Vacation rides this past weekend
 

We had our big family reunion this weekend. My brother wasn't able to make it, so for Fridays ride it was just my cousin and I. Saturday it was a bigger ride with aunts, uncles and cousins.

Friday the two of us went exploring, trying to find a good route for Saturday. It was late in the day and we weren't really planning on anything too intense. We found a place called Lady Bird Johnson State Park. As soon as we turned into the park, the road took off uphill. He had a Garmin 305 with grade setting on it. It started off about 12% grade. Within a half mile it jumped up to about 18% and stayed around there for a couple of miles. At about 3 miles, it topped out at 27% and stayed there for almost a mile.

All in all, we did about 2,500 feet in about 4 miles. Downhill was insane, as the road was terrible, and it was shady and hard to pick a line. My water bottles were both covered with brake dust by the time we hit the bottom.

Saturdays ride was tame but very nice We did an easy 20 miles through the Redwoods. One decent climb gave us almost 1,000 feet for the ride. The scenery was incredible. Aside from one of my other cousins crashing, it was a great ride.

2500 vertical in 4 miles is crazy steep. I honestly don't know if I could keep the wheels turning on something that steep. I did 96 on Friday with a climb up to some wind mills here in Idaho Falls where the climb and wind about stopped me in my tracks. On the day after Saturday I did 59 with a climb up to a local ski resort. I'm slow.

I was having a hard time keeping the front wheel down when I was pushing on the cranks. My cadence was about 38 rpms most of the way up the steep section.The only thing that saved me was the fact that my legs were still pretty fresh from only having a 2 or 3 mile ride to the base of the climb. If it were after 50 or 60 hard miles, I would have struggled in a big way.

2500' in 4 miles? That isn't a bike ride, it's a mechanized mountain climb. Instead of descending, you should have rappelled down. I am not sure my car could go up that road.