Biking - Uphill and down - Third in a series

Today, I moved to the south side of the Mohawk River, and essentially repeated a ride that I did fully loaded a few weeks ago. The difference today was that I started out from the parking area by climbing Gordon Road, a much steeper route than the previous ride, with one pitch maxing out at almost 13%, and another at over 11%. I hadn't done this climb since several years ago on my old 10-speed, and it's been on my list to try again for a while.



Gordon Road wasn't all that bad, since it has a couple of relatively flat, or even downhill, breaks. Reaching the end, I next started up Mariaville Road, NY159, as far as North Kelly Road, the highest point on the ride. It was all (well, mostly) downhill from there, and where it wasn't, I intentionally pushed a higher gear up the rollers. All told, I covered 15.8 miles and climbed about 1,300 feet. That puts me over 5,000 feet of climbing for the week, and the legs are definitely getting stronger as I continue.