There’s a big ole hill out on Cass ave. It comes with two solid miles of climb, plus another mile of rolling roadway. I’m guessing the grades run between 3 and 10% with an average between 5 and 6%.
I’ve wanted to ride it for a few years, but put it off because . . . well, aside from being a chicken and telling myself I’d do it when I found a road group to ride with, there really isn’t a lot of reason.
Today, I finally did it.
Cass Hill (as I’ll call it from now on), as I ride it, runs a three mile stretch from the Frontage rd / Cass intersection at the Shell station, down through Bluff rd (same as Cass ave, but around a bend) and to the intersection of Bluff / Rt 83.
Up near the Shell station it crosses over I 55, so also comes complete with its own GoD (Gauntlet of Death).
During my 15 mile trek up and down these wonderful hills I was surrounded by poets. Several times I heard, “How may I kill thee? Let me count the ways.” And, yes, I did think it odd that they all chose and mangled the same line in exactly the same way. Maybe they’d just gotten out of a meeting or a video conference on their iPhones or something about killing me.
I had two poets swerve at me as they came around, one who made a half-hearted attempt at Kornheisering me and another that not only attempted to run ME directly over, but simultaneously tried to rip the grill, bumper and front quarterpanel off the car that had just pulled up to the stopsign at the intersection he couldn’t wait another 5 seconds to get into.
It was all quite exhilarating and left me wondering how I’d ever held so much as a wisp of fear for riding this area.
Bikezilla 