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Andrea and I returned to Mt. Magazine today to compete in the Tour of Arkansas [I apologize for the video intro, they should allow you to link around it, but they don't...] which starts/finishes at the lodge on top tomorrow morning. Last time we were here (with Mark and Jarret), it was about 30F and gloomy… that was back in February. The course the route takes tomorrow will be somewhat familar since we rode Paris-Mt Magazine-Havana-Mt Mag – Paris last time… this time we will be starting on the mountain and going down to Paris and looping around to climb up from the Havana side (south side).

I booked a room at the lodge for tonight and I now realize I might have made a mistake in only booking one night… our crits are late (hers is the earliest at 11am), so I requested to stay another night…on the waiting list since they are full. Our room overlooks the valley below and the lodge is beautiful inside… sort of clean rustic look. It is $134/night, but I would gladly pay for another night it is so nice up here.

Andrea and I also rode around after we got here to remind ourselves of the last couple miles… It is a much better circumstance than last time when we were borderline hypothermic. I am glad we rode to loosen up the legs and to notice that my headset it loosening up as well! I tightened it after Brookhaven (about 3 weeks ago) and didn’t notice anything until today… I rode it the rain, maybe that had something to do with it? I took it back to the car and re-tightened it and it held well for the riding around that followed (albeit not that much). I will check it tonight to see if it is still good…

After riding up the last couple miles, we looped back to check out the overlook. We took some photos….

and after she knocked my bike over….