Long miles and burning legs

So the other day I decided to do a long haul ride that I had been planning to do since last year. Ok so when I say long haul people might think 100-150 miles. Well the long haul I decided to do was 41 miles. Not nearly long enough to be considered a "long haul," but for me it is since I usually ride around 20 miles on normal day.
I chose this route because it has a nice mountain to climb, but I only have to climb it once (to get back I just ride through a valley). It also took me into a bordering county that I've only ridden in once, and on top of that a portion of the county I've never been. Although much of the scenery is the same whether I'm in Perry county or Juniata (the bordering county) I like seeing new places and doing it by bike allows you to slow down and see "more."
As I started out I felt really good. I wasn't getting winded and my legs weren't feeling tired at all. As I started to climb the mountain 10 miles in (this is the same mountain I climbed in my last post, but I climbed the front side this time) I was really surprised at how good I felt. Now the front side of this mountain isn't nearly as bad as the back side, but I still had plenty of energy even after getting to the top. At that point I thought "hmm maybe I should turn this into a half century," but being cautious and only 13 miles in I decided to wait and make that decision later. Thank goodness I did. At about mile 28 and having ridden over about 8 miles of a hilly rough back road my legs were finally starting to feel the burn. It was then that an 80s hit song by Oliva Newton John popped into my head. I'm sure everyone is familiar with her wildly popular song "Physical" (in case you're not). Ok so the lyrics didn't really fit with what I was doing, but it seemed appropriate at the time.
Luckily after I got out onto a main road it was - literally - smooth sailing from there. There weren't very many hills and I didn't get any vibration from the road. Nothing wears me out more than rough gravely road, not even hills. However, the damage had been done and I knew I wasn't going to be able to do the half century. In fact toward the end even small hills that normally wouldn't give me much trouble had me shifting to lower gears to make it to the top.
Although the last 8 or 9 miles were a little tough and had my legs exhausted by the end I had a great ride, got to see some new sights, and I get to say I road 41 miles in one ride... but most of all I get to say I didn't have to call Bec to pick me up!


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Loysville

A common sight in Perry County

Some nice PA trees (picture is mostly for Alan)

Who knew there was this nice little hideaway in the
western back woods of Perry County