WV Easter Weekend

Goat and I headed out to WV for a long Easter weekend of riding and fun. The plan was to ride Friday and Sunday as Saturday was supposed to snow/rain all day.  So Friday we suited up and headed out into the wild blue yonder.

It was the first ride on my new Tarmac.  Well, I had raced it last weekend so that was the first ride, but this was going to be the first REAL ride.  We settled on a route that we thought would take us anywhere from 4 to 6 hours.  We had not actually ridden one of the climbs before, but we like adventure and exploring new roads.

On our way to Peru (pee-ru) we climbed the 10 miles up to Jay and Audrey's Raw Talent Ranch.  Sonja had forgotten to bring food so she stole cookies from the Harley guys that were staying at the barn.  (See her blog for the evidence.)  Once up and over the climb on Howard's Lick Road we headed due south to Peru.  The climb that we had mapped-out began here.
It started out innocently enough with a nice gradual grade on smooth gravel and dirt.  However...
Stream crossing #1.  That water was damn cold.  A couple of miles down the road we encountered stream crossing #2.

We had to let our feet dry off before putting our socks and shoes back on.  Did I mention that the water was DAMN cold.  And yes, there was a stream crossing #3 but we were disgusted by this time and rode thru it so no photos.  If the bike shop guys are reading this, yes, I will probably be bringing my bike in for a new bottom bracket.  And no, I don't have any idea how that water got in there.

My not-so-new-anymore Tarmac after the climb up Branch Mountain from Peru, sufficiently broken-in, West Virginia style.  How did I get so much mud on my bike?  The Goat has video.

The rest of the ride was tame at least by WV standards, except for the 6-inch deep gravel on the descent.  Sonja couldn't stop to take pics or take her hands off the bars... too sketchy to brake or film while rolling.  We did see some nice chickens on the way home.
At the end of the day we had ridden 6.5 hours with 8000 ft of climbing and 100 ft of swimming and seen many goats, sheep, chickens, hawks, and locals.

Saturday's ride was easy compared to this one and by easy I just mean all pavement so I am not going to blog about it.  Maybe the goat will.