Whether rightly or not, I'm more freaked out by dogs than bears. Dogs are people-oriented, like to chase things, can be territorial, etc. Off the bike, I've had some bad run-ins with them (luckily nothing on the bike yet). Whereas the bears, since I was a little ways away, didn't care about me at all--I don't even know that they bothered to look at me. There were more interesting things going on for them, like yummy plant bits to nibble... Still, I was sure glad that I had noticed the mom coming out of the trees soon enough to stop when/where I did...

It has been a chunk of challenging stuff on my bike for me. It's been fun, and I'm also hoping I will get some strength and stamina gains out of pushing myself like this. But I know that strength gains come from the body's rebuilding during rest, so I'm typing this while lying on the couch--and no big rides for a few days!

Crankin, 15 miles at 5AM counts as tough in my book! I think if you told me that I had to do that tomorrow, I'd just curl up in the fetal position and cry