Attempted to Ride from MD to NJ
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Crazy story. This was the toughest bike ride…ever. I took photos:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10101012689678822.1073741830.26101406&type=1&l=204acc5f42Check out the details over at strava:
Day 1: http://www.strava.com/activities/144114203
Day 2: http://www.strava.com/activities/144450000Back in 1928 five women biked from NYC to DC.
http://bikeleague.org/content/womens-bike-history-3-days-5-women-250-milesI figured I’d attempt some part of that ride. My brother was graduating from Montclair State in NJ. I thought it be great to show up via bike.
The first day I started at 8am and headed up Ridge Rd all the way up to York County, PA. Up until that point it was all rolling hills. It was followed by gravel that got rained on. I learned, whatever Google says the travel time is for biking, double that.
The next day I saw the forecast which said to expect severe thunderstorms. I decided to make a rental car reservation as a backup. I found one with an available car that would allow be to drop it off at a different location about 60 miles away.
I headed out at 9am, and figured I can finish 60 miles in 6 hrs. I had booked a reservation at Enterprise and they close at 6p.
I was off to a great start, riding through farm land and rolling hills. Then came Lancaster and its traffic lights in hills. After that Amish country, although beautiful, the sun was beating down hard and my feet were begging for relief from my unbroken shimano clipped shoes.
I must have gone through 10 liters of water. I know because I filled up my 3-liter Camelback three times and my water bottles twice.
But then around 30 miles the hills started getting aggressive. At first I’m like, “come at me bro!”
I figured I have ample time to make to Enterprise. But, then they morphed from rolling hills to spiking hills, and they kept on coming, higher and higher. I thought it was done, but I wasn’t.
Finally at around 50 miles, the decent began. But now I was racing against the clock. I figured, 12 miles, I can make it there in less than an hour. But the decent only lasted for about 5 miles and I was riding against rush hour.
Although I had my own lane, with cars driving by, and the clock ticking and couldn’t help but keep pushing harder and harder, until it started to pour. I’m pulled over, looking up, I start praying, “God, allow me to get to Enterprise safely and on time”
As I’m praying a guy pulls over and goes, “Hey, you need a ride?”
I’m like, “I’ve got five more miles to Enterprise”
He warns me, “It’s hailing out there, you’ll never make it!”
I’m like, “In that case, I’ll take the ride.”
An answer to a sincere prayer before I even finished the supplication, and I made a friend.
I got to Enterprise after 530p, just in time to get my reservation. When I arrive I found that their parking lot was a pond. There was a drain somewhere in the middle, below about four inches of water. I walked around and noticed around the edges of the wall some ice. I walk in and ask, “Did you guys get hail?”
The rep behind the counter with wide eyes responds, “Are you joking?”
I’m like, “No. I was riding, got poured on, some guy gave me a ride and got here and see ice”
Rep goes, “Dude! We got pelted.”
He shoes me a picture of some of the cars that got totaled. Spider webbed windshields and dented body. Fortunately for me, they had my reserved car in the garage and ready to go. After I checked out, I pulled over to a Starbucks to collect myself and noticed a parking lot that was white.
I drove over and saw a few inches of ice with mist rising from the ground. It was piles of hail just collected. It was bizarre. On one side of the street there’s piled hail, and the other side it’s just a sprinkle.
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I was stoked when I saw that.
Then I looked at the details and I was 9 out of 9. I have a 3.8mph average speed and all others had 10+mph
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