It was a beautiful morning when Sadie & I left the house at 6am. The plan was an 80 km ride - the longest training ride to date. I mixed up a bag of hydration/nutrition, geared up, fired up the Map My Ride app, checked Sadie's tires, and away we went, west to the forest trails under a blue sky sunrise.
Hill climbing rides include the roads north of Spruce Grove via either Century Rd. or Campsite. This morning's ride plan was to ride out to Campsite, north to the Villeneuve Highway, West to 779 and then see where we go from there. I enjoy the Campsite road north as it is 8 km from the point I cross the Yellowhead until I reach the Villeneuve - all up hill. Call me crazy but I like to challenge myself to stay on the bike for long hills. So far the 3 rides up this hill have been a success in that regard.
The day began to warm up a bit as I traveled west along the Villenueve. Stopping for a distance break at the corner of Villenueve & 779 though, the clouds started rolling in. Looking back east, sunny blue skies. Looking west, deep grey clouds. Hmmmm, what to do? 25 Km into the ride, watched by the Cows on the Hill, I decided to head south on 779 and pick up one of the west heading roads towards Chickakoo Recreation Area. I remembered that one or 2 of the Bullseye Bike Shop Sunday rides last year took us around this area so why not!
Turning west on Township Road 540, I let Sadie take the lead as we headed towards the purple grey sky. The road travels several rolling hills, a good challenge but nothing too difficult and seeing a sign for Chickakoo, Sadie decided we'd head south again and see where we come out. I'm guessing she was dreaming of 4x4'ing again as the road turned to dirt for about 2km and our pace slowed to a crawl as Sadie hummed along and I concentrated on not skidding out or tipping over. I'm going to have to have a talk with that bike of mine!
Reaching Range Road 13, I realized we were at the entrance to Chickakoo and a left would take us back out to 779. My vote won out and we left the dirt road for pavement again just as Mother Nature decided that Sadie & I must be thirsty flowers and began watering us. We were heading southeast and I could see that the skies to the east were still bright. Reaching 779, I checked my ride distance - 30ish km - that wasn't right. Hmmmm, could I have lost some tracking in the roads west of 779? I considered riding down to the Yellowhead and heading east on the access road from here or heading straight south into Stony Plain to make a big loop out and around Stony & Spruce but the weather had other plans for me.
As I rode across the Yellowhead overpass, it started to rain again - harder this time. The wind picked up, the sky turned fairly black, and as I reached Wood Ave to Boulder Blvd, the clouds unzipped and drenched me. How much rain was falling, you ask? As I rode along Boulder Blvd, there was a 3 ft wide "river" of water running along the gutter from the curb into the road. THAT much water. And I was soaked from head to toe. There was so much water that not only was it flying up my back off the back tire but also flying off the front tire, hitting the underside of Sadie's frame, and soaking my feet. And, there was a nice little water wing going off the front of the tire as well. It was WET!
I made it safely to the office at the other end of Boulder and stopped for a quick break before heading back out in the rain (although it was now raining much less) to cross 16a, turn south again and take 44th ave over to Boundary Road. Something I would not recommend is riding south on Boundary Road. Yup, dirt again... Sadie really had it in for me today though I think Mother Nature was apologizing here:
I made it out to 79th and headed east towards Spruce Grove, turning north on Golden Spike to cross 16A once again into Spruce Grove. I checked the ride mapper - 40 something km - something still wasn't quite right, I had to have ridden further than that. I decided to take the forest trail west from Calahoo to the north branch off (MFT) that heads under Grove Drive and out to Grove on the other end. I figured I still had a way to go though I'd been riding for over 3 hours already. Heading east once more, I rode down to Jubilee Park to check out the preparations for Canada Day. Sadie and I will have a table set up to hand out info - make sure to stop by and visit us!
Ride time: 4.5 hours
Ride Distance: 70.36 km
The map that I created after driving the ride in the Durango:
