At least for awhile that's what tonight's ride felt like! It was cold. It was raining. My thighs felt like blocks of ice. Fingers? What fingers? I don't know if they were there or not--sure couldn't feel them! Fortunately, the rain eventually stopped, and working hard to keep up with the guys brought the warm blood back into my thighs and fingers.
We took the trail north, then out on the road. We headed toward Fishtrap Loop. Maria, Jean, and I along with one of the guys fell back from the rest of the group. As we neared the turn onto Fishtrap, we decided to go straight and meet up with guys as they came around from the loop. We got to where the loop comes out to Libby Rd. The other guys hadn't made it around yet. We turned around and soft pedaled back up the hill waiting for the guys to catch up. We actually made it to the top of 81st at Zangle before the rest of the guys caught up. There was some mystery as to what happened to the guy who had been with us gals. We think he went straight instead of turning on 81st. Usually, people tell someone if they are going to turn off or head back.
From Zangle we went down into Boston Harbor. The guys got ahead of us gals going up the hill (as usual) out of Boston Harbor. We rode the rest of way just the three of us. We still followed what we guessed was the way the guys went--Gull Harbor to 26th. We turned on Friendly Grove Rd. but just looped back to Bethel (we could have turned on Bethel to start with, but we like the "sly dog" route--can't really say "scenic route" since it's dark and, well...not too scenic).
Once we got to State St., it was just a short ride back to the trailhead where Jean and I left Maria at her car (with Chip who was still loading up). We then rode back up the trail for the third time tonight. Jean turned off at Fones, and I continued on home.
This was my longest night ride at 41 miles. The average was okay considering this was a pretty hilly route. The rain pretty much quit and it seemed to get warmer. Maybe that's because I was headed south--away from Alaska.
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