Andy Jordan’s Bicycle Warehouse in Augusta has been putting on a ride called the Lock to Lock Ride for 27 years and Donna has been trying to get me to do this ride for most of them. This year she wore me down and I acquiesced. The route is a little over 18 miles one way, there is food and door prizes in the park, and then if you are brave enough, you ride the 18 some odd miles back to the start.
The eighteen miles is broken down into three almost equidistant segments. The first part is along the Augusta Canal tow path from the head gates on the north side of town into downtown. The second part is mostly through downtown city streets with some along a paved section of the tow path. The last part is along the top of the levee from town to a park at the lock & dam on the south side.
We were brave. We figured, how bad can it be? We ride a lot and 15 – 20 miles is a piece of cake, it is all basically flat, no big hills, and we’d be on the tandem, so it will be half as easy. The first third of the journey we were familiar with as we used to ride it sort of regular like back when we had mountain bikes, it is a hard packed dirt road and quite shady. The middle third we have driven the car on enough to know that it was dead flat and the traffic would be minimal on a Sunday afternoon.
The third third was the big surprise, we had never been on it as it is normally locked because the levee runs along behind several industrial plants. The worst part of this segment was in the middle of it was 2-1/2 to 3 miles was covered in loose, large gravel rocks. After the smooth dirt and city streets, this stuff was a rude awaking. You had to keep moving to keep the bike on a straight course. It was nearly impossible to get to the water bottle or catch a quick break by coasting. I felt like I was riding in the Paris-Roubaix road race which is called the Hell of the North or A Sunday in Hell.
When we arrived at the park for lunch (very good BBQ sandwiches with a large selection of snacks) we kidded that maybe we should shop around to see if we could get a ride back to the start. But with our bellies full and our thirst quenched, determined, we stated back. On the way back we contemplated walking the bike over the gravel section, but when we tried it, was almost harder walking on it and much, much slower, so we rode. When the 74,000 pieces of gravel was over the rest of the ride back really wasn’t too bad.
We made it back to the start point dead tired and there were only a few other cars in the parking lot. There were around 275 entrants and I bet less than a quarter of them did it both ways. The ride is very well supported and we might do it again, if it is not ninety degrees out and if the gravel wasn’t there and maybe just one way…
Not far from home on the way back the CTBNL ticked over the 74,000 mile mark.