Shortly after I arrived at the start for tonight's Night Ride, Brad, our fearless leader, said, "You wanna do something different?" Well....um....sure? Instead of going north or south, we would go west. We would head through downtown, over to the Westside, go along West Bay Drive and...whoa!...wait a minute! West Bay Drive means that big-ass hill! Aiiyiyi! Brad seemed to think we would be concerned with the fact that we would have to ride through downtown traffic. I have to say, that was the least of my concerns. Oh well, nothing to do but gear down and pedal! Actually, Jean and I agreed, the steep part of the hill is not so bad. It's that the hill continues on and on.
We didn't do French Loop which was just fine with me. As much as I like that road in the daytime-- in the dark?...not so much. Instead we came out on Division, then rode to Cooper Point. From there, the next part is a bit of a mystery to me. We turned off Cooper Point toward Evergreen, but I don't know what road it was. All I know, is we ended up going through to the other side of Evergreen. The part behind Evergreen was the reverse of a route that Jean, Jo, and I had done several weeks ago. I had a pretty good idea where we were by then...at least some of the time.
We came out on Delphi. At Mud Bay, we continued on Delphi down the hill. As usual, I can keep up on the flat or downhill. On the uphill, it's a different story. I really need to work on that! Delphi has a couple of good hills on the way to 62nd. Brad, Ron, and Jean were kind enough to slow down and let me catch up. Once we got to 62nd, I was able to keep up for the rest of the ride (that would be because there weren't anymore big hills--except Henderson). At Henderson and Yelm Hwy, I turned and headed for home while they continued down Henderson and back to the start.
I got back home at the same time I usually do (8:00). The distance was a tiny bit shorter at 34 miles, and the terrain was vastly different, but it was still a great ride.
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