by Jonathan O’Keeffe » Sun Aug 05, 2012 8:03 pm
I forgot to post a report yesterday, so just a quick recap at this point on Saturday’s ride.
We had a large group of 15+ at the start on a super-hot and super-muggy morning. We headed west on Rt. 66, a long climb followed by a fast descent down to Rt. 112, dodging a slow-moving camper on the descent. South on Rt. 112 into Huntington, a quick stop to fill bottles that were already empty (did I mention that it was hot?), and then a big climb up the southern end of the Skyline Trail into Chester.
The group had been splitting up a bit a few times along the way, with some people looking for shorter rides, but at this point we had a core group of five (Mike H, Kevin, Roberto, Jonathan B, and me) heading north on East River Road, enjoying a huge straightaway descent that I’ve climbed several times during the Great River Ride, but have never descended. The gradual climb further up East River Road is great as well, very scenic, but marred by a couple miles of horrible pavement.
East River Road hits Rt. 143 in Worthington, with a bit more climbing, then a big descent to Chesterfield Gorge, followed by the long climb out of the gorge under the baking sun. We ended up back in NoHo with 59.5 miles on my odometer, at 16.3 mph, and a very healthy 5,400′ of climbing.
