The last time I biked was September 12th. We traveled to Ohio, Manhattan, Cape Cod, Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket during that time. We drove over 4,000 miles and I didn’t really exercise that much if I don’t count walking around Manhattan with my son-in-law. I wondered if my legs would be up to a semi-strenuous ride today. I was pleasantly surprised that I could get on my bike, stay upright and clip into the pedals without falling over and ride 34.5 miles averaging 15.1 mph.
I got ready to leave and as I was walking to the back door I noticed the driveway was getting wet from rain. To confirm this I went to the back door and could hear the rain hitting the fabric on our patio cover. Checking the weather radar there was a tiny cloud just above our house. The rain didn’t last too long and with the 84 degree temperature I figured the streets would dry off quickly.
Rolling out the driveway at 11:01 I headed to Elm Grove Village in Kingwood. The trails were damp in places and when I reached the streets they were wet but no standing water. By the time I rode through Sherwood Trails Village and back to Hunters Ridge Village the water was drying off the streets. It looked like a 1 mile radius from my house was where the rain fell.
Heading to Huffman I decided to lengthen the route some by going south on Kings Park Way to Atascocita Road and then into several subdivisions before riding to Walden. I didn’t know there was an early release from the elementary schools with cars lined up around the two schools I rode by. The kids were not out yet so everyone stayed in place and I rode around them.
It was good to get to the Huffman Chevron at the 22.4 mile mark to rest, cool off, eat a trail mix bar and sit in the shade. My legs were ready. After about 35 minutes I was back on the bike to ride back home. I got home at 2:02 with the sky partly cloudy and no sign of the earlier showers. In Huffman far to the east the clouds looked like they held some rain though. The temperature was 84 when I got home. It was nice to get to the warm weather. During our trip the temperature usually was in the 70’s or below.
We stopped at two places on the return back home: Gettysburg and Rock City in Lookout Mountain, GA (Chattanooga area). Gettysburg was a historical immersion in the Civil War at the Gettysburg National Military Park. We spent the afternoon at the museum. I highly recommend this. The stop at Rock City was a revisit from 2011 when we went before in heavy rain. This time we wanted to see it dry. We were successful except as we were leaving it started to rain. While we were in Chattanooga we saw many bikes. An Ironman was there for the weekend and Sunday was the wrap up. When we tried to take some streets back to our hotel we were blocked by the police watching the course. As we waited to turn around a number of competitors passed. Driving south on I-81 from Pennsylvania we saw many cars and SUV’s carrying mountain bikes. On Nantucket the Steamship Authority ferry taking us back to Hyannis a van with many bikes on top and a trailer also with many bikes on top from Back Roads Bike Tours was waiting to board. Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket had several bike shops renting bikes of all kinds. Bike trails on the islands were evident.
Saturday I am planning on riding the Pineywoods Purgatory in Lufkin (see the Texbiker.net event calendar). I like this ride for the change in terrain. The hills are challenging on the 65 mile route. Friday I will ride some more to judge my fitness after the time off. I hope they respond like today. I probably will not get to ride tomorrow though. This could be a good thing to allow a little recovery from today’s ride.
The Ride Collection Tree Map chart below depicts the routes I ride and the number for the year. The larger the area the more times I ride this route.
