I Walked the Wall

by Debbie Arnett

My first exposure to The Wall was when I read David Stinnett's July article about his experience there.  Since then I heard people talking about it, and asked some members whether or not it was as hard as it sounded.  Usually the responses were similar to "Yeah, it's pretty rough."  I began to picture it as the Mount Everest of the Wheelmen.   So when the opportunity arose to do a ride led by Worley Fain that involved "climbing to the top of the world" via The Wall and something called Happy Valley Road, I just had to give it a try.  I might die trying, but at least I could say I had attempted.

I am not the fastest of riders even on level ground, and as we started off I was seriously worried about holding the group back.  Over the first ten or so miles of rolling hills, I kept expecting an impossibly steep uphill to appear instantaneously before me.  Finally I asked someone, "where is it?"  "It starts here," someone responded.  It was a rather long, straight stretch of slightly steep uphill.  It didn't seem so bad.

Yeah, right.  First, my derailer, which had flawlessly moved the chain from the middle to the smallest ring back at the parking lot, now refused to do its job.  For a few feet or so I pedaled furiously while cursing at it under my breath and fiddling with the shifters.  No luck.  When I gave up on it and looked up again, I could still see the group in front of me.  Immediately after noting that, I dropped my sunglasses.  I stopped so I could walk back and get them.  By that time the group was farther ahead of me and the road was getting steeper.  I panicked and, still in the middle ring, tried approximately 2000 times to clip in, nearly falling over with each attempt.  I would never keep up, I anguished, and would eventually get lost in the Great Foothills Wilderness.   Finally I told myself that I would walk up to the next at-least-fairly-level spot and start from there.

I kept walking...and walking...and walking.  The hills got steeper, the turns tighter.  My mouth dropped open; I couldn't even imagine attempting to ride up such a road.  The grade and turns were unbelievable.  Finally I met up with the back of my bike...no, just kidding, though it did seem that way at times.  I never did find that spot to start riding again, until about 2/10 of a mile before the underpass.  When I got to the top, of course nearly everyone else was already there.  

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I walked The Wall.  And I am proud I could even do that.

But there was still another spot to worry about, the next climb called Happy Valley Road.  By then I'd have bet a hundred bucks that it wasn't going to make me very happy.  However, my derailer was in order again after a break at the top (thanks, Loren!) and the long cruise down into the valley was refreshing and helped to give me a little more confidence about the ride.  So I am happy to say that I managed to bike the entire length of Happy Valley, even though it is not as steep or twisty as The Wall.  But hey, you've got to start somewhere.  And I'm sure Mount Everest wasn't conquered in a day.