Adventure Around Antietam

Ride number 8 in Scott and Jim's Favorite Bike Rides is Around Antietam. As of today I pronounce it Adventure Around Antietam, after the misadventure my ride became. What didn't go wrong today? Well, I remembered my biking shoes, and.... well I can't think of anything else. Forget map and cue sheet? Check. Pull valve stem out of tube after pumping it up before the ride? Check. Have batteries die in GPS with route after mile 28? Check. A route, by the way, with 44 turns on the cue sheet. Get lost out in the middle of nowhere at 5pm? Of course, what were you thinking? Menaced by a dog for 10 minutes? Yup. Have GPS come out of it's mount going downhill at 25 or 30 mph and go tumbling smash! crash! scratch! down the road? Uh, yeah, that happened too. It wasn't all bad. I did manage to eventually find Sharpsburg and a little gas station there with batteries and king-sized Snickers bars (the best decision I made all day!). The little Garmin GPS, battered and gouged as it was, came right back on with some juice and I was able to continue my route. The gas station dude even had a large rubber band I used to keep the tab down that is supposed to keep the GPS from coming off it's mount. I cut a little bit from the route, but even so what was supposed to be a 63 mile ride was about 69 miles. Coming over South Mountain the second time on Alt-40 hurt, and the last 5 miles I was lucky to pull out 17 mph on the flats. Well, if there had been any flat sections on this ride. Which there weren't.

Four hours after the ride's completion and I'm still smiling. There's nothing like a little adventure to make you feel like you've lived the day!