GMR Saturday

64.5 miles with 4,380 ft of gain to the high point with Mike today. SO that is about 3 miles or so short of the village.  We had enough water and figure we had enough to get back so why go to the village ha ha?! OK really, we were just looking to better last week's gain of 4100 ft. Ramp up over the last couple of weeks. I had no problem turning back a bit early. Having been off GMR so long, it was pretty tough for me over the last couple of weeks. Not that I flew up today but my breathing was much better than the last couple of weeks. Though maybe the heat had something to say about that ha ha! Was nice and cool today. Funny how one gets acclimated to the heat. Today it was 76 and boy was I glad I had an under layer on because I felt cold ha ha!

Always impressed me, the cyclists up there! Most say hi and I get a whole lot of , "you're doing great!" from some bad ass looking riders. Very different from the trail (SART). Most people I encounter there have the attitude as if to say, "I'm going to kick this fat guy's ass!". Pretty sad but it's true! Though you see a handful of cyclists on the mountain, maybe 50 ?? But a thousand on the trail and most act as if it's a race even when you're just cruising and kicking their asses ha ha! SO refreshing up on GMR. No homeless, no wannabe racers, lots of encouragement and I sure don't miss the arrogant attitude of the trail.

Very different! On SART I get guys that outweigh me by 50 pounds growl at me when we pass them. Take a wheel then race around trying to drop us after sucking wheel for 10 miles. On GMR, you have bad ass cyclists that are flying by you like they could keep up with Lance in his prime, but so encouraging with shout outs! Hmm! Maybe knowing what it takes to get up the mountain, they feel everyone up there deserves encouragement. I believe it so! If I pass someone, I say good job! I guess if it was easy, all the SART riders would be up there ha ha! I'm liking it more and more!

Speaking of encouraging cyclists, did see Matt and Joan roll by in the opposite direction. Just ahead of them we saw GMR and Bad Bill!

Pretty sure out of the 50 riders we see up there, I am by far the heaviest but I'm digging it more and more and plan to spend more time up there! ;-)

Good day other than Mike's flat ha ha!