Sunday, February 21, 2010

Chasing a unicorn

I'd seen this road on maps, if google maps says it's there it must be there. Headed out just after 9 after the typical 15 minutes to get dressed, swapped out the cross tires for some semi slicks etc etc. The biggest prep needed was nutrition. There was no random store, restaurant, road side vegetable stand where I was going.

I had some coaching requests to take care of first off, the first hour flew by with the long zone 3 intervals. The conditions of the roads were pretty much a mix of perfectly clear to somewhere under 2 inches of ice and everything in between. The in between was the nerving part, random ice pot holes kept me from gawking around to much.

I finished up the work side of the ride just as I was getting to the so called road. It was looking promising and I thought he end destination would be worth it. The first few km I thought it was going to be a pretty smooth ride. I was attempting to get to a control dam on the Trent Severn. Me and my water fetish. I kept spinning away with high hopes trying not to notice that the road had seemed to change a little. More the tracks on the road seemed to look more like snowmobile than car. Kept pedalling.



I came to a sign which had me a little concerned on my direction. Of course it was a snowmobile trail map which was pretty much useless for telling me if this road was the right road. With a trail split I guessed that it was the left trail. It's always the left trail right?? I did start running into a few sleds and got some waves. Most snowmobilers are very friendly. I glanced at the time and had given a cut off, it was approaching quickly.

Where the hell am I? Am I close, am I far, am I even on the right road, is this a road? I attempted to find myself with the handy use of my cell phone gps. I'm not sure if it was right or not but it showed me being what seemed to be hours away from the dam. I'd been holding a pretty good pace, the trails were almost perfect for riding. Of course as it got warmer the trail began to soften. They could turn real bad if the sun broke. At the 2 hour mark I gave up on my search, that dam fabled dam. Turning back to the way I came did become interesting though.

I'd come across snowmobilers which was completely expected, you can hear them coming and they don't take up the trail. What threw me was coming around a corner and coming face to face with a truck. I'm not sure who was more shocked. Now the concern was more the type of truck. What would be the chances that it was a Toyota, not a place to have that gas pedal stick. I swear no more than 10 minutes later I come face to face with another car and almost stunned it was a Toyota Camry. What the hell is going on. Even the sleds behind them didn't want to pass just in case. I think I timed my turn around perfect because I could see something very bad happening out on that trail.

Took a different way back to the house, more to break up the cruel head wind. My entertainment and challenge was to try and roll back to the house at the same time as the sun broke through the clouds, it was going to be close. The last climb up Mountain ave always feels like a mountain. Trying to keep the heart rate down and spin out the legs. From step to step I was 4 hours with almost half of that spent on what may or may not have been a road.

I will make another attempt on that same route once the snow melts and I can visually see that it the road. Heading out for round two of the weekend. I know these are roads.

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