In Search of Bitch Hill

Friday, Mike and I dropped the boy off at Football Camp at the Bishop O'Connor Center in Middleton and had 4 hours to kill while we waited. So while the other parents set up their lawn chairs to watch the riveting show, Mike and I took off on our bikes to explore the back roads around Middleton. Our first obstacle was to cross Mineral Point Road to get to the Trek store for some route advice. After taking our lives in our hands to cross 6 lanes of traffic at 5pm on a Friday, we went in the store and talked with a couple of the guys and settled on a route Now I must say that i think our idea of "quiet roads with not much traffic" and theirs was a little different.
We found our way to to Old Sauk Road and took it out of town. There was no real shoulder and not really a bike lane to speak of and I thought I'd be road pizza for sure. Cars buzzed by us pretty quick and it made me really nervous. When we reached the end, we went onto some shorter country-er roads and alternated between them and busier highways with a 3 inch shoulder. We went through Cross Plains and around to the other side of Middleton and back to the Bishop O'Connor center. That is the short version. In truth, we stopped to look at the map a billion times, thought we lost nearly as often, got off track for real a couple of them, and generally took the slowest 30 miler on earth. The route was very very very hilly. The roads were often not marked really well (or the map did not list the same name as as was on the street sign). Lots of the roads were gravelly, or the shoulder was sandy or full of debris, or the asphalt was crumbling away making it narrow or non-existent. Actually most of it was probably that we had to rely on the advice of others and we were on roads that I was not as familiar with so I was out of my comfort zone. If we had to do it again, I think it would be a much more relaxing ride.
When we got back to the center, Mike and I ran a quick 2 miles on the dirt track. I was feeling really good and felt like I could have gone forever. We had to quit at 2 miles though because camp got over and all the boys left the field. (bummer).
Today the SWAT folks are riding one loop of the IMWI bike course. I would SO like to go to that, but Mike is working this morning and we have a grad party to get to this afternoon so we just can't. I just finished reading the book we got at last weeks run about the IMWI experience and I really would like to get a look at "Bitch Hill" and see what that's all about. maybe next time. One time up that hill would definitely be better than tackling the Horribly Hilly Hundred ride.