This afternoon I took a short ride north on the McHenry County Prarie Trail towards McHenry. I started at home, rode 3 miles to the trail, and then rode north through Crystal Lake. I continued through Sterne's Woods which has a series of extremely steep climbs and descents through the woods. Even in the granny gear this will get your heart beating and your moving at a snail's pace. Past Sterne's woods, I continued north until reaching the Nunda Township garage north of Prairie Grove. This is the same place the the McHenry County Wireless Association has its monthly meetings... and its about 7.75 miles from home via bicycle. I continued just north to the next road where I turned around and headed back home. A few raindrops fell when I first started back, but it never got to the "sprinkling" stage and subsided without much fuss.
No pictures this time -- but I wish I had my camera handy because just south of Sterne's Woods I saw a guy riding on a unicycle! Not only was it a unicycle but it was a BIG wheeled unicycle. The wheel might have been 3 feet in diameter... and I was staring at the guy thinking "woah" and he just said "hi" and kept going. I wonder if he actually rode that thing through Sterne's Woods... it would have been crazy considering the extreme grades of the trail through that stretch.
I wish I knew the actual grade % of those hills. Then I would know if that is comparable to what I would experience riding on the Skyline Drive in Virginia. If this is comparable, then I have a lot of preparation to do to get into shape. On some of those hills, every pedal with my right foot resulted in the front wheel coming off of the ground slightly.
Max speed today was 31.22 mph!! That was going down one of those crazy hills in Sterne's Woods. This thrill didn't last long as i quickly starting going uphill again and around a corner so I had to slow down.
Total distance: 16.54 miles, Ride time: 01:25:59, Avg speed: 11.41 mph
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