West Virginia Day 7

The departure of the Badger Friday evening left us sad. At least she left us with some yummy banana bread. We were asked to save some for our new guests set to arrive Saturday morning, but needless to say, that bread never saw daylight.

Badger's gluten-free banana nut bread.

Saturday morning Jen Ras and Bill arrived, along with a cold front. Jen and Bill prepared breakfast and we settled upon a route that included Old 55 and the climb up the "back side" of the Barn. Sidenote here: Bill was amazed at the amount of pancakes we ate. I guess 5 straight days of riding in WV builds up one's appetite.

We bundled-up and set off on our ride which we expected to take around 3:30 hours. It was bitter cold and snowing but we trudged onward. At one point I had so many snowflakes on my glasses I could barely see.

Bill descending Howard's Lick.

Jen descending Howard's Lick just a few minutes later.

Down in the valley I did my best to hold onto Jen's wheel. That girl is a beast and was pulling me at speeds I've never seen before. I was just thankful to be out of the wind as I was slowly losing feeling in my fingers and toes.

During a respite in the pace I noted to Jen that it looked like we were headed towards sunlight. The forever optimist in me, as Jen pointed out, turned out to be correct. The rest of the ride was under sunny skies, and even though still a tad too chilly for me, good company always makes a cold ride seem not so bad. The only hiccup of the day was a flat tire suffered by Bill.

Flat tire repair. We are looking at a dog and trying to decide whether or not he was going to come after us. He did not.

The last part of the ride included the climb up the back side of Howard's Lick. I don't have fond memories of this climb, but big thanks go to Jen who pretty much paced me up the entire way.

Afterwards, Jen and Bill prepared dinner, there was some beer/wine involved, and we sat in the comfort of the Barn comparing notes about the day's ride and as the Goat likes to say, chillaxed.