A dirt road to far

This morning I went on my what mostly has become a almost dailey bike ride. The picture showing a old dirt road was taken on todays bike ride.

Now the story. Last week I was scouting a route that I thought would be a safe route from home to liberty hill SC, a distance of around 15 miles. Part of the route went over this dirt road. I had a feeling that this road was going to be dirt that is the main reason why I scouted it first before attempting to ride it. Good thing I did. The road is very steep even though it does not look like in the photo. It has a lot of lose gravel which would make roads tires not do well on the steep climbs. I marked this road as very unsuitable for biking unless it was on a mountain bike which I seldom ride now.

You think that after I scouted this road I would be sure and not put it on any of my cycling routes. Wrong I inadvertly added it to my todays route, a big mistake. This road name Rocky Creek Road is 2.1 miles long and it was uphill almost all the way, I mean really uphill. When I got to the start of this road I realized my mistake but it was to late. It was the way home unless I travel unfamiliar roads which I did not want to do. Doing so I would have extended my bike ride by several miles the distance to home. I was tired to do this and so I started up this road. My worst fears had materialized. Some of the climbs was so steep that my rear tire was slipping out from under me. It was so bad that I feared that I would crashed and get hurt. So I resorted to something that I have never done before. I got off the bike and pushed it up the hills rather than take a chance on falling and hurting my already bad leg. It was humilating to say the least but sometimes you have to what have to do.

By the time I got to the end of this dirt road I was totally exhausted and my neck started to huring real bad like a it did a couple days ago. I now was only three miles from home but I could no longer hold my head up to see where I was going. I did the only thing I could do and called my wife on the cell phone to come and get me. Thank goodness for cell phones.