Wednesday, August 27, 2014

Ride and Hike ,,,,,,,,,,,

Sometimes I do things that about halfway through I think "why am I doing this". Last night I had one of those moments. I came home took a quick 10 minute nap and then out the door I went. As I said I planned to work on my mileage for this week, I wanted to get an early start this week. I have my mountain trip planned and now I might have something else planned for the first week of October that will require a nice high level of fitness.

                                                More on that later....

So last night I went for a ride, I was pedaling along enjoying the nice evening minding my own business. All of a sudden some dip shit decided to pass me with traffic coming. Scared the hell out of me! He was driving this nice little convertible and had the top down. Of course I yelled a few nice words in his direction. He shot me the bird and kept going. Made me really mad!

The funny part is after I yelled at him I stood up and started pedaling really hard. Like I had a chance to catch him! I can laugh about it now but then I guess I thought I was gonna catch him... LOL... He was going 50 miles an hour and I was gonna chase him down on my bicycle! Oh well, I guess I can count that as a wind sprint or something. No I never did catch him or see him again, but I am on the lookout now!

I did go by the high school and saw my buddy Kelly for awhile, he was there for a tennis meet. His daughter is playing this year. From there I started heading home and decided to checkout the bridge replacement on Hwy 200. The road has been closed for 2 months now and I figured they might be getting close to being done. Not! I rode to the bottom of that long ass hill only to find the bridge no where near done!

This is where I made the choice that I was soon second guessing. I could turn around and ride back up the hill and add about 3 miles to my ride or I could walk across this 10in wide steel beam. It was their make shift footbridge to get from side to side. It had a steel cable for a hand rail and that was about it. So I look at my options and said why not I can cross this bridge.

I picked up my bicycle and threw it on my shoulder and started walking, from one side looking at the other it didn't look that far or high. About halfway across it looked a lot different! I found myself about 15 feet in the air standing on a 10in wide steel I beam with a bicycle on my shoulder and a really fast and deep looking creek under me!

At that point turning around wasn't really an option! I still had probably about 30 feet to go! That steel cable handrail I mentioned wasn't very sturdy either! The further you got to the middle the looser it became. That's about the time I had my "why am I doing this" moment!

Yes I made it but I won't be doing it again anytime soon.... The older I get the more I realize I might be scared of heights, or maybe I am old enough to know what it feels like to hit the ground!!!!

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