For anyone new to this blog, The Climb is our name for a nearby climb that gains about 1000 feet in five miles. The road is a rural dead end and has little to no traffic most of the time.
I picked up Conor at 6:50 this morning and headed toward The Climb. The drive out was fun with Conor telling me about his AP Biology Class which he really seems to enjoy and which he sounds like he could teach next year if given the chance!! We arrived at the base of The Climb by 7:30 with Leon pulling in right behind us. We unloaded our bikes and were heading uphill by 7:45. When we left home the temperature was around 44 degrees, but the temp at The Climb was more like 37 degrees. The road was damp which made me concerned about possible icy patches. I kept hitting my rear brake at various spots on the way up to see if the road surface was slick, but it was fine.
About half-way up, Conor spotted two elk on the road about 100-150 yards ahead of us. They quickly moved off into the woods. Every time we see elk, I say the same thing “I always forget how big they are”. The ride up was noteworthy for the scenery. It was cloudy; but the air was crystal clear, the Olympic Mountains were in view, and some of the distant valleys were filled with ground fog. Even though it was cold, we were dressed warmly; and the views made it great to be there.
We did repeats on the top 2 kilometers until we got to about 3200 feet of climbing. As we were descending near the top, we were pleased to see Scott Larson heading up toward us. We turned around and accompanied Scott to the top; and, then, decided to head all the way to the bottom before heading back up. We were about 1.5 miles from the bottom when Martin Katzberg showed up with his bike on the bike rack behind his SUV. He turned around and said he would meet us at the bottom.
When we got to the bottom, Martin was ready to go; so we turned around and headed back up. We “visited” our way all the way to the top which made the ascent pretty easy in spite of me starting to be a little tired.
Scott, Conor, and I had to leave; so we headed all the way to the bottom once again. On the way down, Martin asked Leon how much more climbing he planned on doing. Instead of saying a specific number of feet or number of repeats, Leon simply said “until I get too tired to go up any longer”. It was so “LEON”.
It was great to be out with the guys. While the temperature started out pretty chilly, it ended up being about right for climbing (you just didn’t want to sit still for very long). Can’t wait until next time!!
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays
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