Aug-24: Bridge Out -- Maybe Not.

A beautiful day it was.
LOW humidity.
High temps in the low 80's.
It felt more like NW Illinois in late August, not central North Carolina.

After the first intermediate control at Underwood Grocery (see the interactive map),
The route climbs the toughest (not the steepest) climb of the day,
Rolls past the estate of [someone], and
Eventually crosses NC-57.
Between NC-57 and the turn onto Hall Dairy Rd,
There is an extremely annoying big, yellow dawg (on the right).

I'd fallen back on the aforementioned climb, but
Needed to catch up to Byron, BobB and Mick,
None of whom had previously done the route,
To inform them of the dawg.

I had to yell to get their attention.
I had not finished the sentence describing the dawg,
When someone asked, "that dog?"
"That's the one."

That dawg was in for a bit of surprise.
As BobB was on his Seven, and equipped with his air horn.
As Byron noted, "Bob takes the prize for best dawg-deterent, today."


At approx. mile 67, the route uses Cornwall Rd to connect
Mountain Creek and Little Mountain Creek roads.
The very first time anyone rode this route,
Ricochet and I discovered that the bridge was undergoing destruction.

The bridge was certainly not passable the second time anyone did the route.
Not even passable to randonneurs.

The bridge was also not passable on the third tour.

Of course, bridge destruction was completed and now bridge construction is underway.
But the bridge is still closed and not passable.
Or is it?

BobB, Byron, Mick -- after we had walked our steeds across.  Getting off the bridge and onto that gravel was a bit more interesting than it looks in the photo -- there was a nice chasm between the edge of the rough bridge surface and the gravel.  [Photo credit to:  me.] 

However, that "amount of closure" is not going stop any randonneur worth their salt.
Especially anyone that dealt with the MUD PIT in May on the local 400 (warning:  no pix on that post).
And all four of us had done that ride.

We had lots of fun on the day, but
The above are the highlights.
So, the above is my story for this ride.
A story to which I will be sticking.
=================================================
Aug-24: 

--> 'Road to Hicksboro' perm -->; 149.4 m.;  est. 10h05 in-motion; 14.8 mph.  
 _pre-ride commute:  9.0 m.; 0h34 in-motion; 15.7 mph. 
 ___Hix:  127.8 m.;  8h37 in-motion; 14.8 mph; official elapsed time:  10h26. 
 ____ post-ride commute:  12.6 m.; 0h54 in-motion; 13.9 mph. 

Q-1 tot: _11 rides; __940.3 m; _64h42; 14.5 mph; _1275 RUSA kms.
Q-2 tot: _18 rides; _2293.9 m; 158h18; 14.5 mph; _3142 RUSA kms.
Jul tot: __6 rides; __643.3 m; _42h25; 15.2 mph; __694 RUSA kms.
Aug tot: __6 rides; __631.0 m; _42h25; 14.9 mph; __756 RUSA kms. 
YTD tot: _41 rides; _4508.5 m; 307h52; 14.6 mph; _5867 RUSA kms.

j.i.c. I want to add something, later.