Two loops through Gatineau today

My longest ride to date and it was through the mountains (hehe) of Gatineau park. We left from Grant's place just after 0700 this morning and took our usual route across Champlain Bridge towards the park. After climbing that damn Pink Lake hill we opted to take the route that would take us up Camp Fortune rather than King Mountain on our way to Champlain Lookout. Camp Fortune wasn't as bad as I remembered it being which was nice surprise. I managed to drop one of my water bottles, but luckily it was on a flat stretch so I just had to turn around and pick it up rather than having to chase it down a hill.

When we got to Champlain Lookout I checked the bike computer and it was reading just under an hour and a quarter which left Grant 45 minutes to get home. My plan was to meet Steve at the top of Pink Lake so I wouldn't have to climb the damn thing again but alas...it was not to be. When I called him to see where he was, he was just passing Westboro beach so rather than wait for him where I was, I followed Grant back to the gate where I stopped to wait for Steve while Grant kept going home.

I didn't have to wait long for Steve to show up, but I used the time to finally adjust my seat height (higher) and loosen my right pedal so I could clip in/out easier. Time will tell if the new seat height is better or not but no complaints so far about knee pain or anything.

Once Steve showed up, it was back up Pink Lake which I really didn't enjoy. This time we opted to climb King Mountain rather than Camp Fortune. We got up to Champlain Lookout without too much difficulty. After a quick snack, we were on the move again. We decided to go down Camp Fortune on our way back. I had thought I might be able to break the elusive 70 kph mark (having only achieved 68 kph earlier with Grant) but it didn't happen on the way down Camp Fortune. There were a couple more decent hills to climb on our way back and the day was taking its toll on me. When we finally made it back to Pink Lake, I didn't have much left so I decided I'd just be coasting down the hill, having given up on my search for 70 kph for the day. Without even trying, I hit 66 kph and at that time, Steve went flying by me. Turns out he did it - he got all the way up to 72 kph! Nice work buddy! Perhaps I'll manage it next week...

By the time I got back to Grant and Bonnie's place, my ODO read 100.09 km and my running time was somewhere around 3 hours and 53 minutes. Average speed was 25.7 kph and my max, as I already mentioned, was 68 kph. I would say it was probably my toughest day on the bike so far, but I'm not complaining. I definitely need to find a way to get more salt into me, I had a pretty wicked headache for a few hours after the ride.