Panhandle Ramble Day 4-Tunnels Aplenty!

We got our earliest start this morning at 7:45. That was necessary because we had two big climbs (what else is new), and we needed to get more miles done if we want to finish by Friday. 

Our first climb was a continuation of last night’s climb. We had another 6.9 miles to go to reach the top of Moon Pass. The ride started out with a number of “dust bombs” going by (vehicles).

Good thing I had my dust protector (buff)

The climb took me 1 hour and 45 minutes. I was the last one. 

I had stopped to take a break, and Jana passed me. 

The summit (again, no sign)

Heading down that way. 

The descent was very fun. At one point, I was going 29 miles/hour. The descent continued to the turn for the Hiawatha Trailheads 

We thought we would be going on the Hiawatha, but it ended up that we were on Milwaukee Road instead. The Hiawatha was actually down below us. We still got to go through 7 tunnels, and over two high trestles. 

The first tunnel. 

No 2

The best of the high trestles. 

The actual bridge. 

No 3

No 4 I didn’t take photos of every tunnel. 

Eventually, we rolled into Avery. We beelined for the grocery. Once again, we had hotdogs, and lots of liquids! By now, it was quite toasty. 

After lunch, we decided a dip in the river would feel mighty good. Conveniently, there was river access just across the street. 

It was quite refreshing. We all changed out of our bike shorts (riding in a wet chamois is NOT a good idea), but just soaked our shirts. It felt so good!

By the time we were ready to roll again, it had been 2 hours! Now we had about 19 miles and a massive climb. It was 3:00.

Milwaukee Railroad car in Avery. 

We crossed to the other side of the St. Joe River, and headed up the Fishhook Creek Canyon. It was spectacular!

The photos don’t really do it justice. 

Notice how shady it was. One advantage of doing it later in the day. 

Ginny

The Garmin initiated the climb pro saying we had 11.5 miles and about 3000 feet of elevation. The first couple were all green and yellow (2-3% grades). Then there was a sharp red spike. First I thought, uh oh, that’s gonna suck. But then I realized it was probably a tunnel. It was! And it was the coolest one yet! 

The 8th tunnel of the day. 

The climb continued at 2-3% for quite a bit more. The more miles we could climb easy, the shorter the steep part would be. I would say the climb started in earnest with about 6 miles to go. 

It was all shady until this one spot. 

Finally, I got to the top where Steph and Ginny were waiting. Just a couple minutes later, Jana arrived. It was 6:50. Now we had a mostly descent to a disbursed campsite on the North Fork of the Clearwater. We arrived just before 7:30. It had been almost a 12 hour day (but with a two hour break in the middle). 

The mosquitoes and no-see-ums were intense at the campsite. We all donated blood to the little suckers. We set up camp and fixed dinner, then dove into our tents. 

I have to apologize for the less-than-great quality of these blog posts. I’m trying to write them before I go to sleep, but I’m pretty exhausted, so not being very creative. I’ll try to do better, but I make no promises.