Highwood revisited, from the north side

Katie and drove out to Barrier Lake to ride Highwood. My plan was 6 hrs max, then a 30 minute run. From Barrier it's about 62 K to the top. We had a great day, though it was a bit windy at times. Of course, she can ride way faster than me, but she doubled back a couple times to make sure I hadn't been eaten by a grizzly or something.

There is a lot of up involved in this ride. Plus a bit of down. Plus a lot of false flat. I never figured it out. I'd be riding along, equally astonished at doing 14 or 24 kph. I didn't see any other riders till I was near the top. The last bit is tough sledding. I was down to about 7 Kph in the granniest gear, weaving all over the shoulder trying to avoid the bugs. Once at the top I rode a bit further to where I turned around last time, and looked for Katie, but she was much further down.

It was just under 3.5 hrs to the top, counting a detour back to the car right at the beginning for something I forgot. It was 2 hrs back down again, and I was choked at the wind at the top. Going down the steepest part of the grade and I couldn't even get over 60 Kph. Did way better than that further down on flatter slopes but less wind.

In some ways the ride down was tougher for me. I was getting a bit creaky, a bit tired of being on the bike, a lot tired of the motorcycles. I was ready for a run about an hour before the ride ended. There's one last hill up and that really took it out of me. What with a bit of riding back and forth near where we parked, it turned into 130 K ride, and 5:45 time.

Lets see, 3 Clifs bars, 2 bananas, 2.5 bottles of energy drink.

The run was good! Started off with a good stride, I think mainly because I was so happy to be off the bike. Ran 30 minutes, and only slowed down a bit at the end. My left knee was getting a bit cranky.

Drove home to find Linda had a lamb roast ready to eat. Yum!