Mountain Stage Revisited
A second try pays off

This morning my bike carried me to the end of the pavement on Mountain Orchard Lane, a hill that defeated me during my pseudo-tour in July. The difference between the two attempts probably was the air quality. Back in July the air was hot and hazy. Today's weather brought cooler and cleaner air.

As to strategy, this morning I decided to use the small chain ring and the big rear gear almost entirely. After all, I am not really racing. I just wanted to see if I could make it to the top of the hill - however long it took. New strategy, new air, new legs - who knows what made the difference. All I know is that I made it.

Following my ride up the hill - an almost 10 km round trip from home - I tacked on the 38.6 km round trip to the end of the pavement on Airmont road. I managed to cover the distance of this little impromptu ride in 1 hr and 30 minutes for an average speed a little better than 24 kph. My speed on Mountain Orchard Lane, of course was much slower. I hadn't even bothered to time it.