8/16 Ride report

[crazybikinchic]

Thankfully the Dallas area wasn't getting any rain today, but the weather was absolutely fabulous. We did 85 miles, with the weather in the 80's. We have been having 100+, so we were relieved.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Great pictures, everyone!

Mudmucker- those roads are just like the ones around my area!- often no shoulders at all and loaded with cracks, debris, patches, and potholes. Ah, the benefits of the freeze/thaw seasonal cycles.

I liked Divingbiker's photos too.

[Zen]

We saw lots of birds--bald eagles, great blue herons, green herons, a kestrel, there were more but I'm not a bird person so I don't remember.

Kingfisher.

Mudmucker, your ride looks lovely. I like that barn too.
The "complete with desolation" look is kind of scary though. It makes me think of a Stephen King story.

[LBTC]

Ouch, our ride was a sufferfest! I was hungover, we started at about 1pm in 99 degree heat and still did our planned 35 mile ride....it usually takes about 2 hours and we were 15 minutes slower. Considering how hard it was, I thought the time was pretty good.

So, that makes me stronger, right???

Great photos and stories everyone! I love hearing how you feel stronger and faster and seeing the cool places you've been. Oh, and we have roads like that on all of our rides.

Hugs and butterflies,
~T~

[Fredwina]

I "only" did 117 miles today

[fastdogs]

I went to rolla and rode the mtb trail at lion's club park. I had a limited amount of time and since it's only 4 miles it was perfect. There was only one other person riding it, and we never actually crossed paths (it sounded like he was going VERY fast). I did it faster than before but still walked over one very muddy creek, the same one we walked before. My forerunner said I averaged 8 mph, which doesn't sound like much, but since I averaged 6.2 ON THE ROAD on one hilly ride, it's not bad for me!! I felt like I was flying, but slowed down for the places where the trees are only barely wide enough for the handlebars to go through.
vickie

[Aggie_Ama]

We did 9 miles of mountain biking. It was the first mountain ride that left me excited about the sport and even squealing with glee at the fun I was having.

Forecast is rain today which we desparately need, I just looked outside and there is lots of sunshine.

[BikeDutchess]

We did a club sunset/moonrise ride on Antelope Island last night. What a blast! Riding between the herds of buffalo did not seem as intimidating in the dark because they really were just dark blobs in the fields on both sides - until one got up to cross the road that is! That seems like a good point to turn around & go back. It was so cool to ride with the full moon. At one point we turned our front lights off for a bit to just ride in the moonlight - no cars around either, just moon shadows. Almost ran into another buffalo crossing the road!

The only bad part was getting eaten alive by mosquitos when loading the bikes back onto the car at the end. And why am I always the only one that gets bitten??

[mudmucker]

Mudmucker- those roads are just like the ones around my area!- often no shoulders at all and loaded with cracks, debris, patches, and potholes. Ah, the benefits of the freeze/thaw seasonal cycles.

Yah. That and most of the places along this route are so removed, not heavily populated, and don't lead to anywhere. I mean, there is no reason to travel some of these roads because they don't lead to major towns or have food stores or retail, so they aren't high on a priority list for repair/new pavement. Basically, the locals travel them and everyone else uses them to get lost. These towns are much less wealthy than most of the communities in the commonwealth. Although towns across the US have their share of fiscal woes, these towns have annual budgets less than those towns that have no budgets. I don't think they'll get paved any time soon.

[Crankin]

I used to think that was true, but Lincoln, one of the richest towns in the state has horrible roads, worse than what you have in your pictures. They just don't care. Most of the people have lived there for years, are proud of being frugal to the extreme, and don't want "outsiders" using their roads to begin with! That is one of the reasons I don't ride in one direction from my house because I have to go through Lincoln.
Littleton is even worse, although it is not in the financial category.

[7rider]

I used to think that was true, but Lincoln, one of the richest towns in the state has horrible roads, worse than what you have in your pictures. They just don't care. Most of the people have lived there for years, are proud of being frugal to the extreme, and don't want "outsiders" using their roads to begin with! That is one of the reasons I don't ride in one direction from my house because I have to go through Lincoln.
Littleton is even worse, although it is not in the financial category.

I used to feel that the generally crappy roads on the North Shore were the locals' way of having cheap speed bumps. If the roads are bad enough, you'll have to slow down....which is just the way they want it.

[BabyBlueNTulsa]

That cracked road looks exactly like a lot of the pavement on my usual routes! One must pay attention or you'll go down in a hurry. Yikes!

I did much of a usual route of mine - except I did it in reverse. Wow..talk about an eye opener! #1, it made it look nearly like a new route hitting it from a different direction. #2....it was a LOT harder! I thought it was hilly the other direction - sheesh...

I added a few different turns and roads to the beginning and end of my usual Saturday route to make it extra interesting. The really intresting part is that usually this route (in the other direction) gets the tough hill work out of the way in the first 90 minutes. Going in the reverse direction seemed like I had hillwork throughout the whole ride. Sufferfest served up by my own hand...err...feet?

50.5, 3100ft climbing, 14.6mph avg (the top grade in my hillwork sufferfest was 14%)

[withm]

I think I've paddled a canoe up that way. Not to be outdone, my friend Annette and I did a short ride around Trap Pond State Park Saturday, and Paddled it on Sunday. Trap Pond is the home of the northernmost bald cypress trees in North America. It was a pretty cool place.

These are cell phone pix... so I apologize for the quality, but the cypress trees are really awesome.

If there is interest from the Mid-Atlantic crowd to do a camp-out with biking and kayaking either there or even at Assateague this fall these are great places to base bike and/or kayak outings.

Trap Pond is near Laurel, DE and might be a good place for the SeaGull riders to consider camping if motels are booked up, or want to keep the costs down - about 16 miles from Salisbury. Campsites are $24/night for DE residents or $28 for non residents. Seniors get a small discount.

Here's a couple photos of the cypress swamp...