Day 10: I felt the 4044’ of climbing today

October 15, 2019

...and I live to tell the tale

I’m relaxing at my brothers house with a glass of wine; thinking about the 4000’ of today’s incline; though downhill was a thrill; climbing was tough each hill; but it’s better than rain and headwind, bottom line.

I knew looking at the elevation today would be an up and down day (elevation wise). The route was a straight-up get from point A to point B route using ridewithgps. There were no scenic spots earmarked on the ride. I chose the route so I could get from Hartford to my brothers place in Danbury. So, out of the room in Hartford by 7:15 (once the sun came up) and start pedaling.

Part of the ride today was parallel to an express bus “lane”. It’s a roadway exclusively for busses with limited stops from the suburbs into the city of Hartford.

I made my way from Hartford in 41-degree temps and skipped the breakfast buffet at the hotel. Oh, and funny story, coming down in the elevator, it stopped on the 6th floor on the way down to the lobby from 7. A woman gets on and complains about the bike being in the way. I move it and apologize. She hops in and is muttering something to herself, then when it gets to the lobby, she pushes past me to get off an says, “ohmygod, freakin’ bike” and walks over to the breakfast buffet. Turns out she’s another employee. So, yeah, won’t ever stay there again.

Daily 10:00am pic. Climbing this hill (how many I don’t know, I didn’t keep track)

Here’s what’s my day was like from about mm15 on: climb, climb, climb, shift into lowest gear, continue to climb, stop pedaling for a second, slow to a sub-crawl, pick up pedaling slowly, cross the top of the hill, descend at ludicrous speed, eyes tear up, blur vision, reach bottom, spin too quickly still being in too low a gear, shift down, pedal to reach base of next climb, repeat. And that’s about it.

One of the nicer views today peeking through a “window” of fall foliage

One of the highlights was a bike path in Middlebury. I linked up with the greenway at its start and rode it (uphill) as it followed the Old trolley line through the town. Nice and peaceful to be off the road for a bit. And I have nothing but good things to say about the drivers. Very courteous.

Today was all about climbing and descending. Other than the 15 minutes or so I stopped at Dunkin’ Donuts for coffee and a muffin (and to get rid of change) I really didn’t have much to see other than the foliage. But most of the day was like the scene in “Secret Life of Walter Mitty” where Sean Penn looks at the snow leopard through his camera lens and says, “this one’s just for me.” Sort of like the way today went. I rode on some roads today with the sun passing through the leaves at peak foliage and thought, “how in the heck am I going to capture this?” And realized I wasn’t . This one was just for me, riding through the foliage and enjoying it for myself.

Common view for the day, trying to capture what was a solo experience riding through the fall foliage.

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Today's ride: 61 miles (98 km)
Total: 469 miles (755 km)

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