Jun-18: Variations on a Theme -- V-50 #10

V-50 #10
Variations on a Theme

No plan for a route when I started.
Just ride wherever/whatever in the nearby neighborhood until the threatened rain materialized.
Gearing was in 39/14 left over from the end of my previous ride. A few miles in, while doing an early incline, I decided 14 was a bit much, so I shifted to the 15, and proceeded to do the rest of the ride in the 39/15.

Only one climb got difficult in that gearing. Deer Trail, at about the 4-mile mark of the linked route [oops, it appears that I deleted that RWGPS route -- :-( ], I was working HARD as the speed slipped to a low of 3.8-mph. After that, though, everything was much easier, although I did a LOT more standing to pedal than I usually do.

I didn't start and finish at the TLC-4-Bikes shop (as indicated in the map), but instead started and finished at my abode, approx 0.9-miles from the bike shop. I didn't bother to detour off Honeycutt Rd to ride past the shop at the start; however, I did ride up to the bike shop a mile before finishing in order to deliver a message to Gary, the shop owner / mechanic.

An interesting thing about 5 or 6 miles before the finish of the ride. I happened to look down at the gearing and discovered I was in the 50/21 -- not 39/15. I conclude that I must have automatically shifted from the 15 to the 21 unintentionally. However, I am confident that I would not have unintentionally shifted from the 39 chain ring to the 50, so I conclude I had ridden most of the ride in 50/15. That gearing would explain why the climb on Deer Trail early in the ride had been so hard.

The nice things about this ride: (1) it turned into a decent hill workout (I manually created the RWGPS the next day in order to get an estimate of the climbing), (2) my legs felt great after the 2:14 in-motion / 2h28 elapsed ride, and (3) it never did rain in the north Raleigh area on the 18th.

photo didn't turn out so well. I was trying to get the asphalt of "Bayleaf Ch Rd" where it disappears into Falls Lake and also the impossible to detect slight gap on the other side of the lake where I think the original road was located. 

It is my understanding that "Bayleaf Ch Rd" is the original routing of "Six Forks Rd" from before the Neuse River was dammed up to create Falls Lake. 

approx mile 13.6 of the RWGPS map.

another crappy photo. Taken at the bottom of Possum Track Rd. The sign on the left is the logo for the "Mountains to Sea" hiking trail. 

approx mile 18 of the RWGPS map.

This photo for Bob -- approx mile 17.4 and 18.6 on the RWGPS map.