Weekend 2 Ride Review(1 Dirt, 1 Road)

early morning Sunday on the way out from the West Side off of Moorehead/the buildings do not appear clear because the low level atmospheric haze is acting as a filter from the roughly 15 blocks out where I stood to make the picture Same image with the saturation jacked up makes me see the particulate completely in different perspective click this one to full screen

one last one before the roll out

Saturday afternoon: Sherman Branch trail dry after the rain of the week before, the terrain completely thirsty still in drought condition. I went around the Roller Coaster twice before taking out the rest of the trail and I stopped once to make the image above on the header(my bike is in the lower right hand corner), it was a hot afternoon.

Sunday: Up before dawn, coffee, oats and rolling before 0630hrs for the road ride known as Spamerton. This cue built by Ilan takes you out of Mecklenberg County, into Gaston County and back in to the Berg at around 65 miles, 80 if you live on the east side as I do. Once off of the 74 and into the country the limited traffic makes the ride so much more enjoyable than anything in town. There are only a few sections of busy roads along the way and you really feel like you are far away from all that is city while on this ride. One observation that I made since my last time on the group ride of Spamerton was that before crossing the river at Mount Hollywood on Belmeade Rd in a slight down hill spot there is normally a dog that starts to chase in from the right, sometimes his friend is barking in tow. Not today and ever again because they are gone, the house looks vacant now. Just past that house where the dogs used to come out is the new entrance being built for the US National White Water Center where a wide space of trees were no longer and the landscape has been scrape plowed in to what looks like a red clay hilly desert.

At around about the half way mark is the first climb of 2 on the ride up Ranlo Spencer Road. Twisty Steep in the lower section before it lightens up a bit in the middle then gets curvy and steep for the top out in to the thriving metropolis of Ranlo NC(population: 2,222 as of July 2006). The rest of the ride was completely enjoyable and easy to understand the paper cue vs. being led by a group. I wound up being able to get back to the house well before noon.