Mistakes were made. Again.
After a crap night of sleep, I made the mistake of believing the weather goof’s forecast and thought I could leave a bit later for my ride and still beat the heat. I was wrong… AGAIN.
The plan was to start from the Fred rail trail in Riverdale and do a 30-mile ride over Gratiot County dirt roads. And that plan started well enough.
I rolled down a mile of the Fred with tired legs with the new Gravel King 43c tires mounted up before heading onto dirt and gravel roads.
Despite heavy legs, I started to come around and got into the groove of riding over some roads I haven’t been on since last season.
Then, around the half-way point, the sun really started to cook me. The temperatures and humidity were not as predicted, and I began to plow through my bottles. I made the executive decision to cut my planned course from 30 miles down to about 23 or 25.
Not sure what I ended up with, because I had to restart my course and route on the Garmin and I haven’t had a chance to upload the files yet. Not that it matters, I was cooked like an Easter ham, and rolled back to the trailhead parking lot in a heap of my own suck.
Even with the tired legs and heat, I still managed to enjoy the ride. It’s hard not to enjoy a Saturday riding dirt and gravel roads on your bike and taking photos along the way. I would have like to have got a few more photos, but the black flies were biting right through my socks and bibs every time I stopped. Stupid Gratiot County flies!
[ngg src=”galleries” ids=”81″ display=”basic_thumbnail” number_of_columns=”2″]
Later.