Listen, while I was doing the 100K at the Chili Pepper ride in south Dallas
last year, the route went up part of Cedar Hill.  There were people standing
and sitting on the side of the road, panting, and others walking their bikes
up.  I was so proud that I made it up without stopping even if I was in the
third chain ring granny gear and that armadillo passed me.  Of course, I was
barely alive, but when you reach the top, you can coast down.  That was
scary, too, because I reached up to 35 MPH going down.  At that speed, every
speck on the rock looks like a boulder and you start to look for soft places
to land on the side of the road--just in case.  Near the end of the ride,
after 42 miles, there was a loop to be taken for the 100K route, and at the
previous rest stop, I heard many people telling each other to ignore the
loop and just finish the ride.  I thought, "Hey, I paid for 100K and I'm
going to do 100K!"  When I got to the loop turn off, there was only 1 person
ahead of me.  As it turned out, evidently the two of us were the only ones
doing the loop.  Down the street and around the corner to the right---and it
was the same d@#$n hill again! It wasn't the smartest move of my life nor
the most pleasant. I overheated and had to stay 20 minutes at the final rest
stop before I could do the home stretch back to the rec center...I nearly
passed out at the rest stop and the EMT people were circling like vultures.

So, take your bike and check out the area around Lake Joe Pool that goes
toward Cedar Hill.

Pat in TX