My visit to Dripping Springs

I made the trip out to Dripping Springs on Sunday, and met up with a few of the other Challenge riders, Amanda and Travis. I wanted to get an estimate of the travel time/distance, so on the big day, I can make sure I get there with time to spare, without having to leave home too early. It sprinkled a few times on the way there (we've been having showers nearly every day for a week), but it did not rain at all while we were there. It did stay overcast, and that kept the temperature down some.

I got there a bit ahead of time, but not by much. Travis and Amanda (and Amanda's friend Robin) showed up, unloaded their bikes, geared up, and off we went. Travis rides out there regularly, so we decided to follow his lead. Almost immediately, you were out of town and in a country setting, with the river next to you (we had to cross several low water crossings - hopefully, there will not be significant rain near the event time). There were not many places that were flat, just one hill and descent after another. At this point, they were not terribly steep or long, just a bunch of them. Judging from the route map, there will be numerous opportunities to experience the "thrill" of hill climbing ;-)

Amanda had trouble at about seven miles, in the middle of a hill climb, she could not go further (you can read the details in her blog). Since Robin had gone ahead, I went to find her, she had gone about 1.5 miles ahead of where we stopped. We returned, and Travis had gone back to get Amanda's car. While waiting, Amanda recovered enough to start riding back towards town. We got about 2 miles before Travis found us. Robin and I then rode the rest of the way to town, we got back to the parking lot about 5 minutes before Travis and Amanda drove up. We said our goodbyes and off we went.

It was fun to ride with the other folks, we may schedule some more rides before the Challenge.

I decided to do another ride once I got home, and, those showers that did not occur earlier, well, I got soaked. It's only the second time I've gotten caught out in the rain, not so bad considering the weather we've had this summer.