4th of July Rides

[divingbiker]

Kalidurga, MDHillSlug, Regina and her husband, my neighbors Anna and Julie, and I did a 9.75 mile MTB ride in Rosaryville State Park. As usual, it was great fun. This was MDHS's first ride in the woods, on her new Jamis Coda Comp with knobby tires. I overcame my jitters after about 3-4 miles, as this was my first MTB ride after my face plant a few weeks ago.

[MomOnBike]

DH & I tried out a new trail south from Lincoln to parts still unknown. We stopped at noon in a little town for hamburgers and iced tea (and to cool off it was a bit on the warm side today).

We didn't make it to the end of the trail, as I have work to do and DH has to get ready to travel tomorrow. It's on the list, though, perhaps an over-nighter in Beatrice, the next town on.

The trail is a bit new, we had to walk our bikes over some bad bridges and ignore "Road Closed" signes, but we had a good time. Speeds were slow, as we were on gravel the whole way, but that's OK.

The root beer floats were nice, too.

[luvs2ride]

DH and I went riding around our house. It's a 20 mile loop that we do a lot. We started around 8 am to beat the heat (it's over 100 today !!!!). As we were going up Mt. Baldy Road from Mills we saw some guys in a truck with mountain bikes in the back pulled over and looking at something in the bushes. We didn't stop but we were going to slow enough (as it's a steep uphill at this point) to see the cutest little black bear !!! Maybe he/she was trying to beat the heat too! Anyway, we kept riding and about 5 minutes or so later, pulled over to fix a flat on my bike. Well wouldn't you know that this was the time the mountain bike guys started honking their horn at the bear. All we could think of was the bear running up to where we were, etc. I have to say that that was the quickest tire I've ever seen DH change !! We were off uphill to the turn off towards Euclid Avenue to finish the rest of our ride without incident. Where is a camera when you really need one !?! Watch out Jiffers and Fredwina as I know you frequent this road a lot yourselves!!
Happy 4th to all !

Blessings!
Susan

[Triskeliongirl]

DH and I joined our LBC for a special 4th of July ride in Fredericksburg, a quaint old German town in the texas hill country. Last night storms were predicted, so we were sure it was going to be cancelled, but at 6am things looked good so we headed out (bit of a drive). We started with a really nice ride at 8:30, I did the 38 and DH the 50 so we could get back at the same time. A couple that just had a baby couldn't decide who would get to ride and who would have to babysit, so they decided to share the ride and run a rest stop since it was so rural there were no convenience stores to get water at. She rode the first 25 miles, and then relieved him at the rest stop, well stocked with hydration and snacks. In fact, she even ended up loaning her wheel to a gal with a bad tire failure. Another cycling spouse took the older children of the other riding couples to the parade, so they could ride together instead of having to switch off to babysit. Then we all met at a restaurant for a really nice lunch afterwards, joined by some of the non-cycling family members. We did get rained on during the final 2 miles, but all in all a fun day was had by all! It was nice to ride in a different place, and the route that was selected was incredibly pretty and traffic free. I should have taken a camera to share!

[HillSlugger]

Kalidurga, MDHillSlug, Regina and her husband, my neighbors Anna and Julie, and I did a 9.75 mile MTB ride in Rosaryville State Park. As usual, it was great fun. This was MDHS's first ride in the woods, on her new Jamis Coda Comp with knobby tires. I overcame my jitters after about 3-4 miles, as this was my first MTB ride after my face plant a few weeks ago.

Yes, my first dirt ride and boy did the bike look it. I had to hose it down before I took it into the house.

I was an absolute newbie, riding the least competent bike of the group.

I also had the distinction to be the only one to fall, twice, (but we won't talk about the first one). I have a bruised right hip, but my left ankle came through it all fine.

Check out these dirty legs!

[Jo-n-NY]

I rode with my bike club in the towns parade. It is sure hard to ride at 2mph lol.
I have to say this was a lot of fun. We put the American Flag on our bikes and gave bike pins to all the kids.

I rode to there from home so at least I got to some regular riding in there also.

~ JoAnn

[SadieKate]

Sorry for the grainy quality. I had to just shoot at the portion of the field she was in and hope for the best after a lot of trimming. I was strategically positioned in front of our new Peets Coffee so as to catch her after the ride, baiting the trap so to speak.

[SadieKate]

Easy to get in the mood around here in July.

[tygab]

did a 26 mile loop around our house and we took some new roads (not a preplanned, we just went). It's been nice to expand our riding territory this year. Today's route was much flatter than what we've been riding the past several times out but we still managed to log decent elevation gain. There were no dirt roads today... the sun was out and it was very warm for the early part of the ride so we eventually worked our way back to more backroads with trees. Phew. Had a good ride overall.

We got back to the house, changed, and got our kayaking gear together as we met up with friends and headed out for a few hours of paddling. During this time it got overcast and rainy, but we all had rainjackets and it was still a great time. The nice thing about kayaking in the rain is it drives a lot of people away. We had many sections of the water all to ourselves. It stopped for a while, and then just as we hit the boat ramp it started again.

So, a tale of two activities, two types of weather, and all in all perfect.

Oh, in ref to above comment... we've been "finding" dirt roads on a lot of our more exploratory rides recently... the below is a pic of me on one from Sunday's ride. This one was not rideable, but luckily we knew it was a short connector to pavement and just walked it.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/m750/684951499/