Mostly Climbing

Woke up today and had a nice cup of strong coffee, a cup of Umpqua oatmeal that I added a small handful of cranberries to and chowed down.

While eating I did a little photo sorting on the hundreds of photos that I have to go through and that are not going to sort themselves. Huge pain in the ass to do and really feels like a never ending process but I think that it will pay dividends once it is all organized. My main concern is that Cicely still has a few hundred, closer to a thousand, photos that we need to get uploaded.

That is going to be the hardest thing to get done. She is not quite as on top of it as I am because honestly it's a lot of work, okay not really "work" but does take time and commitment to get them named, uploaded and sorted.

Ah, we will get there at some point, some day I guess. I just don't want to lose any of those moments we have saved in snapshots of time.

Climbing

Went for a great road bike ride today after I decided that I was done sorting photos, well not "done" but at a good stopping point.

My ride was just under 2 hours if I remember correct. It was much hotter out than I have been use to since I have been doing most of my cycling at night after work.

Today it was in the low 80's out and windy. When I go for a spin at night lately it's usually somewhere between 50 and 65 degrees and little to no wind by that time of the day.

Anyway, today I called my ride quits just after 31 miles, 1650 feet of climbing and a little over a couple thousand calories burned. It's one of those rides that I only do every month or two because it kicks my ass. The hill I climb is not straight up, just consistent with no real breaks.

Once at the top when you need the break more than ever you see a sign on the right that reads "13% Grade". As you can imagine, this is the last thing you want to see at that point. Thankfully once up that part of the climb, only about 1/3 to 1/2 of a mile you are rewarded with a nice bit of downhill for a half mile of so, then it's back to more climbing.

Dogs

The area has a lot of open land, private property, keep out and beware of dog signs. Normally these would not phase me that much other than respecting the owners land and property. Unfortunately, I have read online that others have had the dogs come after them. The way my legs feel at that point in the ride a dog chase is the last thing I want to deal with.

Thankfully I did not have a run-in with any four legged kids today. I did have a couple barking at me but they were on a chain so there was no chance of them chasing after my ass.

I was prepared this ride, I took my gel mace with me in case I had any issues with people or pets. Again, I did not have to deal with either so it was a great day to be out cycling.

Sure there were the typical assholes in big trucks, the assholes in mini vans as well as one asshole sheriff that was almost stopping in front of me in a found-a-bout, not sure what that was all about. Either he was trying to help by slowing down traffic or just being an asshole.

Gun Show

I wanted to go to the crossroads of the west gun show today at the convention center but the dam thing closes at 5:00 PM so that was not in the cards.

I want to find something even smaller than my normal every day carry that I can take along on my rides. More-so when mountain biking but heck even on the road bike there are times that I wished that I had something with me.

The mace gel will work to an extent but not the way that a gun would. The last thing I ever want to do is mace someone or even a dog so having the pistol with me is great I would prefer to never have to use it - heck pull it out for that matter. Life is precious, even for assholes that want to steal a $5,000 to $15,000+ bike just to flip it at the pawn shop.

Have a great Saturday whatever it is you are doing with the day! I know some friends did the hike up to the top of Mount Rose, once there you get beer as a reward which is cool. I did not go obviously but kudos to all of those that took the challenge head on.

Photo: Oggy letting me snap a photo of him even though he has heavy, sleepy eyes and is trying to take a nap.