Soggy Saturday

The original plan for this past Saturday was to do Tom's Trillium Ride in Athens but all the recent rain caused several roads in the Nelsonville / Athens area to be closed due to high water.  Fortunately my friend Rick came to the rescue and planned a nice ride from Sunbury out to Utica and back.  Plenty of climbing was promised so that our group would not feel too bad about missing all the hills and scenery of Southeastern Ohio.  Word is that the Trillium ride is re-scheduled for next weekend.

We had a nice group of 12 riders for the 10:00 start time and we rolled out under cloudy skies with optimisism that we would stay dry for our ride.  From Sunbury we headed out to Johnstown and then on to Utica where we climbed Reynolds Hill before making a quick snack stop in town.  Rick put together a nice loop with more hills that brought us back into Utica again for lunch at Subway before we started the final run out to Weaver Road and back toward Johnstown.

Rick, our ride leader, powering up Reynolds Hill

The group strung out as we fought some head winds approaching Johnstown.  Rolling into the outskirts of town the skies became darker and thunder could be heard in the distance.  Light rain began to fall and we stopped under a school entry and contemplated our next move.  After a short break we pressed on for the last 20 miles or so as we closed in on Sunbury.  Less than 10 minutes from Johnstown the skies opened up and we were all quickly soaked to the bone.  The rain continued to fall until we completed the ride with just over 91 miles. 

Sweetie looking strong!

Despite the soaking we had fun.  Hoping to ride in Athens this Saturday and the current weather forecast predicts warm temps and clear skies.