Thursday, August 14. The D2R2 being less than a week away, I knew I had to do a ride on the Crux Elite. I haven't ridden it since early June at the Tour de Heifer so needed to assure myself that everything is in working order.
So it proved to be. Meandered out of town via a couple different neighborhoods, then wound up into the hills. Eventually I reached Lemonstar State Forest and Parmenter Rd, the wood road that bisects the Forest and that empties out a couple miles away on rt. 31. Parmenter Rd is rocky, a surface of glacial deposit stones, loose and rough. I used caution and that made for slow going.
On the climb up to the Forest entry, I saw numerous dead orange salamanders and a few frogs. Yesterday it rained so that must have brought them out of their forest floor hiding spots and onto the tarmac. One salamander I passed I thought was alive so turned around and went back to save it. Wrong. It wasn't squashed but it had dried out on the pavement, a parched stiff shell of itself, with something half-swallowed sticking out of its mouth. I picked it up and wedged it onto my handle bars; it rode with me quite a while but fell off of a super fast downhill. Adieu!
The ride was good overall and the Crux proved comfortable and smoothly dependable as always. Though at 23 miles, not exactly a real test of endurance. Try 23 x 5 or so. That will be the D2R2.
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| Transecting Lemonstar |
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| Crossing town |
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| Clear and dry |
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| Dried out salamander |
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| Tag a long |
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Parmenter Rd
Lemonstar State Forest |
Ride Summary: About 23 miles, 12.2 mph (slow in the forest), almost two hours.
Strava stats.
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