Short and Steep

Sunshine: check!  A little bit of free time: check!  Wind not too icy: check!  Shoulder of the road clear of ice: check!  Time to RIDE!

I literally had a tiny window of time to ride, and with all the snow from last week still here (ahem! it IS almost the middle of March, you know - snow, you are welcome to melt and do your job of hydrating the earth, but please do go away now), riding options are still very limited.  Rhio hasn't been out in almost two weeks, so he was my pick for today's jaunt.

The icy driveway

Rhio's ready to go

I did a very cursory grooming job (it's shedding season, even a cursory job got me covered head to toe in hair), tossed on tack, and away we went.  The most treacherous portion of the ride was the driveway (I hand walked), but once we hit the road, the shoulder was not only clear of snow and ice, but was softening mud.  We headed off toward the local elementary school 1/4 mile away, then turned to head up the big hill.  I've never ridden up this way before, since without good wide shoulders I hesitate to take this route during high traffic times, but the lure of a serious hill climb is too much to resist.

Yep, we're going straight up that hill in front of us.

Rhio and I both looked around in surprise when we passed by the cement-block facade of the old fire station; echoes of our hoofbeats rang out, reverberating back to us in an unexpected fashion.  He was feeling quite ready to rock-n-roll, so I let him trot out...until we got about one third of the way up the steep, 3/4 mile long hill and he figured out this was WORK.  We walked the rest, turned around at the top, and headed home.  Alas, there was no more time in my day, and we'd have to settle for a mere 2 1/2 miles.  But, I at least feel that we made up in incline what we lacked in distance - after all, our first ride of the year is 56 days away.  Time to get out there and RIDE!

A hopeful soul tapped this maple tree - though I think it's a little early.

What goes up, must come down!