20090211

Super Mega-Hill Death Route




Here's a list of West County hills (in no particular order) with which to attempt to encompass in an upward-fashion:

-Ries Rd.
-St. Paul - 2 hills
-BA
-Babler State Park -5 possible hills
-Woods Rd.
-Bartizan Dr.
-Melrose (from Hwy 109 to Allenton Rd.)
-Alt Rd - 2 hills going from Hwy 109 into Eureka, though the name changes to Forby
-"Allenton Loop" - 2 hills if CCW
-Highland View
-Fox Mountain (farther back from Highland View, off of Model Realty Rd.)
-Allenton Road
-Scenic Loop Rd., CW
-DeHardt Farms - 5 hills if done out-and-back
-Hardt Rd.
-Rieger
-Ridge Rd. - out-and-back climbing from river up to St. Paul
-Bassett
-Cremins Green
-Babler Trails/Babler Forest
-Ossenfort
-Melrose (from Hwy T up to Ossenfort)
-Glencoe Rd. (goes through Rockwoods)
-Shephard Rd.
-Orville (either direction, preferably Old Eatherton to Shepard)
-Bouquet - 2 hills
-Wild Horse Creek ("Doberman Hill")
-Wild Horse Creek (Ossenfort to Rieger)
-Woodland Meadows (either direction, preferable 100 to Old Manchester)
-Clayton (Streucker to 109)

By my count, a possible 44 significant hills, 45 if you count Melrose from 109 as 2 separate hills.

How possible is this? I haven't mapped it out on mapmyride.com yet, so I don't know exactly how long this is, though I would assume around 70-80 miles. A route that I have put together, attempting to maximize the number of best hills, while minimizing backtracking/doubling-over, and going TOO far out of the way. This starts at Lone Wolf Coffee. I think that another possible starting point could be Castlewood, but that would be a little more remote. I put the hills in bold.

-Head west on Clayton, and turn left onto the bike path. Take this down 109, cross over Hwy 100 on pedestrian bridge, and turn right onto Old Manchester.
-left onto Woods Rd. Descend and turn left up Bartizan, come back down, and continue down Woods.
-left onto bike path and ride south along Hwy 109.
-left up Old State for about .1 mile
-left onto Redtail Hawk Dr
-Then turn/veer left onto Johns Cabin Rd, which is a clockwise loop (Mitch's secret training loop) and will bring you back to Old State.
-Cross 109 at Old State, turn right up Alt Rd.
-Cross over Hwy 44, turn right onto West Main St (in between train tracks.)
-left onto Wengler and start Allenton Loop, going CCW.
-Exit Allenton Loop to the left, go underneath Hwy 44, and climb Allenton Rd.
- right onto Scenic Loop Rd, going opposite direction.
-right, continuing on Allenton Rd.
-left onto Melrose
-right onto Hwy 100
-right onto Woodland Meadows Dr.
-right onto Old Manchester
-right onto Glencoe (through Rockwoods.)
-Go straight up Melrose
-Turn right (again) onto Hwy 100, cross over and turn left and continue on Melrose all the way until it descends to Hwy T.
-Left on T
-Left on Bassett
-Left onto Cremin's Green, out-and-back. Continue up Bassett.
-Left onto Old Manchester
-left onto Bouquet.
-Left onto Ossenfort, cross T, and continue on Ossenfort through flats.
-Continue straight onto Wild Horse Creek
-turn left up Babler Forest as an out-and-back.
-Come back down, and turn right onto Wild Horse Creek, climbing to Rieger.
-Turn left onto Rieger
-left on Pond
-left on BA
-left into Babler. Once in Babler, turn right onto John Cochran Dr (CCW loop), turn right up Theodore Wirth Drive, and left down Guy Park Dr (past the pool). Turn right back up John Cochran Dr, climb up the first hill, and turn left at the bottom of the other side (also John Cochran Dr (be careful on the gravel!) and duck under gate to exit Babler State Park.
-Immediately turn right up Wild Horse Creek Drive (Doberman.)
-Turn right onto Old Eatherton.
-Left onto Orville.
-Right up Shephard.
-Left onto 109 (cross onto bikepath?)
-Left onto Clayton back to Lone Wolf Coffee.

*Option to turn left off of Clayton onto Valley Rd (turns into Strecker), turn right up Kehrs Mill back to Lone Wolf.

