A ride to Saca Mare

Last Saturday I was on one of the coolest and coldest rides ever. The idea was to do ride on this route but we soon realized it was to much for an autumn day. It was a bit cold but it wasn't so bad. The big problem is that it gets dark at about 5 pm.

I woke up early and packed everything.

After a short car ride we arrived to the starting point.

We got our gear and started the ride. After a few kilometers we already had to take off some of the clothes although it was pretty cold.

It was cold but nature is very beautiful in the cold to.

Soon we hit some ice on the road.

Then even more ice, where I had to jump off the bike for the first time.

Soon the water in my bottle started to freeze like the creek.

At the first food break we fixed a tire.

At the second break my chocolate was frozen :))

After that we stopped and took a look at some interesting rock called the Table Rocks.

The trees were beautiful, they remind me of Christmas.

We found some snow.

The view was...

The stats for the end of the climb:

 - distance: 26,11km

 - average speed: 9,3 kph

 - maximum speed: 33,1 kph

 - time: 2:47:42

The climb was very long and hard and the last few kilometers are very steep. Because of my lack of training and the cold I had some cramps :(

The view at above 1700 meters is breathtaking.

Because of the cold the battery from my camera died on the descent. The descent was long and cold and very hard because of the rocks. We decided to descend off road parallel with the paved road. After a few flat tires and some getting lost we got down to Sovata in the dark. After a short and painful ride I got to the car. The stats for the ride:

 - distance: 54,57km

 - average speed: 11,6 kph

 - maximum speed: 48,7 kph

 - time: 4:40:51

What is Mountainbiking about?

New top speed (MTB)

Two days ago I broke my high speed record. There is a small paved hill near the forest where I like to do some training. My new record on my mountain bike is 70,2km/h, a day before I got up to 67km/h. This time I blocked the suspension and I went full speed.

I wonder how fast can I go there with my Race Kings or with some slicks.

A great weekend - Part 3

Continued from here.

After sleeping under a tree we woke up early and headed for a short ride on tarmac...But after just a few kilometers we saw the ruins of a castle so we changed our plans.

The view was breath taking. Near the ruins there was a canyon so we headed there. We couldn't go all the way on the bikes so we continued on foot. We didn't go all the way on the trail, we stopped at a water fall.

We continued our journey on the road, between some beautiful rocks.

It was lunch time and we stopped in a village where we got directions to a place to eat. The restaurant was hidden so we started thinking that we got lost. We finally arrived to a very beautiful place, a very nice restaurant with some cute houses. The food was great and the view was even better.

We found out that there is a water fall nearby so we headed that way. There was no road so we were riding and pushing in the water :)

We finally arrived at the waterfall were we cooled down a bit. The water was great and there were a lot of people.

After carrying the bikes up a stiff cliff the road was better but we had to pass through the water a lot of times.

First time we passed through the water it was a few meters wide but at the end we could just jump over it. After we got to a small village were we got some fresh water we started to climb up. After putting some air in my rear tire we started to make good progress (no more water crossings).

The view was awesome, I always liked to ride on the top of the hills or mountains.  After we got to a village named Pietroasa the real climb begun, we had to climb about 300 meters (from 500 meters to about 800 meters above sea level). We were very tired and we had no more food and a storm was coming. We were a bit nervous and I had some bad thoughts.

We started to descend in the forest but we lost the road and we got lost. The battery of my phone died so we had no gps either. This was one of my worst biking experience. We were descending in a ditch were there was a lot of vegetation, we had to push a lot. To make things worst my rear tire was very soft :(

We were very happy when we saw a road. After fixing my rear tire we started a crazy descent because it was getting dark, the storm was catching us. The bikes were all over the place because the road was slippery, but we were going fast. I was never so happy to see asphalt :D

We were very happy and started racing to Rimetea. We were shouting and passing cars. When the rain finally started we were already packed :)

It was one of my greatest adventure on two wheels, we got lost but we've found the road!

All the pics here, and the map here.

A great weekend - Part 2

Continued from here.

After a short rest in Rimetea we got our bikes and went for a short ride. After the first 500 meters we had to make a pit stop to fix a tire.

We climbed half way up the hill and we had to stop to take some pictures because the view was unbelievable.

After a while the trail got very hard so we had to push the bikes.

The dh was very hard, we've hit the ground a few times... A few pics:

To be continued...