It is a 12+ mile round trip and the hill is a relentless 1400' climb that goes on for about 5 miles. I waited til early afternoon to start, which was a mistake because it got quite warm by the time I started, but still only low 80ºs but feeling hot in the sun. Normally I would try to make this without stopping but I did stop a few times on the way up. The vistor's center was cool and the views tremendous. It was hard, I never thought I'd do it again... but I did, about 18 hrs later.
That night I met my HS friend Bill and he said he was in, he wanted to do the climb. Bill is an endurance runner and he said he'd be bringing Dianna, his friend who is a top triathlete, about 10 yrs younger than us.
They showed up next morning at 6:30ish AM and I met them in the parking lot. They both had nice road bikes, Dianna's was a super light carbon bike. I was on my much heavier entry level mountain bike. After the first two miles, they were gone ... ahead of me and out of sight, Dianna leading the way. This encouraged me not to stop so I kept going, pushing all the way to the top. It seemed easier than last time, but certainly not 'easy'. They were not at the visitors center so I took a loop of the lake before I finally found them, we took a few photos at the top.
Bill and I made it down quickly and we were rewarded with a real close sighting of a bob cat crossing the road during our rapid descent, probably about 40+ mph.
During this trip, I suspended my diet, and ate pasta once, some other carbs and developed a real fondness for Whole Foods brand chocolate almond butter cups.
Aside from one ab session and a set of pull ups (16), I didn't exercise for most of 3 days after my return and my slacking on my diet caused me to backslide a little, still hovering around 145 lbs but getting a tad soft, so today, I need to do a hard bike and get to the gym.
I've put aside this week to refocus on music as I've been learning some new pieces on the Baroque lute, which has been great fun and challenging.
I hope to do more boating this season. The boat ran great but when I got back to my truck, the starter was failing but I managed to get it to start one final time to get me home. Also, the boat has a new modern vacu-flush head that I installed, and the new exhaust manifold I installed is working well.
This photo was from the top of the mountain and to give you an idea of scale, that tiny white dot at the left side of the parking lot is my boat.
As far as my other toys, my 2 Kawasaki dual sport Sherpa motorcycles are going to be very costly to repair, so I've been riding this street legal Suzuki DR 100 mini bike around. It's 32 yrs old and amazing it still runs well. With my truck in the shop, it is my only motorized vehicle. I took it to the lake for a swim the other day. Still relatively cool for almost summer in the south. On and off showers and only in the 70ºs today and tomorrow.
Love these long days. Love this time of year. A good life for sure.
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