AZ, those sound like the kind of adventures DH and I had last year. We rode on some crazy steep and unpaved forest roads that left me saying "never again"! But nice that you got to see birds!

We broke down and bought a bike trainer (used to have two of them but gave them away when we moved to Belize in 2011). Now we can "ride" inside our motorhome, as the place we're staying now is not bike friendly at all, and I'm not ready for the road yet anyway. So today DH put my mountain bike on it, and I rode for 30 minutes, my first "ride" in the 6 weeks since my jaw- and thumb-breaking accident. Felt pretty good (for a trainer ride, anyway, not a big fan!) I didn't push it since it was my first ride but still worked up a light sweat, so that's a good thing.