Nudder GMR Wednesday Ride

Hey, when things are slow at work and they ask if I want a free day off, I'm taking it! Them! So I picked Wednesday again taking advantage of the day.

I did see Matt and Joan right near the gate as I was heading up. I looked up right as they were going by. I shouted Hey! Matt nodded but maybe he didn't expect to see me up there ha ha! So they rolled on down the hill.

My goal was to make it up to the high point without stopping. Mission accomplished! I looked at my time as I arrive and it said 2:13. Not bad! It did seem a little hotter today on the lower slopes. But once I was on GRR it was very nice, never cold but not hot. So I hit the high point and took a 11 minute break to mix some G and and down a Clif Bar.

So my stats were good!  5,026 ft gain, 38.7 miles, 11 minutes of break time and 18 PR's on Strava, all climbing PR's! :-)

Not many riders at all today! I saw 3 coming down as I was approaching the shack, that was it! I didn't see one rider on GRR.

Once I got down to the bottom I still needed about 500 ft to hit 5,000 gain for the day. So I headed back up. Bummer! When I got down to the bottom I reached down to drink what was left of my Gatorade but my bottle was gone! Darn it! I rode about a mile back up to reach my goal but no bottle. I thought about leaving it and counting it a loss but that is my go to bottle ha ha! So after I packed up the bike I drove up and found it at the 4 mile ridge. Good thing it rolled off the the side. I was worried I'd find it flat as a pancake but I lucked out ha ha!

BTW, it was breezy today and it was hard to hear anything with the wind noise.
There was one point OUT IN THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE!!!!! I was on a short straight just passing a hill on my left. I was doing about 25 and lots of wind noise. I hear this loud roar! I look around and can't see what it is but it's getting louder and louder. I almost panicked! I'm thinking it's a huge swarm of killer bees heading at me or a lion running along the top of the hill above me ready to pounce on me.  As soon as I get by the hill I see it is a big scoop (bulldozer?) digging along the inside shoulder.
How in the world did that thing get there? No trailer, no access road. I'm wondering how it's staying up along the edge of the mountain like that? I was relieved when I saw it but I almost pissed my chamois ha ha!