Hurry up and wait... a day? Or not...

I was supposed to meet a group for a pretty great sounding ride heading from Old Ellicott City through Patapsco, into Baltimore, through Federal Hill and around the Inner Harbor area and apparently along some new and little known Gwynn Falls trail. All that and back and finally capped off by beers at the Old Ellicott Brew Pub. Yum. Sounding like a really awesome ride and a great opportunity for me to see a bunch of new areas I've never seen despite living just a few miles from OEC for 7 years of my young life.

I decided late I definitely wanted to make it (well actually I completely forgot about it until around 11) so I threw my stuff together and ran out the door to try and make the noon departure time. 95, 100 and 29 are all a lot longer when when you are running late by the way. Got there with about 8 minutes to spare and started looking for cyclists gathering in the lot I expected was the correct one. Nothing. Not even bike racks to suggest I missed it... The blackberry then confirmed that I WAS on time just on the wrong day... Oops.

I saddled up anyway for a brief hill ride on some of the biggest hills I've ridden in a long time heading out of the river valley that is OEC. Started up Oella then popped around before coming back down and heading back up the steeper Westchester Ave looping back down before heading up Main Street onto Church Road and down Park before turning around and climbing back out Park up Court House Rd, down Ellicott Mills back down Main St, and finally up College Ave for a ways before turning back and calling it a day.

On College Ave I was looking for the good old Hell House; the storied, burned and abandoned insane asylum we used to sneak out to in the middle of the night in order to scare the bejesus out of ourselves. Unfortunately I wasn't sure I remembered exactly how to get there and when I turned around I was just a bend or two from the turn that would take me there. Ah well, it'll still be there next time I suppose. There will be a next time too.

In the end I turned in only about 18 miles and 900 feet of climbing or so; nothing too big for the guys that head out to Shenandoah every weekend but for me a pretty solid ride. It was good to know especially, that my legs wouldn't completely blow up on me on these longish steepish climbs offered by the area.

Now, maybe if that ride tomorrow really happens I will try and get my butt out there on time and do the ride. The forecast however isn't looking too great for that one though. Like I said, Ma Nature could go one of two ways...