Ride of Attrition Report

A few of us gathered  Saturday morning at Alley Park, south of Lancaster to do a 13 climb route of 50  miles.  Sounds like a lot of fun for November, no?  Assembled in the parking lot  were Reynoldsburg Dan (he too preparing for this weekend's Pittsburg Dirty Dozen  ride), Jeff S, Flyin Tuna, Mark V, Ricky G and Steve O, who had forgotten his  cycling shoes and gone to retrieve them.  To fill the time while we waited, we  rode out to Tarkiln Road and all returned to the parking lot to meet up with  Steve, except me, deciding to get a head start up Tarkiln.  I ended up off route  for a couple of minutes and missed the group but caught up with them in Sugar  Grove, having climbed Tarkiln, Beck, McQuery (twice, my mistake).  Our  conversation was dominated by the news "Hostess" had again entered bankruptcy  proceedings, this time for good, although the brands will survive.  We  reminisced about our favorite snacks, mine was Wonder Bread, Oxley's was Ding  Dongs, Jeff's was Ho-Ho's, Dan's was Twinkies, Mark V's was the fruit pies and  Tuna's was, "I like em all!"
 

We headed out of  Sugar Grove to climb Fire Tower Road, then Role (the infamous final big climb on  CFC), then Steve O bugged out with shoulder problems.  We did and down and back  at some road, then we climbed Kirle and while descending, Mark V bugged out with  knee problems.  I did a comprehensive mental scan of my body, hoping to find  something aching so I too could bug out but all was still good. We ground up  Savage, then Chickencoop, opted not to ride Paradise because of road problems so  did the climb on Bauman and on to Sugar Grove Road where we eventually crossed  #33.  Flyin Tuna bugged out as those remaining bravely turned on to Stump Hollow  to do both sides of that climb.....

....Jeff S grimly  pops over the top of Stump Hollow, our final climb to give us 50 miles and 4800'  of climbing.  Isn't that odd how the image makes the hill appear to be a small bump in the road.