Aug-26: In Which I Again Meet Mick on the NRT

Mick wanting to continue on his return to cycling, 

We agreed to meet again at 0900 at Anderson Point on the Neuse River Trail (NRT). 

 

I pushed off from the Falls Dam parking lot at 0714 and 

Took 1:11 in-motion to cover the 17.3-miles to Anderson Point. 

Obviously, I had not hurried as I had the previous Wednesday and 

Arriving at the agreed parking lot at 0825, I had plenty of time to explore around (or whatever). 

[In case you're wondering, I have no record nor memory of  

How much time it took me to cover those same 17.3-miles last Thursday.] 

 

I rode over to the rest-room facility on the other side of the highway overpass. 

Took a pee, and then, similar to what I had done last Thursday, 

I went riding around on a loop in the park -- a bigger loop than I had ridden the previous Thursday, and

Also rode a mile or so on another trail that intersects the NRT near the rest-room. 

1.4-miles and a slow 10-minutes or tooling around in the park, and 

2 miles on the other trail in roughly 8-minutes in-motion. 

Total "marking-time" ride length 3.4-miles and 18-minutes in-motion. 

 

Arriving back at the agreed parking lot, I found Mick preparing himself and his steed for the ride. 

We got underway a few minutes later. 

 

Although I am confident that we chatted about different things than we had the previous Thursday, 

I could not pretend to recall what the subjects were. 

 

I do recall that we chatted about the one non-trivial climb en route to Clayton. 

"Luckily," after doing that climb, there is a flat section atop the plain, and 

Then a steep descent back down to the elevation of the river. 

"Lucky" I say, because coming back from Clayton, one has to climb that descent, and 

That breaks up what might otherwise get rather boring riding on the flat, flat, flat. 

 

Actually, there are several interesting bridges on the NRT. 

Those will draw one's interest at least the first time or two crossing them. 

There are also some 90-degree turns to get on and/or off bridges. 

Turns with fencing and such that if one were to meet an oncoming cyclist -- interesting. 

 

This ride, instead of staying on the path all the way to its current end near Clayton, 

We climbed up to a relatively new business district to grab a drink and sit and chat at a picnic table. 

 

A comment on that relatively new business and apartment district: 

The coronavirus idiocy has likely caused a serious delay in filling 

The store-fronts with stores and 

The apartments with residents. 

 

After sitting, drinking, chatting, we headed back toward Anderson Point. 

Enjoying the decent weather, total lack of vehicles, and not too many other cyclists. 

Total round-trip Anderson Pt to Clayton and back, 26.4-miles in 2:14 in-motion (elapsed unknown). 

 

A bit of a chat back at Mick's vehicle, 

Making tentative plans to ride again the following Wednesday (weather permitting). 

 

I headed out for the 17.3-miles back to the Falls Dam, 

Trying to push the pace all the way. 

However, I had to back off somewhat several miles before the finish. 

Result was that it took 1:11 in-motion to cover that return trip. 

Same in-motion time as outbound, but outbound was a downstream trip, 

Whereas the inbound was an upstream exercise. 

So, even though the outbound and inbound 17.3-miles took the same amount of in-motion time, 

It was significantly more work inbound. 

 

No photos on this ride. 

Quite a boring write-up (even though the ride and visits en route were enjoyable). 

That's my story for this ride, and I'll be sticking to it.