The Heinous #2!

LOOK ROCK with the clouds moving in...

Here are the clouds coming through the parkway. It was so cool because we were pretty much above them for a little while. We could look out one side of the tower and it was completely clear and the other side was all while fluffy clouds.
Here is Smap on the side with the white fluffy clouds.

This self portrait turned out pretty good capturing the color and even all the sweat running down my face. This was at the top of Look Rock on the tower. This past Sunday we decided, why not....and did it again. Fifty-eight miles and close to 7 thousand feet of climbing. Hopefully April 19th will NOT resemble this past Saturday (too much rain). I am hoping it will resemble yesterday!

So, yesterday we had another Heinous Loop newbie. It was Maria! She started out bad...complaining and threatening to quit. Once we got over the parkway, Maria did a 180 turn-around and ended the ride completely fine. It was such a fun day riding with her! She and I experienced the pain of Parson's Branch and Rich Mountain pretty much side-by-side. Way to go Maria!

Besides Smap and me, we had Monte Jones and Ben Smith once again. Alan Carnell also decided to make an appearance yesterday. I'll get back to him... Monte was once again strong and Ben stepped it up to improve his ride from two weeks ago. Smap crushed us all on the climbs. He kills me. I worked out four times as much as him, and he goes out and completely kills all of us. Natural born athlete the boy is....

Here is the motley crew coming through Hyatt Lane in Cades Cove. Smap took this photo just by putting the camera over his shoulder. Pretty good shot Smap!
Since Smap was such the quick climber boy yesterday, he was able to take many photos of the lot of us. Here I am finishing a day of climbing (almost) at the top of Rich Mtn. Road.

Here is happy Maria. Not to be confused with the Maria from the start of the morning. She totally cracked me up with her personality change from wanting to quit, to talking everyone's head off and joking with the guys.

Below is a fun shot of Monte peeing. Smap took the same exact shot of him two weeks prior in the same exact spot. I guess it just hits him in that same time and place every time.

And, last but not least....Poor ole' Alan. Mr. Carnell had trouble yesterday with cramping and bonking...I think mostly cramping though. Sorry Alan if you are reading this.... We all got to the top of the last climb and Smap decided to ride down to find Alan. Smap comes sprinting back to the top saying how he thinks he saw Alan riding in the back of a truck. Sure enough, Alan comes around the corner in the back of this truck waving like he is the King of a parade. Wow...I laughed pretty hard because he was all smiles and a completely good sport about the whole incident. We're glad he finished the ride with us! It was a great day despite my flat and Alan's ride.

Maybe we'll have a Heinous #3???? Who knows. I have always said I would only do one a year and so far I have done 2 with in a month. Crazy.

Cheers!