Hills that I didn't include: Ries, St. Paul, Ridge, Hardt Rd, Highland View/Fox Mountain, DeHardt Farms, up Ossenfort, up Glencoe Rd, up Rieger.

Would anyone else like to try this, or make suggestions for a better route? This could be made into a road Non-Race, much like the Chubb Challenge, where you get a tally and a spoke card for every hill that you ascend.

-C.F. Ryback

***Edit - This is potentially the hardest road ride that I will have ever done.
- CFR***

15 comments:

Christian Stitz said...

I've been wanting to write up something like this. Thanks for the effort. How about Monday?

Christian Stitz said...

Grothoff Hills Route

89.02, probably a bit over 90 as I cut corners a bit. Ouch.

Casey Ryback said...

Oh shit - we have it mapped out now! That must'ave taken some time. We'll have to have a bunch of those routes printed so people can fold them up and put 'em in their pockets. I'm not in a super hurry to schedule it in the next week or anything, but before the thick of the racing season starts.

Sounds like it's on like donkey kong!

Marc said...

sounds awesomrz, wish I could be there. Are there double points for single speed, and triple points for fixie? 'Cause there should be.

Casey Ryback said...

double points for a singlespeed/fixie, triple points for a penny farthing, Octuple points for a unicycle.

Anonymous said...

How about on a Sunday?

Anonymous said...

How about this suday? That sounds like quite an idea. All those taint hardening exercises I have been doing are finally going to pay off.

Craig said...

Ok, you asked for my comments, here goes:

1. Old State Road is nasteeeee, but to get to Red Tail Hawk, it's probably less than 1/4 mile. My sister lives on John's Cabin... Muy eSteepo. I didn't include this on my list purely because of the Old State part.
2. -Cross 109 at Old State, turn right up Alt Rd.
-Cross over Hwy 44, turn right onto West Main St (in between train tracks.)
You sorta left out how to get from Alt to I-44. I assume you're making a left on Forby, all the way up to a right on S. Central Forby is a pretty decent effort, but even harder is a quick right onto Meramec. Problem is that leaves you onto 5th St about 1/4-1/2 mile West of West Main. Lots of WalMart shoppers texting in SUV's on that road.

3. -left onto Wengler and start Allenton Loop, going CCW.
Good call, much harder in CCW direction
4. -Exit Allenton Loop to the left, go underneath Hwy 44, and climb Allenton Rd.
- right onto Scenic Loop Rd, going opposite direction.
-right, continuing on Allenton Rd.
Could add Hencken as an out-n-back here . Hencken would be on your Left as you come out from Scenic Loop. There is a private road called Tamara Trail that could turn this into a nice loop back to Allenton, but I think it's still partly gravel, though.
5. When you get to Melrose at Bouquet, instead of descending Melrose (very steep), descend Bouquet, go right on Old Manchester and go all the way up to Little Tavern, go right on LT to Hwy T and turn right, climb T the hard way, descend to Bassett, then turn right on Basset, Left on Cremins, then back out and complete Bassett, dropping you back on Old Manchester. Then, take Bouquet back the opposite direction up to Ass-n-fart, and complete your route as you have it.

This would add a degree of difficulty to this pussy ride you are proposing ;-)


PS: count me in, as "I am also not a pussy."

Samir-

Craig said...

Didn't see the map before I posted.

Will Google Earth or Mapmyride give you the total elevation gain or do we have to wait to see the Garmin output?

I know Mitch and Dwayne did some crazy 120 miler with 10k feet gain last year. This might be more climbing than that.

Anonymous said...

...sounds like a great pre-work spin, count me in one morning!

Gino said...

A recent unfolding of events:

-Gino checks on team blog at work
-Gino reads title
-Gino thinks "Aww damn!"
-Gino reads route
-Gino thinks "That is ridiculous! When?"
-Gino's taint cries a little
-Gino's lower back screams out in terror


I'm in. How about the end of the month? I should be feeling good again by then.

New East Coast Syndicate said...

Love it, makes me want to pack up and leave New York for the better life. My ideal route is right on 37th left on 10th ave, snap the wrist of the drug dealer (take his stash) right on 40th and party!!!!

Steve Driscoll said...

Cyclo-Cross this Sunday, $1,000 cash plus awesome prizes www.teammackracing.org

Steve Driscoll

Anonymous said...

Count me in, even though I hate hills. What about those guys from RedWheel?

Anonymous said...

I am going on C-dubbs ride. I got to get to the city.