Day 47 - A Fun Hard Day

By Mark Heggestad
A really fun and really hard day.  Today we biked 73.6 miles from Ash Grove, MO to Hartville, MO.

I count today as one of the most enjoyable days thus far.  Weather was perfect: sunshine all day, temp in high 80’s, humidity around 50%, 10 mph south wind that was a crosswind all day and if anything, slightly to my back.  Road conditions were good: smooth surface.  There was no shoulder, but the traffic was light and continues to be courteous; always providing plenty of room, and a fair share of the drivers wave as they go by.  It’s amazing how much impact traffic and road conditions have on my stressed/relaxed meter.

But the thing that really made today fun was the terrain: it is beautiful, full of hills, winding roads, trees, pastures, and occasional ponds and creeks.  The hills are nonstop.  They just go on and on and on.  Climb 200 feet, descend 200 feet, climb 75 feet, descend 75 feet, climb 150 feet, descend 150 feet, etc.…  It really is like a never-ending roller coaster.  The hills wear me out, but they are a blast to ride.

Here is some perspective on how much we are climbing.  Today we climbed a total of 5,003 feet and we descended 4,774 feet for a net gain in elevation of 229 feet.  So we climbed many small hills, all less than 250 feet high for a total of 5,003 feet.  Before today, we had only surpassed 5,000 feet one other day and that was 5,023 feet.  When we climbed summits in the western mountains we would climb a couple thousand feet, but we would only climb one or two or maybe three summits in a day.  Now, even though we are climbing hills that are no higher than 250 feet, we climb so many of them that we are climbing more than we did in the mountains.  And the hills are also steep – today we climbed an elevation grade of 11% on three separate occasions.  We hit 11% only once in all the western mountains we climbed.  Could probably explain all that a little more eloquently.  The point is: these hills are exhausting – but they are so much fun!

Example of the "roller coaster" like hills we climb.
Short, steep, and many.

The area we biked today is primarily pasture land and woods.

Pastures with horses and cattle are common.


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