Found hills quite exhausting today. Was already exhausted last night when I rode back home from Happy Hour (not logged). I should have given myself more time for recovery. Might try this again next weekend. Overall it was more painful than refreshing today.
Date/Time:
07/04/2008 09:45 AM
Route:
A few days ago I discovered somebody’s route from Baltimore to Frederick to Washington DC back to Baltimore on Bikely.com. I also found a route from Frederick to Hagerstown. I was very excited by the idea to ride from Baltimore all the way to Hagerstown. When I studied the satellite pictures I found that these routes really appear to be safe, low traffic, leading through quiet country roads, some even off the roads — and with a length of roughly 76 miles I thought this could be a nice day trip. Some of the pictures along the route, like this one at Panoramio, reminded me a bit of my old college town Furtwangen. This could be a really beautiful route.
From what I can see there are only two or three areas that may become difficult. The first may be to get out of Baltimore on Falls Road. I have never ridden on Falls Road except the lower part from Clipper Mill Road to Penn Station, which is really nice — but I am not familiar with the upper part of Falls Road beyond West Cold Spring Lane yet. Would it be safe to ride the bike in traffic? The second problem area may be connecting the route to Frederick with the second route to Hagerstown. The segment between these two routes looked a bit crazy to me on the map, and I’m not sure yet which path could be a good and safe one to link both of them together. The third and probably the most difficult part could be the climbs between Frederick and Hagerstown, maybe even more along the entire way. Would I have enough steam left to climb a mountain after riding 50 miles? I’m just a normal guy with his mountain bike…not a Tour de France champion :)
Before I attempt a ride of these proportions I decided to explore the Falls Road situation first. This was my goal for today. I followed the route from North Calvert Street, left to West University Parkway, left onto West 40th Street toward the Rotunda, right onto Evans Chapel Road right before the grocery store, then left into Roland Heights Avenue, immediate right to Lawrence Avenue, at the end onto Woodheights Avenue and then finally a right onto Falls Road right before the intersection of Falls Road and West Cold Spring Lane. I continued straight on Falls Road for about another mile and then decided to return on Falls Road all the way near Penn Station, following the bike route arrows (as in my previous route) until they disappeared. I didn’t really intend to ride along the Tour dem Parks route today, so I had no further directions or notes with me. [Google Map]
After this ride I have come to the conclusion that Falls Road could be a good way to leave the city. Traffic never felt threatening, dangerous or out of control to me, and there was enough room for me to ride and cars to pass by on their other lanes. I think continuing on this route could be doable. Today, however, I was not at all in a good shape — I already was exhausted when I got up and rode on University Parkway. Riding further uphill to the Cold Spring Lane intersection took a lot out of me, and the last series of hills on Falls Road just gave me the rest. The heat and humidity didn’t help there, too. I never had problems riding routes of 40 miles or more and think a route of 76 miles or so should work, too. However, the terrain around Mönchengladbach and the Netherlands is flat, but this route out of Baltimore might be more like a 76 mile long uphill climb. Of course I don’t know yet if this route continues somewhat flat before it’s time to climb the mountains in Frederick and Hagerstown. No matter what, this will be a challenge for man and material — and I will have to work on my hill-condition before I can really begin to think about attempting the full length.
Length:
approx. 12.4 miles
Traffic:
easy going all the way
Weather:
post-rain, warm and humid, not very pleasant
Bike:
Jamis Durango Hardtail Mod. with 26×2.2 Maxxis Holy Roller
Heartrate/Elevation:
