Endurance ride? I guess 8 hours counts!

Hey Everyone,

Promised you this update, so I've been chugging away at it for the last few days.  Put this off for quite a while, maybe call it writer's block? So here I am Sunday night getting this done!  This is the story of...my awesome 8 hour long adventure!

I woke up last Saturday morning ready to go.  I packed my backpack with cards, water bottle, phone, and tools, and strapped that down to the rear seat using bungee cords.  I definitely was not going to try to shove my phone into the tail again and have the screen get even more scratched..!  I suited up, put on my new gloves, and headed over to the gas station to top off the tank, and fill some air in the tires.  Got the usual crazy looks, laughed to myself, and hit the road.  First stop, breakfast!

On the way to Helena's Chocolate Cafe & Creperie in Carlisle, my buddy spotted me and joined up.  We ate some awesome crepe's, with my friend enjoying his first crepe ever.  Hopping on our bikes, we too were fueled up, and off we went.  We got directly onto Waggoner's Gap road, and took the curves quicker than the first time since we knew what to expect.  I practiced some more body positioning, and successfully hung off and took some very smooth turns.  Once over the mountain we went past where we stopped on the last adventure, and continued north.

At the four-way stop there, a group of teenagers pulled out laughing (presumably at my suit? haha), and were in front of us, stomping on the gas.  At first I took bait and pinned the throttle, catching up to them, but they were most likely familiar with the roads, and also had four patches of rubber to grip the earth, so I let off at once, slowing to our normal pace.  I was glad I did, as the road became suddenly very twisty, with hills thrown into the mix.  This set up for several blind corners which caused us to have quick reactions.  Freely tossing my body from on side to the other, I beat down twist after turn, keeping the bike on rail.

We came out to the next intersection where we turned to and followed a long open country road, a gently curving, scenic route which led us into a quaint little, and I truly mean little, town.  It seemed like one of those places where everyone knew their neighbor.  As I was consulting my trust phone to help lead us on to our next road (which was conveniently also the sign in the picture below...274 West. I have trouble reading signs apparently!), we had a huge group of bikers ride through in the direction from which we came.  The group was mostly choppers and cruisers, but there were some sport bikes and dual sports with them.  We stood there for a solid five minutes waving at the caravan! Unfortunately I did not get a video, I wish I thought about it at the time!

Once they were gone, we got back on the bikes, and turned onto 274 West.  It was another country road, straight for as far as the eye could see, littered with farms of corn and happy cows. We took some time to capture a few pictures along the way, as it was a wonderfully open place with beautiful clouds and rolling hills in the background.

As we progressed farther down this road, the scenery began to change.  Farms were replaced with towering trees as we entered Tuscarora State Forest.  The trees formed a beautiful canopy, hiding the road from the sun.  The air felt much cooler as we tore up the hill further into the forest.  The surroundings were absolutely gorgeous, and being on the bike gave me this feeling of being free. I was thinking at the time, this is what we are supposed to be doing, out here exploring the world, not cooped up in a cubicle all day, 5 days a week, for the rest of our lives.  I wish I could have gotten photos but it there was no safe place to pull over as the shoulders were nonexistent.

As we got into the hilly section of the forest, the road decided to get all tangled, throwing at us two wonderful but terribly challenging turns.  Well ok, I take that back, one beautiful tight but smooth curve, and one curve from the hot place down under!  We took the first turn gracefully, leaning in at 25mph, exiting at 45 to another uphill stretch.  I was delighted to see the pavement rush beneath me just a foot away, but fortunately not up close and personal!  The second corner was not forgiving at all.  It was a right hand hook, blind due to the mountain wall, decreasing radius, with gravel and a cherry on top.  For a millisecond I imagined myself wiping out and being munched on by yet another guard rail, but I stuck to my line and hope, and came out safely.

But the fun didn't end there!  As we were going up the final hill, I saw some hawks circling above us.  Just as I was thinking, "oh how cool, look at them soaring," one dive bombed me!  It was coming out of a tree very rapidly and I thought it was going to try to eat me (C'mon, I'm not that small!).  I ducked instinctively and was glad to see it fly away.  At the top of the hill I saw something rustle in the vegetation and I saw yet another hawk eyeing me up in the bushes.  We stared each other down for that split second, and I think he got scared as he did not try to attack!

After coming out of the forest alive and unharmed, it opened up into more country roads.  We ended up in another town.  We took some pictures and while shooting, one guy passing by in a truck, stopped near us, and started posing for pictures!  He laughed and proceeded on, leaving us in quite the humorous state.  We took the next turn, which led us on another very long and straight country road right alongside the rolling hill we saw previously saw in the distance (the one in the earlier picture!).  Road completely empty, we enjoyed cruising through the farms, occasionally honking at the cows and goats grazing in the adjacent fields.  We ended up at another intersection.  Once parked there, we were passed by racing trucks, farm vehicles, and even a pretty speedy golf cart.  It must have been souped up, and probably had more horsepower than my bike lol!

We took a little break here in this gravel parking lot (or whatever it was) to have some water and stretch out a bit.  I had no clue what the place was, or where exactly we were, but that wasn't a problem.  The day wasn't about schedules, it was about being spontaneous and just doing whatever we wanted.  The road was quite tempting though, so we didn't linger too long.

That's right, bring on the curves! MOAR! My little Ninja was eating up the miles, and I didn't want to hold it back from rightly doing so.  We mounted up and continued on, mush little Ninjette!

We followed the road until we got to the next intersection where we met our return tarmac home.  It was a slower road, through more wooded areas and little winding creeks.  Yet this was probably the best kept secret of the area.  It was bend after bend after bend, all of which allowed my green machine to sing and dance.  I made sure to stay anchored, pick my lines, and hang off properly, and I can easily say that road was the most fun I had that day.  Alas, it eventually came to an end, and it went out with a bang because we were challenged to a duel, a terrible grated bridge which shook my bike and made it snake along the metal grating.  It wasn't too bad, but it definitely was not a pleasant feeling.  I stayed loose on the handlebars, and the bike sorted itself out fine.

After a few more roads scattered here and there, we decided to take Waggoner's gap again, this time the reverse route.  Boy was it weird!  The first turn was an extremely sharp uphill hairpin.  I went wide since I genuinely was concerned about bottoming out or destroying [more] plastic.  And on top of that, we had a huge impatient pick up truck behind us, which threw off my concentration a bit.  After that, it was easier as the other turns were a bit wider and more consistent.  We stopped at the top to take pictures, for during our first trip we realized how epic the view was, and this time we could not leave without photos!

Finally, we left the top of the world, and headed back home.  Along the way, the road split suddenly, throwing me off guard, and I went straight instead of veering right to stay on course.  We ended up in near this Amish looking house, and I pulled up behind a buggy.  As I looked around to get my bearings, this cute but slightly roughed up looking border collie came over.  It was a quiet, somewhat downtrodden looking dog, but friendly none the less.

Those kinds of times are why getting lost is sometimes a good thing.  I wish I could have taken him with me, that's the exact kind of dog I want.  But sadly I could not stay long and play, so I scratched his ears a bit, petted him, and then returned to the road.  On the way back, we stopped at this frozen yogurt place, Sweet Frog, and I got some delicious cake batter frozen yogurt with cookie dough.  It was delicious!!!
After that, we finally returned home, and after I hung up the suit in my closet, I felt exhilarated but very much drained.  I took a long nap, and decided that day was one of the best in quite a while.

Long post I know, but it does reflect the long ride it was. There are some more photos, which I have posted to my photo account (link on the right side of the page).  It took a while to get this written, and I'm already backed up!  This weekend I went on a long group ride down to the beach, my first group ride ever.  I will start writing it up this week hopefully, unless I get lazy again haha.

Thanks for reading everyone!

- Pandabear