32 Mile Friday Ride Around South Mountain

Spotty East Mountain Tracking Today
I've ridden this loop route before..... the other direction, the direction which gives "Heartbreak Hill" its nickname.  The very steep uphill grade is truly a heartbreaker at 15% grade and seems to take forever to get up, mostly since I have to walk the bike 3/4 of the way.  I decided today to try going the OTHER way around, and it turned out to be a much more enjoyable and less stressful ride.  The ride going east from here on Frost Road, out to 344, left/north on 344 to Cedar Grove and then just following the pavement as it circles around Cedar Grove and South Mountain, is a much more gradual ascent than riding from North 14 east on 344 and UP the frightful grade so discouraging.
When I got close to the downhill SWOOSH of Heartbreak Hill I stopped at a rare tree-shade and took a water/sandwich/rest break.  I noticed some trash carelessly tossed just off the road.  This always irritates me greatly:  Beautiful almost-wilderness area with lots of clean air, trees, and mountains.... and there is TRASH almost everywhere.  It has become commonplace to leave plastic bottles of all sizes full of urine all along the roadways and especially interstates, with many blaming truckers for such outrages.  How and why is it so difficult to pick up and hang on to your OWN TRASH until you get somewhere to properly dispose of it? 

 I at first fumed and fussed about this mess and then decided to see if the plastic bag was still intact and if it would fit on my bike.  It did.

 So the trash rode on my front baggage rack until we got to a store where I was able to pop it in a trash receptacle.  No great sacrifice;  why did the nasty passerby leave it there or throw it out a window in the first place??  I ask you.
Not far from the trash I saw something much more unique and interesting:

This is a huge STUMP, used as a fence post... you can see the barbed wire strands wrapped around.  The stump is almost 3 feet in diameter... no danger of this "post" being blown or pulled over by stresses on the fence.
The stuff you notice when riding a bike....
Then, the RUSH smoking DOWN Heartbreak Hill.  There were warning signs mentioning the 15% grade, but MERCY:  What a sudden steep downhill dropoff.  I was riding my brakes most of the way down, not wanting to meet oncoming cars at such speed, but as I got near the straighter turns toward the bottom I cut loose of the brakes and enjoyed the fearsome ride.  You might note the max speed on the GPS report of 45 MPH... at my advanced age I worry about the wheels, the chain, the brakes, the tires, what happens if I hit an unseen pothole or bump.... I'd guess the max speed might have exceeded 55 or 60 if I hadn't been riding the brakes.  No thanks, not this old geezer.  I want to live so I can ride another day....
Beginning Battery Voltage:  13.1   Ending Voltage:  9.3
Lowest Temp  77 F      Highest Temp:  84 F
Stats from the GPS: Total Miles:    33.03
Overall average speed            Moving Avg               Max Speed
7.3 MPH                                 9.2 MPH                    45.1 MPH
Total Trip time                       Moving Time             Stopped Time
4 hours 32 mins                     3 hours 35 mins       56 minutes 24 secs