On June 10, 2006, while Ron was getting ready for the EagleMan and Susan for the Great Chesapeake Bay Swim, Joe and Eric meandered out to rural PG county for the Patuxent River Legacy Ride, a 100K bike featuring what was billed as moderate hills.  As usual, it was a lie.  The ride started off at a Wildlife Preserve, and took us through mostly rural areas.  Although we never went higher than about 275 feet in elevation, there were a number of vicious hills where even Eric was gasping at the top.  We also hit 41 mph on the way down one, which, as my friend Allen likes to say: "gets your attention and holds it." 

The course was pretty nice, with the highlight being a couple of spectacular views from the rest stops. However, virtually none of it is flat -- hills of all sizes and levels of difficulty.  We also passed an historic school (not as exciting as billed) and a llama farm (very cool), plus uncounted horses, cows and alpacas. We also had, in Eric's words "an unrelenting wind that buffeted us from all directions."  Two of the rest stops were at elevation zero and featured a long steep climb to get out of them -- a lousy way to treat your stiffened up muscles and full stomach.

The ride was well run, the directions were detailed, there were little blue fish painted on the ground to follow, a picnic at the end, and the last mile was downhill.  I would recommend it.