By Ben Nitkin on
Although the ride into Hartsel was pretty, I'm glad to go. It was a long, rough ride with lots of headwinds and climbing. Today's ride was just what the doctor would have ordered, if doctors prescribed bike rides to cure ailments. Moving on.
After a short ascent out of Hartsel (and a ton of bugs - my legs were speckled) we crested a mountain pass and started 15 miles of descent. Curving past huge exposed rock formations at 30 miles per hour was an enormous relief from crawling up hillsides.
Lunch was at the base of the slope, followed by a gradual climb into Twin Lakes. We rode alongside a tiny little tributary to the massive and flooded Arkansas river. That was neat.