On Wednesday, November 28, 2018 at 11:46:52 AM UTC-8, Frank Krygowski wrote:
On 11/28/2018 12:58 PM, jbeattie wrote:


Personally, the last thing I want to do is scramble up a bunch of inner-city walls. I climb because it's a mandatory part of most riding around here or for the scenery and low traffic volume. Climbing with cars sucks unless there is a wide shoulder -- which is one of the nice things about climbing in SLC where the canyons are scenic and have shoulders or very low traffic volumes. And when I lived in SCV, I loved Mt. Hamilton and the Santa Cruz Mountains, although the last time I was down there, HWY 9 was like a mid-life-crisis-mobile race track.

One friend of mine runs weekly or semi-weekly "Hill Repeat" rides - up,
down, & repeat for as long as you can stand it. Another friend has told
me "I just _love_ climbing hills!"

Masochism has its place, I guess. And I admit to climbing certain hills
just to see if I could do it (or later, could still do it). And in my
working days, my climb out of the valley on the way home (plus hauling
my daughter on our tandem) eventually made me a pretty good climber by
local standards.

But these days I climb hills mostly when they're in the way, and when
there's no practical way around.

I once had an article published in _Bicycling_ magazine about using USGS
topo maps for cycling. A major theme was how to avoid hills.

I see people doing hill repeats in the cemetery, and it gives me a longing for the past when it was just me and the dead-bodies. Going down: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zh1r4_QX1E After the route "officially" opened to cyclists, it turned into a crowd scene -- so much so that it was banned as a segment on Strava to reduce racing up or down (it hasn't).

Growing old sucks. I can climb all day by myself -- assuming I want to do that -- but I'm getting tired of duking it out with other people, and I can't help myself. My son hits the throttle on a hill, and I get out of the saddle and flail around and go backwards. It's a sad sight -- like a flopping fish dying on the dock.

The best climbing is being out with the old guys and catching some scenery. https://ridewithgps.com/photos/962865/large.jpg Great photo stream of a local gravel ride: https://ridewithgps.com/ambassador_r...ney-to-bennett That's covered in snow now, so not an option. Ski season!

-- Jay Beattie.