Braffit Mountain: A tale of testing the limits…
About 15 miles to the north of our house in Cedar City, there is a semi-developed mountain called Braffits Mountain. There is a paved road that goes all the way to the top, a rarity in this part of the world. The very first time I saw this road, while driving to Cedar on I15south, I thought of riding it up. Except, at that time, I had no idea how difficult it was.
After moving, a friend of ours told how difficult it was. So Carol and I drove up one day. It turned out to be very steep indeed. Here’s a route map.
Yesterday, I decided to see how far I could go on this climb.
I rode from our house to Summit, deliberately taking it easy to save energy for the climb. After a short break at the intersection of the Summit frontage road (on the east side of I15) and the Braffit mountain road, I started the ascent. The first half mile is a mild climb, until it veers to the right where the “real one” begins. At that point, I shifted to 30/27 (oh, yes, I brought the Look 361 which has a triple).
From then on, it was pure agony. I consistently saw 15-20% on the GPS. Note, however, that the Edge 205 does not have a barometric altimeter, so I think it tends to over estimate the grades. Even if I ignored all the numbers, this much is clear: it was brutal with my cadence down to 40-50 (guessing) or probably lower. After about three quarters of a mile, I had to STOP. There was no way I could have continued for another yard.
After spending about 2-3 minutes regaining my composure, I started again. ONLY FOR ANOTHER TWO HUNDRED YARDS OR SO! I finally gave up and decided to turn around. A first in a long time:)
Then my guardian angel came to the rescue in the form of a cell-phone call — from Andy, my friend at Ansoft. He wanted some recommendations on a GPU for a new desktop that he is planning to buy so that he could play with CUDA. What a welcome relief. Between panting and gasping, I discussed some of his options. Then, I took the opportunity to ask him about signal integrity books — now that I have accepted an offer from Apache Design Solutions, I need to know a little more about SI. Anyway, that conversation gave me ample time to recover.
After about 13 minutes, when we hung up, I was “fully” recovered and had gathered enough courage to give the climb another shot. I did. Fortunately, the climb eases out a little, only about 10% grade, shortly afterwards and I was able to for another mile or so.
What a great ride it was! Some day, I hope to ride it all the way to the top (3500 feet in about 7 miles or so)!