SadieKate,

I ride both, though I fancy the road a bit more. I ride up at Fleming Meadows too...love it up there cuz I can just do butt kicking laps (I'm still pretty new to the whole MTB thing, so it's a good place for me to "practice"). A fun long ride mostly on dirt roads is the Snow Mill Road loop, which starts in the same area. Done that one?

15-18 is fine by me. The group I ride with consists mostly of men, several of them very talented riders. Every now and then I get sucked into their 22-23 mph matches...and usually can't keep it up unless they are dragging my butt!

By the way, check out the website of our local rides at www.beautifulvista.com. I think the snow mill loop is on there.

Wind...We don't get much of that up in the hills and whenever I go ride somewhere where it's normal, it always flips me out ("HEY...what the heck is THAT??? )

y