July Rides

[emily_in_nc]

This morning before our longer road ride we loaded up the Bike Friday panniers and rode the 4 miles over to the recycling place here, since there's no pickup where we're staying. It was a fun little ride and a good warm up for our longer ride. 8 miles for the recycling ride and 39 for the road ride. The wind was finally lighter than it's been recently, and the temperature was lower as well -- 70s! All in all, an excellent day.

Panniers loaded with recycling, plus mixed paper/cardboard strapped on top of DH's rack:

Attachment 17283

[Irulan]

I did some exploring this weekend. I finally found some trails in an area that DH likes to go for whitewater boating. Now I've got something to do besides being shuttle bunny.

There was some of this


and some of this


and on one trail, a whole lot of this:

[roo4]

Irulan, that is gorgeous! Enjoy exploring.

[emily_in_nc]

Wow, gorgeous, but you are brave! Those look like hiking trails to me. I am such an MTB weenie!

[marni]

not only are the seasonal salt/sweat circles on the garage floor back, but so are the triple digits. Finished the standard training ride of 40 miles at 10:00 AM and the temps was 93 with 100% humidity- Definitely at least a "feels like" of at least 105. sigh......

[Catrin]

Woah! Those are some awesome mtb trails! I suspect I would be afraid WALKING a couple of them :-)

[Crankin]

I went on a group ride today. It's about 91 degrees with 47% humidity. I questioned my sanity, but it's local, led by someone I ride with and know, and there was a catered lunch afterwards. I correctly chose not to ride to the start, as that would have been close to 50 miles and I knew I would not want to ride home in this weather, after lunch.
So, this is the group that uses human arrows; since I know the area and the leader, I vounteered to arrow on the second turn. Took me awhile to catch back up, after the sweep went by, but, I did. Then, about a mile after that, Jack, the leader, missed a turn, despite having a GPS. One of the safety coordinators for the club yelled out, "Who has a GPS that can ride with Jack and you don't have to arrow." I volunteered, and made everyone happy. However, when we got to a hill in Westford, on a busy street, I got dropped a bit and few of the faster guys stayed with him, until I caught up. I stayed at the back of the front group until he missed another turn, and I yelled out, got the 4-5 guys to reel him in and we turned around. By this time, despite the shady roads, I felt crappy, despite drinking my Skratch and one Shot Block. When we turned onto a street that was in full sun, I finally pulled over, dumped water over my head, and went on. So now, I could see no one. One guy had been behind me, but he went ahead. The whole ride was in familiar territory, so I slowed down. Finally, affter making 2 turns and seeing the human arrows, someone caught up with me. We were almost back, and voilá, there was Jack with one other guy. The 4 of us got to a left turn with a steep little uphill, that I hate, someone else took the arrow post and I took the next one, which was the second to last turn. I got to stand and point the way, under a shady tree, and down what was left of my water and Skratch. I was there awhile, and then I rode back to the start with the sweep.
I don't think I've ever sweat so much. I brought a skort to change into and I could not stop sweating when I was changing, cleaning up. Ate a chicken breast with mushrooms and some salad and had a well deserved beer.
It's really ugly out there. 35.5 miles and Ilearned a nice route that I can make into a 50 miler from my house.