Biking

 

Last week Gary upped the ante for the TOF Brothers by planning an early spring monster ride. Beginning at the Millstone Restaurant, we headed north on Rt 122 toward the Blue Ridge Parkway. At the Parkway, 11 miles into the ride with a few hills, we headed south climbing Apple Orchard Mountain to the Peaks of Otter. After 44 miles and 3800 feet of elevation gain, we arrived back at the restaurant; quite pleased with our accomplishment! Great ride Gary, you making David and I push the exercise envelop. It was a beautiful spring day except on the top of the mountain where spring has not arrived.

 

This week I planned a slightly less challenging ride heading north on the Parkway from the James River bridge. But that ride was postponed to another week due to smoke on the Parkway from the forest fires around Lexington. So we headed to Scottsville to ride the Charlottesville Bicycle Club's James River Loop. It's a great ride ( 44 miles ) with long stretches where one can roll at 15+ mph with little effort. Our average for the ride was 13.4 mph, pretty good for old folks. Again, it was a beautiful spring day as shown in the picture below taken from the Route 15 bridge over the James between Fluvanna and Buckingham counties.