The ride was an eye opening experience, from the first hill to the last I got to know myself and my bike just a little bit better.  I found out that I need to get a 34 tooth chainring before the next mountain ride, and that I can make up any hill on my bike you just have to want to see the top.  I found ways to look past the pain and how to avoid looking up the hill as to not see how much further I had to go.  The ride was only a third of the story with Friday night/Saturday morning shenanigans, and Sunday's cross wind a weekend like that could never be duplicated.

For a recap of the ride it went a little like this:

Hill

Flat x 4

Big Hills

Flat

More Big Hills

Flat

Crazy Down Hill

Flat x 2

Finish

Most of the day seems like a blur with only the ride up Bopple/Gannet, The Gravel Road Coasting, Slitter, and The Ride In still fresh in my mind I'll do some play-by-play action.

Bopple/Gannet:

Prior to going to Highlander all I can remember is the talk of Bopple.  Bopple this Bopple that, so I knew I was in for some steep climbing when Craig told me we were coming in hot.  After riding along the lake and nearly missing being smashed by a cement truck we see the first incline.  Dobo takes off and I decided I would ride my pace but he gave me some motivation.  I kept him at a constant distance and on the last kick-up a family cheered me on as I stood to begin closing the gap.  After passing the stop sign I kicked it into the big chainring to slow down the heart and see what I had left.  As we screamed down the downhill we took a right then Craig caught up and we started the climb of Gannet.

Gannet really isn't a hard hill, but after just doing Bopple it would make for an long 2 miles.  At the base of the hill Craig let us know he thought he had a flat and we would need to wait for Big Tim to catch up since he had the patch kit and we were running out of tubes.  But after a quick inspection he decided it must have been a groove in the road since he wasn't losing any air.  This gave me a chance to move into the little chainring and begin the climb.  Dobo was once again out front and I just kept my pace turning the slowest cadence I could with out stopping.  Craig and I rode to the top together and I even got a door prize.  After arriving at the summit the smell of cliff bars and bananas kept us pumping up to the rest stop for the re-group and return of Rhino.

The Gravel Road Coasting:

Sometime after the climbs we were on a fast decent with Rhino Dobo and I riding together when we come to a gravel road.  Dobo took it easy but Rhino and I started down the hill which was just you standard chip and seal, but after a few ups and downs we hit a real gravel road with nothing but dirt and rocks.  I was riding near the center when Rhino let me know he wanted the line I was on so I let him in since he is a much better descender I figured I would follow him down and where ever we had to go.  I had a blast holding his wheel from the flying downhill to the pass we made on two riders it was amazing.  We eventually made it back to pavement which eventually lead down to our next rest stop before Slitter.

Slitter:

The last Big Hill and probably the most memorable was Slitter.  After our final rest-stop Craig gave me the layout of the hill letting me know that it wasn't a constant climb but had some low grade sections to "recover" on.  Slitter starts as a left turn and it goes straight up (similar to the hills on MTHD's Mayhem) but it keeps going up and up.  Looking up you can only wonder where the top is since the low grade sections looked like the top as you approached them.  Finally Dobo made it to the top and thankfully he stopped to cheer us on up the hill and let us know where the top is.  I crested the top and went back to see Big Tim smiling the whole way up the hill.  With only a crazy downhill and one hill to go I was ready to see the finish.

The Ride In:

After riding with Dobo as much as I could up the last hill we recovered at the top and waited on the final road back into the start.  When Rhino comes up behind us and I hooked on his wheel and headed for the finish.  I don't remember much other than the Deer crossing signs and how nice that Cane Creek hub looks.  As we neared the finish I pulled up next to Rhino since I knew we had the same gearing if we were going to sprint I figured it would be more fun to do it side-by-side rather than slingshotting past him.  We didn't end up sprinting but we did see Timarie and Chris waiting taking pictures of us coming into the finish.  A few minutes later Viper came flying down the road with Craig Dobo and Big Tim coming up a little later.  While waiting I told Rhino I didn't get a flat the whole ride and so he reached down and let air out of my tires letting me know that now I have a flat.

With the trip over it's time to go back to school.  It was a great time and can't wait for the next trip.  

Willis out!