It has been many years since my last ride east of the railroad tracks to Dayton. I couldn’t remember how far it was to Dayton and today was an exploratory ride to see how far it was. I rode over the railroad overpass and on to FM686. This was 20 miles from home and I decided this was far enough on this ride. I believe it is about 6 more miles to Dayton ans my legs were not up to adding 12 miles at this point. I made a wise decision because riding back back home on FM1960 from there the wind and tired legs made it a slow ride. The ride totaled 38.18 miles and it felt like 30 of them was into the wind. Riding east on FM1960 at the the top of the railroad overpass the wind buffeted me and the bike and later on when I returned going west I got it again. Throw in 3 or 4 miles of chip’n seal surface on the shoulder and it was a bumpy ride. The chip’n seal began at the Liberty County line going east. It lasted to the newer surface for the railroad overpass. The east bound shoulder was rougher than the west bound due to the businesses on that side. Lots of loose gravel and other stuff.
I slowly made my way back to Huffman from FM686 and took a rest break. I was hoping my legs would recover some and they did but the wind did not let up. After a couple of snacks and some sport drink I took off on the last 11 miles. Getting up from my seat on the curb under the gas pump canopy at the Huffman Chevron took some extra effort since I was enjoying the sun and the rest. I was hanging in there with the wind coming from my left side. As I reached the beginning of the causeway over Lake Houston the wind seemed stronger but it was probably the lack of anything to break the wind. About 2/3 of the way across the lake I saw another biker stopped working on his rear tire. I stopped to see if he needed any help. He thanked me and said he was okay. Restarting slowly I headed to Atascocita Shores Drive and a right turn that hopefully would put the wind (variable at 6 mph with 16 mph gusts) at my back. From there to home the wind was not so bad as I rode between houses and some trees.
My average speed was pretty low overall at 14.5 mph. At one point as I approached the FM686 turnaround it was up to 15.0 mph.
Partly cloudy skies and 86 degrees made for good riding although when the sun went behind the clouds I was glad I wore a long sleeve jersey.
Weather at the FM686 turnaround
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