Kelley Acre Ride Adventures
I discovered The Kelley Acre ride a couple months ago, and it quickly became my favorite since moving to the east coast about a year and a half ago. A big group of local racers meet at Chris Kelley's to ride all over the beautiful mountains and countryside around Frederick, Maryland. It's always a great adventure...but today it was probably a little heavier on the "adventure" side than we would have liked. The absurd total of TWENTY flat tires made our usual 4 hour, 67 mile ride turn into 5.5 hours of time outside in the winter cold. I only made it back due to the creative help of Bill fashioning a fix for the centimeter long slash on my front tire out of my empty Hammer Gel packet. My tube was starting to herniate through.
After using a CO2 cartridge to fill the tire back with air, I made the mistake of touching it with my bare finger. They normally get pretty cold after releasing the co2, but today, it was SO cold that it actually burned my finger. (Lame picture to prove.) Luckily, my hands were already so numb from the cold that it didn't really hur
t much. I've always been a little afraid of those things. I'm a little fascinated by the fact that I got burned by touching something too cold. Even if it is a wussy little burn.
The other thing that I was absolutely mesmerized by was the forest we rode through that was covered in ice. I've never seen anything like it. I wished I'd had my camera. Because it rained, (without any snow) last night, then froze overnight, every single little branch of every dead tree in this forest was sheathed in ice. Then it turned sunny outside and the light reflected off of them causing this bright, silver, rainbow forest of ice trees that dripped all over us as we rode through. The only damage was when a big icicle fell on me. I was fascinated enough to spend 15 minutes searching google for a picture, and found this one - although it doesn't nearly do justice to what we saw today.
All was capped off with a warm pot of chili waiting for us back at Kelley Acres. I love this ride. Thanks Chris!
Versii's Campaign
3 months ago
What a beautiful post! Almost wants to make me ride my bike for 67 miles. Okay, not really, but it does sound like an unforgettable experience. Thanks for sharing!
I like the new look of the blog!
what a die hard. I complain about the parking at the gym, I don't even think about actually getting my exercise done outside! nice burn. battle scars are the best.
I love how tough yet feminine you are! That ride does sound amazing! Remember when you took me "mountain biking??! HA! Talk about LAM-O! You are amazing!