So, I needed a sanity break. Ye Olde Place Offe Employmente has successfully driven me to the very brink of madness, which would explain why I thought it'd be a good idea to venture up to Moraine Park and back via roads I've never traveled. That's roads plural, as in darn near all of them were unfamiliar.
The route included only 5200 feet of climbing, even with a few bonus miles on Rte 8 due to a bodged cue sheet on my part; but it was unrelenting up-and-down for at least the middle 75% of the ride...good fun, but a little more vigorous than I was planning on for the day. I'd forgotten how exciting 528 from Evans City to Prospect was; that was okay though. The part that really did me in was the return; while the first two-thirds of the route was derived from one of Oscar's rides, the return was entirely of my devising; thus, the aforementioned "unfamiliar roads". 68 was rough; 989 was rough; and Lovi Rd, although not normally that bad in the short stretch with which I was familiar, was pretty much torture in spots after I'd already tired myself out. I was so happy to see the Red Belt that I darn near kissed the sign; heck, I nearly included bonus tongue action.
I'd call it a good training ride. Highlights included a lovely 1/4 mile stretch of freshly graveled road (Badger Hill back to the lake); a life-sized, and fairly realistic, horse statue placed on top of a nearby barn; and a woman at Bear Run Campground who was absolutely determined to convince me that the rabidly barking frantic canine beast in the back of her car "was really friendly" and "was nothing for me to worry about".
Since BikeJournal is currently non compos mentis (apparently SLantz left his SQL Server in his other jersey or something), here's the vitals for posterity: 117.63 miles, 14.6 rolling average.
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