How much deeper would the ocean be if sponges didn’t live there?

Another day, another ride, another century. When you have President’s Day off you gotta jump at the chance to log some miles, especially if you have a beautiful weather forecast.

I had a chat with Boots the night before about doing a ride today. Later in the day she came back asking if Larry, visiting from Vermont, could join in on the fun. Never wanting to leave anyone out I said of course! I then went about concocting a route that would give at least Boots and I a century for our trouble. It just so happened that the route would take us right by where Larry was staying near the end.

The ride started off simple enough. Boots and I made our way over to Pebble Marketplace the long way like we usually do. We arrived at the Starbucks and pulled up a chair while waiting for Larry to arrive. It wasn’t much later when he sent Boots a text asking where we were. It seems that he was out in the parking lot looking for us! Boots set him straight and after a quick chat we set off.

The ride to the dam went rather smoothly. I did put in a few efforts along the way, most notably on the Horizon and Georgia Ave climbs. At the end of each I made it a point to stop for a quick regroup before continuing on. After nearly losing Larry among the turns and rapid descent on the north side of Boulder City, we made a stop at Hoover Dam Gas for a little break before continuing on to the dam.

Making our way through the new checkpoint was a little tricky when we came up on a line of cars. Of course there is no signage for what bikes are supposed to do so I routed us through the truck/bus lanes. Naturally one of the workers starts yelling that we’re in the wrong lane so we just pulled in behind a couple cars already at the actual check point. The three of us get cleared without issue and start the descent to the dam. Then a first for me when we started around a bend to the right and found a truck just stopped in the middle of the road. I hollered out to Boots and Larry behind me as I cautiously went around. I looked in on the driver and they were busy taking a picture using their phone of the bridge.

After taking a few shots on the east side of the dam we mounted back up and started west. I let Boots know that we were going to take a detour from the typical westbound route. She asked where we were going and I told her, “It’s a surprise Boots, an adventure!”. As we started to climb the west side we made a right-turn detour to work our way over to the Historic Railroad Hiking Trail. I haven’t done this trail in years, having last walked it with my daughter. From what I remembered it was dirt, but should be smooth enough for us even on road tires. I did confirm the night before that the trail was rated as being accessible as well. As we got onto the gravel we just made our way west nice and steady. Other than reminding Boots to not smash the pedals so hard, to prevent her rear wheel from spinning out, she did great. Honestly all three of us had a blast on this little trail just taking in the sights. We passed through all five of the tunnels without issue and were dumped out at the fork just before the paved trail tunned which crosses under Lakeshore Rd.

We ultimately made our way along the RMT to Hemenway Rd where we opted to join Lakeshore instead of staying with the trail. The three of us pretty much stayed together until we started the climb up the backside of Sunrise Pass. I’m not sure exactly when, but at some point Boots and I lost Larry. The two of us finished the climb and made the descent down to Green Valley Grocery where we stopped along the right shoulder until Larry came down. Last thing we needed was for him to blow on by and miss the stop.

After a nice break at Green Valley Grocery we set off for home. Larry seemed relieved that the worst of the climbing was behind us with only a few more bumps from here on out. We enjoyed a nice chill spin through Wetlands followed by quick work of the rest of the ride through Green Valley. We eventually parted ways with Larry around Sunridge Heights and East Canyon Heights which left Boots and I to finish up with working our way through Anthem and over to our post-ride stop at Starbucks for some coffee and chat time.

An absolute banger of a ride. The weather was great! The temperatures started a little on the cool side, but warmed up nicely. The highlight for me was the 3.5 mile stretch of the Railroad Tunnel Trail. Sure it is probably the most compact gravel you’ll find on a trail in Nevada, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t any less fun. Pedaling along at a mere 10 MPH while enjoying the views made it worth it. I may incorporate it in a future ride allowing those who don’t want to join the option of just meeting up with the group at the trail head parking lot on Lakeshore.

It seems that Larry rather enjoyed the trip despite falling behind once or twice. I gotta hand it to the guy, he did a bang up job considering he only rolls a century maybe once or twice a year. This ride had him close to 80 miles for the day on top of all the miles he’d been doing over the past couple weeks. Not bad at all and hope he rolls with us again if/when he makes another trip out this direction.

New bike fund: $86.61 (+$0.00), €1.52 (+€0.00), ₱10.00 (+₱0.00), ֏10.00 (+֏0.00)
3.36 new miles — From Wandrer.earth
934 total shifts, 79 front, 855 rear. 70.6% of the ride in the big ring, 29.4% in the small ring. Most time spent in 52×21, 15.8% — by di2stats.com
435 vehicles @ 3.8 per mile, 1.1 per minute, Speeds: 35.9 mph (avg), 62.3 mph (max) — by MyBikeTraffic.com
Give your activities the names they deserve. — by Bandok.com
Partly sunny-Mostly sunny, 45°F-68°F, Feels like 47°F-73°F, Humidity 58%-22%, Wind WSW 2mph-ENE 2mph — by Klimat.app
— myWindsock.com Report —
Weather Impact™: 3.2%
Headwind: 49% @ 2.5 – 9.3 mph
Longest Headwind: 01h 11m 30s
Air Speed: 17.2 mph
Temp: 42.3-62.5 °F
Precip: 0% @ 0 Inch/hr
— END –‍