Friday was a day I had been awaiting for the last couple of weeks.  A few friends had invited me to tag along with them on a loop around Lake Chesdin on a couple of occasions but I had prior engagements (Sounds important doesn't it?) which kept me from taking part.  A couple weeks back, I had mapped out the ride with hopes of riding it but again, life got in the way and I hadn't ridden it.



They had always boasted about the low amount of traffic and beautiful scenery. They also warned me that I would need to carry enough food and fluid to get me about 50 miles because once you were down there, there was nothing.  Nothing was right and I was OK with it.  I was enjoying what seemed like a 100 mile stretch of wooded road sides when out of the blue the woods stopped and goats appeared.  The goats must have been just as surprised to see me as I was them because they all just picked their heads up and stared at me.

They lost interest in me before I did them because by the time I got the bike stopped to take a photo, all but one of them had put their heads back down to continue their afternoon meal.  As I was digging the phone out of the pocket I heard grunting, snorting, hoof stomping followed by more grunting, snorting and hoof stomping.  Fearing I was about to get charged I snapped the picture and started on my way again.

Shortly down the road I found myself on the south side of the lake where there was supposed to be a general store.  The store was there structurally but it has been quite a few years since it was operational.  With the temperatures starting to heat up, I decided to start rationing my fluids because I couldn't remember how far along the next store was according to the map.  I came across a small marina which had a very small country store attached to it where I could fill up my bottles a few miles down the road.

The nice old lady who was working the store asked me "You trying to kill yourself out there in the heat today, aren't you?" I replied with "Believe it or not it isn't that bad on the bike."  Because I had started when the temps were a bit lower and was out there while it heated up I hadn't really noticed how hot it was actually getting.  A few more miles down the road my wrist found out just how hot the road temps were becoming.

The forest shaded roads were now behind me and the sun was full force.  I was really starting to sweat a bunch and my wrist was starting to feel like something was irritating it.  A quick look down and I noticed my RoadID (everyone should ride/run with one) was burning my wrist.  The way my hands were resting on the hoods had the clamp pointing straight into the sun.  A quick unclip of the clamp so the band would rest on my glove and feeling eased a bit except when the sweat would roll over it.

I was really happy to have have gotten out there to do the route.  I really enjoyed it and will be looking to head that way once again in the very near future.  Now I know where the stores are which will help my nutrition planning.  With ADK just a few months away, I need some longer efforts to not complete shock my system when I ask it go 2 days without sleep.