So I finally did the ride to Ward and back today. I cut out of work around 3:30, and was a little short on time, so I drove over to the beginning of Left Hand Canyon so I didn’t have to bother doing any pesky flat riding.
I was a little shocked at how hard this ride was. As you can see by the elevation profile it is basically all uphill, and steep to Ward. You might see a couple of dips in the elevation profile, but I can honestly say that those dips were not there…it was uphill the entire way. The good news is that it is only uphill on the way there, on the way back you don’t have to touch your pedals (honestly) and you will average between 20-40 mph. It was funny, at about 5 miles into the ride I saw a sign that said “10.5 miles to Ward”, and at the time I was averaging about 10mph, so I was like, “no prob, I’ll be there in an hour.” After what seemed like an eternity I looked back down at my computer and saw that I was now 8 miles from ward, problem was I was now going 8 mph…”Fuck,” I thought, “that means I still have an hour,” and decided then to stop looking at my computer, which I did, until I was about 2 miles from Ward, and at I checked my computer again, and now I was going 4 mph (it gets damn steep right before you hit town). I quickly did the math and thought, “I still have 30 minutes of uphill”? Luckily it leveled off a bit, and I was able to make it there in less than 30 minutes. Then came the downhill!
It took me 1:40 minutes to get to Ward, and only 26 minutes to get back (crazy huh?). The downhill was sick…super fast, and almost no traffic. You can ride the entire road the whole way back, and you almost never see a car.
Here are the stats for the ride:
Distance: 32.7 Mi
Speed: 14.3 mph
Elevation gain: 4701 ft
Max Elevation: 9304 ft (WOW!!!!)
Elevation Profile:
Now for the photos:
Start. The road goes through Left Hand Canyon, which is dead ahead.
This is a picture of the Long Road Ahead. About 9 miles into the ride.
Cool looking wooden wagon. You see stuff like this all along the ride. Looked pretty, so I took the photo.
Downtown Ward. Seriously, that is the downtown. Don’t plan on buying gatorade with a credit card, they don’t accept it.
More Ward.
Seen enough of Ward? Me too, I am heading home.
That’s it folks, after I took that last photo I raced back to the car. Only took 26 minutes (I know I mentioned that already).
Route:
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