Day 16: A Full Day of Climbing!
September 25th, 2006Today was a climbing day! We covered the 113 miles with 8,300 ft of climbing over the Talimena parkway. This parkway runs from Oklahoma to Mena, Arkansas with 10-13% climbs and descents every 1/2 to 1 mile. Ned and I hit it hard all day, trying to get a good workout after many days of chit-chat flat, tailwind days. We covered the course in just about 7 hrs, including stops at 30, 50, 75 (lunch), and 98 mile marks. The parkway was really hard, feeling much like a roller-coaster ride from mile 59 to 108!!! It was beautiful scenery all along the parkway as you can see from the photos below. Tonight we are in Mena in heaven with a Super Wal-Mart, Sonic, McDonalds, Baskin-Robbins, etc. Tomorrow will certainly be a recovery day since it’s only 89 miles and about 3,500 ft of climbing to Arkadelphia. Once AGAIN, the weather was absolutely perfect with sunny, light winds all along the route.
Talimena Parkway from Oklahoma to Arkansas. 50 miles of constant 10-13% grades up and down- about .5 to 1 mile long segments. Absolutely beautiful.