Vermont! Indeed -- I'm not sure you could get views better anywhere. I continue to be thrilled with dead trees and old, vacant barns and buildings and farm land seems to have plenty of both -- so again plenty of excuses to stop and take another photo!

The wildlife was enjoying the fall weather as well. I could hear several hawks but only say blue jays. Several bounding deer -- on a pretty serious mission to get away from us, some llama's, cows, sheep (who seem to spread out evenly spaced across a field -- almost as if they all have their claim to a section of land!) and of course the friendly neighborhood dogs! We came across two full size poodles Sunday -- the one was hopping up and down and then stood on it's rear legs to check us out -- fortunately just friendly and curious! Mike made friends with a burro -- but our preferred caption for the photo is "Find the Ass in this picture!".

We were close to Amish country, although I never saw any horse and buggy combo's. We did see two farmers harvesting the corn stalks -- by hand! In addition to our favored John Deere tractors and combines (we had one come towards us on the road Sunday -- they take up the ENTIRE road so we had to pull off! We got a friendly thank you wave as you'd expect from anyone that owns a Deere!) we also saw a manual combine -- just two rows and designed I guess to be pulled by a horse. Now those jobs are alot of work! In a world where the tractors planting the corn now have GPS to help keep the rows super straight it is kind of refreshing to see things still done by hand. But I think personally I'd prefer the combine with air conditioning!

There was a nice fall crispness in the air and the clouds looked like they would hold off for Saturday's ride but we got caught about 10 miles from home. Nothing demoralizes a ride quite like a good cold rain. Soggy feet, cold hands -- yummy! We'd been climbing hard all day, then hit a pretty steady head wind, and now rain. The "rooster tail" effect of the rain coming off the wheel in front of you made drafting harder. Fortunately the rain didn't last too long. When we got home we had to hose off our bikes as they were splattered with worm guts! Jim's brake was absolutely loaded! Yuck. Fortunately Jim's house had a fire place so our shoes snuggled up together on the hearth to warm up and dry out.

Saturday it was just me and the boys. Heidi met us after dinner and stayed the night while Pasqual, Mike and Amy showed up on Sunday. We woke up to a heavy heavy fog over the lake, giving us an excuse to lay around, eat, and hang out before hitting the hills yet again. We had several supposed sightings of the Loch Ness monster but the pictures just didn't come out.

While we only rode 40 miles on Sunday it felt like 70 and took us almost as long. The hills were relentless and the legs were still a bit tired from Saturday. Fortunately the ride had a "social" pace to it -- which meant we tried to crush each other at every occasion but were willing to stop and regroup frequently! My saving grace is that as long as there are not sharp turns I can descend very quickly. I hit 45.6 mph -- which gives you an idea of the hills we tackled! This descending skill allows me to gain back most of the ground I may loose on the climb so I was able to sprint back and stay in touch all day. But it was a darn hard day!

So that is it for bicycling trips this year. I'll still ride outside but it's time to start training for next years trips! Joey has put together a workout plan for me -- next week starts the "off season" workouts -- I hope to gain a bit of power so I can tackle these steep friends and stay a bit closer to the overall group.

I'll miss my friends -- we don't see as much of each other over the winter. But I'll keep the memories close at hand to inspire me to plan even better trips next year. It will be hard to top this year though!