Bike Ride to Boulder City

Overton to Boulder City 72.8 miles

Total mileage: 3133.6 miles

After a long day yesterday there was no rest for the weary because we had a 4 am wake up call - not good in the way of recovery. Nate and I decided to head out bright and early because we wanted to get into the host as soon as possible of avoid the heat and give our legs some recovery time.

The first part of the ride was great and the cue sheet took us into the Lake Mead Recreational Area and that is where the hill climbing started. The "rolling hills" we're pretty big and the only reason we were able to cover as much ground in a short period of time was because for most of the morning we had shade from the sun.

We pretty much just shoved lunch down and got back on our bikes because the rest ofthe afternoon was going to be a rough one. Once we were out of the park, Nate and I found an old ranger station which had water and some shade. We took a quick 30 minute shade break/power nap before we headed out to tackle the last portion of our ride. As we worked our way down the cue sheet, we were excited when we had about 6 miles to go because that meant the home stretch; a good thing too because it was getting extremely hot. Unfortunately the last bit was all up hill at a very severe grade which meant it was SLOW GOING.

When we arrived at the church we were treated by Pastor Dave and Ann who was a church member and also responsible for cooking us an AMAZING DINNER later that night (homemade lasagna people - enough said) Slowly the groups started rolling in with the later groups getting the worst of the heat. The fact that we were treated with rice crispy treats and two big bowls of fruit salad almost made the day bearable.

 

Sadly there are three of us who have not received a package while out on the road, so Tova (photo bombing) surprised us without own package, complete with crowns.

After dinner we all piled into three cars and headed out to the Hoover Dam. A lot of us had seen the sign earlier in the afternoon, but the extra four miles up a hill in the 100+ degree weather was a turn off for all but one of the riders. I was a bit bummed that we would not be seeing the Dam, but there was ways would have made it on a bike. Because it was after dark we were not able to work over the bridge, but the view from the AZ side was great.

 

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