Friday, March 11
Massinigudi to Mettuppalaiya – 78 K
5174 feet of climbing to an altitude of over 7000 feet above sea level was the start of the day. Around 5000 of those vertical feet were in a continuous 12-15% grade for 8 miles (12K). I was wishing my granny gear could go a notch or two lower by the time I was nearing the top. The folks with mountain bikes were spinning two pedal strokes to every one of mine and I was jealous, but just kept chipping away at the climb. Here I am about ½ way up at one of the few spots where it was semi-level for a few hundred feet. J
There were 36 hairpin turns on this climb and each of them was numbered on a yellow sign. The bottom one read 36/36 and I stopped after the last one at the top for a picture. If you look to the left of my bike in the background you’ll a sign… if you could zoom in, you would see that it reads “1/36.” There was just a little more climbing before reaching the top with an immediate and very welcome downhill. J
I had been riding with Anna for much of the climb and after another 6-8 K of riding we met the group at our lunch location. Here’s some of the gang at lunch:
Due to several circumstances, we were instructed to remain at lunch for a bus ride DOWN the mountain… traffic was heavy and most everyone was thankful for that decision once we were on our way down. It was one of those roads that occasionally pop up in my bad dreams – narrow road, hairpin turns, big trucks and busses, vertical drops off the edge with no guard rails. My palms were sweating ALL the way down… J I didn’t get any pictures because while I was eating lunch, my bike and all my accessories in the bags (including my camera) were loaded on the bike truck for their descent.
