May rides, may they all be wonderful

[north woods gal]

May day, today, and it's summer up here with temps in the 70s. All my trails are open, at last, and I'm riding trails I haven't even been able to see since last fall. Still some snow cover, but, I swear, I can see the snow disappear even as I watch it.

The last few days have been combo rides, with some neighborhood riding paved roads with my husband and then me going solo on the trails. The trails are all dirt, but still very soft and slow for riding, even in the dry sections. That will change as things continue to dry and I get things packed down a bit with my riding. All fat bike riding on the trails, so far. Keeps the soft trails from getting too rutted and way, way easier too pedal in the gooey stuff than a skinnier tire bike such as my 29 plus Surly Krampus. Can't wait for things to firm up and give the Krampus a good workout, though. Been riding fat bikes all winter. Need a little variety in my trail riding and the Krampus is a purebred trail bike, after all.

Have a great month, everyone! Let summer begin.

[emily_in_nc]

Wow, nwg, hard to imagine you having 70s up there -- what a change! So glad that you were able to ride some different trails. I hope your snow will continue to melt fast, though I know what mud season is, and it's not pretty.

Had a good May Day ride today on our usual route. A bit breezy but temps in the low to upper 70s over the course of three hours (same as in Wisconsin -- crazy!), sunshine, and continued low humidity, which won't last much longer here in central Florida! 36.3 miles on our ride, plus an extra mile or so cruising around the RV park on my cruiser bike later to take trash and go up to the office. Loving this weather!

[north woods gal]

Been another strange weather year, for sure. 70s for us is actually summer weather, not typical early May weather. We could still get snow. Have seen it, before.

I'm hoping to get out and do more road miles, this week, to give the trails a chance to dry a bit. Just wanted to ride a bit on the newly opened trails. One of my goals for this summer is to strike more of a balance between trail riding and road riding. I think both types of riding have their health benefits. I'm really more of an all around bicyclist at heart, anyway. Love all kinds of riding. Especially looking for more more gravel roads in the area to ride to add to the fun. Certainly have the bikes for them. Might sound crazy to you gals that have no choice but to ride in congested areas, but I also want to ride into our little town for some riding and shopping, maybe stop for a coffee, just noodling around. Be a nice change of pace to be around people and, yes, even some traffic, too, compared to my usual solo rides back in the woods or out on our lightly traveled rural roads where it's uncommon to see another bicyclist. Don't laugh, but I do get lonely out there on some of those rural roads. Sometimes a little spooked, too. Just me.

[emily_in_nc]

I get this, nwg. Although I relish light traffic days on the roads and bike paths, I also know what riding on deserted roads feels like. It can be a bit eerie at times, and as a woman, I remember a few rural solo rides where I felt a bit nervous when a pickup truck with a yahoo or two passed me. Only once I was harrassed, but it is a rather vulnerable feeling on occasion. Aside from that, sometimes it's just fun to see other cyclists out enjoying the same activity you are; there's a sense of camraderie. I always wave and/or say "good morning" to other riders here and notice that only about half reciprocate. But the friendly ones always leave me pedaling along with a smile on my face!

Our ride today will be a short one -- taking our Boston Terrier, Paisley, for a re-check at the vet in a few minutes. Did laundry all morning. Back to our usual longer rides tomorrow.

[Crankin]

I have experienced that scary, rural road feeling, too. We used to do a ride named the "Chicken Ride," as it went by a chicken farm. The ride starts on the edge of western MA, about an hour and 10 minutes from here. It's a really, really hard ride, but near the end, you are a road that is pretty flat to rolling and it feels like you are in the Deep South or Appalachia. Surprisingly, once you get just a little bit west of where I live, Massachusetts is very rural, punctuated by some small, older, industrial cities, or larger small towns, often around colleges or vacation areas. We were riding with our friends, and of course DH and the male half of our friend couple were ahead. I could not see them. My friend was far behind me. This was way before GPS; I had a cue sheet, andI knew they would wait at turns, but I got really freaked out when 2 guys in a pick up (of course) bearing right wing stickers and a gun rack pulled out of a ramshackle house, scaring me. They slowed when they got beside me and yelled all kinds of stuff. All I remember is when they yelled, "Nice azz!" When I got to the turn where DH was waiting, I told him, and it turned out they had yelled the same thing to DH and our friend! This was in 2005, so they may not have ever seen lycra. We still joke about this today.
Jealous of all of your riding. It's going to be 87 here today, but I had my colonoscopy this morning, so no riding today, or yesterday. Just starting to feel human, and I may go for a walk, before dinner. I will be out doing an early AM ride, when it will be in the 60s at 5:30 AM!

[north woods gal]

87 degrees, already? That's just nuts. Oh, I can handle 87 if I have time to adjust, but we just had a major snowstorm only a couple weeks, ago. Right now 60s feels hot.

Thanks for sharing your experiences with being harassed and your feelings about riding solo in remote places. It does make me feel better to know that I'm not being too sensitive. I do think a woman traveling solo in a remote area is vulnerable. A few years, back, when I was getting back into trail riding, I did a lot of trail riding back in a remote area not too far from us. Honestly, I could travel miles down logging roads, far from access roads, that hadn't seen a footprint in years. Just finding me if I ran into trouble would have been a challenge. Exciting and neat to be in such unspoiled places, but than I would stop and ask myself what an old gal like me was doing all alone in such places. Really not smart. It also violated one of the basic rules of wilderness travel about never traveling alone. Finally got to me and I called it quits on those kinds of rides. Wonder Woman I am not.

My solution was to build my own trails right at home on our property. Not as "adventurous, to be sure, but so much safer. Would love to go back to those remote places, but not going to do it solo if I do.