For the first time in many days I biked two days in a row. I drove north to New Caney and parked at Brookshire Brothers. Later on this turned out to be a good choice. Unpacking the Stradalli from the jeep I set off on the “New Caney – Grangerland – New Caney” route going through Roman Forest, north on Tram Road and FM2090 west to Grangerland. When I got to New Caney I took a screen shot of the weather:
New Caney weather at the start of the ride
If you look closely at the map there are patches of rain around the area. The sky was cloudy and it was really humid. I was hoping the rain would move away and not be a problem.
Rolling north on the US59 service road from Brookshire Brothers I made a right turn onto Roman Forest Blvd. If I omit this the route is less than 30 miles long and I wanted to ride at least 30 or more. Today’s ride met my goal at 32.33 miles. All went well through Roman Forest and I turned left on Tram Road. This takes me to FM2090 east of Splendora. The last time I rode Tram Road I had a dog sprint at Rio Vista. I was alert as I approached the street for Rio Vista but no dog this time. Mistakenly I thought I would be free all the way to FM2090. Around the 6.5 mile point two dogs charged out of two different lots barking and fast. The black one was ahead of me on the left and the white was to my left rear. I thought the black dog had it made to get me since I was going towards him and the white was slightly disadvantaged by my going away from him. The black dog slowed as I approached and stopped long enough for me to get past him. Looking in my mirror I could see the two dogs in maybe a territory conflict where they seemed to forget about me which was fine. I had sped up getting past them and they didn’t put much effort trying to come after me.
I made it to FM2090 without any more dogs. Going west on FM2090 to Splendora I waved at another biker going the opposite direction. This is unusual to see another biker east of Splendora but I do see some west of US59.
My average speed was building up as I rode west on FM2090. By the time I got to Grangerland I was averaging 16.0 mph. Part of the reason was another dog sprint around the 18.5 mile point. I was riding along minding my own thoughts when a large brown dog (lots of different dog colors today) dashed from the high grass on the right. He was growling and sounded like he wanted to catch a bicyclist but I think the high grass slowed him down too much and I sprinted away without too much effort. He gave up after about 100 feet. Thank goodness the grass was not mowed.
Reaching Grangerland I stopped at the traffic light at FM3083. The light sensors did not recognize me so I waited until a break in the traffic to cross over to the left. Next goal was the Valero station at FM1485, FM3083 and Old Houston Road. This was about 2 miles from Grangerland. I stopped at the Valero station for a rest break at about 22.5 miles into the ride. A couple of snacks and some Gatorade revived me for the 10 miles back to New Caney. While I was resting the clouds to the south got darker threatening rain but by the time I left they had lightened up some. Maybe I would not get rained on.
To add some miles I took Old Houston Road south to SH 242 and then east to FM1485. When I turned right on FM1485 I started to feel some light rain drops. The Garmin screen confirmed the rain. After about 2 miles the pavement was wet and the few drops increased but not enough to get me any wetter than the humidity did. By the time I got to Gene Campbell Road the rain stopped and the road was dry. The only result from the rain was dirty my bike. When I got home I washed it.
The ride started at 11:29 and I returned to Brookshire Brothers at 2:04. The parking lot was wet in many places from rain while I was gone. I loaded the bike in the Jeep, dried up some of the sweat and headed south on US59. The closer I got to Kingwood (about 12 miles from my home) rain started coming down. As I drove into Kingwood the streets were wet. It looked like it had rained some (home weather station said .12″). Now I was glad I went north to bike. If I had went south and east I would have got soaked.
Tomorrow doesn’t look favorable for riding. Rain percentage is over 60% for most of the day.
New Caney at the ride end
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