I have an Epic Expert 29er. I like the larger wheels, especially at my 6'3" height.

20 miles, two bottles of water.

63 with a first. Around the 51 mile mark on the way home I was using the Rail Trail as a shortcut back closer to home I ran across a cow blocking the path.
A couple of cyclists and 1 runner was standing around wondering what to do. Another cyclist came up and just kept going the cow moved off the trail and away we went.
I went up the trail to the cross road and went to the closest house and it happened to be the owner of the cow and he was thankful I told him his cow was out. He told me a tree had fallen down and opened up three sections of fence and was not aware any of his cows had escaped as the opening was on the other side of the property.

Cows are not too common around here btw.
[IMG]http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f6...0821011110.jpg[/IMG]
Sorry for the bad picture , older cell phone.

I messed with the pic a bit. Sorry, but I couldn't turn my head sideways :)

http://www.ourwebs.info/cowontrail.jpg

Had an unusual cycling morning that turned out very well. I had not seen my cycling friend, Andries, for a few weeks and we chatted for 30 minutes to start the ride. Then, after an hour of cycling, we picked up the pace and made the return trip with 50% more speed than the outbound leg.

It was an excellent ride, actually. My wife and I really enjoyed it. We will definitely have to do it again.


Late post: I should have cleared up something. He rode to the parking lot where we were at and then home after the ride so he had around 8 extra miles.

DnvrFox,

Thanks

Oh you city boys. The pic is a bit fuzzy but that is not a cow. I know about these things as I worked on a dairy farm during high school years. Sure that was 55 years ago but I remember the, umm... salient points of that situation.

berner,
you are of course correct.
I did in fact call it a cow but knew it was a bull.
So were you call bull on my story?

Very astute.

Today was a fine club ride in an area that is new to me. The choice of routes covered a 34 mile, a 54 mile, a 75 mile, a 100 mile and a double metric at 125 mile loops. Most of the route was not that far outside of Boston, maybe ranging 30 to 50 miles from the city limits. The terrain varied from cranberry bogs (agricultural) to very nice residential, where homes were nestled in quiet and wooded roads to quite a few miles through lovely and peaceful state forrest lands.

The club doea not provide ride leaders. Instead it just provides a route, with clear arrows on the road and a map at the start or which can be downloaded. This means that it is possible to make available a large variety of ride distances for just about any level of fitness. I rode 54 miles today and finished about the same time as some of the century riders. I also began just over an hour before everybody else.

Yesterday, I rode 44.48 miles with the "fast fellas"! I was the only gal, so I was obliged to try to keep up. I averaged 14.7 MPH over the distance, but I did get dropped a few times. The fellas were real gentlemen, though, and gathered me back up several times (I felt bad that they had to shepherd me like that). The final 15 miles or so was into a stiff 20 MPH head wind, and the guys did their best to keep me mid pack or towards the front and sheltered. I did my best to make sure I wasn't slowing them down! Afterwards, several of us went to dinner, and they bought me my meal. What a group of gentlemen! What a fine day.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/108090544

The wife and I did a 40mi breakfast ride. Hit a strong head wind on the way back.
She likes to ride the 40mi on a mountain bike.

So . . . . .

What did you have for breakfast?

I rode out to Purceville VA on the WO&D with a friend. He was trying out his new BMC frame. I was concerned about the distance (about 45 miles) but he encouraged me and it was a great ride.
I wore my 50+ jersey and took my light Colnago steel framed bike. The bike was fantastic, the weather hot but dry, and the scenery great.

Bacon egg and cheese croissant

Went out today and did 27 miles on my hybrid with another old coot, (58) and two young un's (48) on mountain bikes, in the Cleveland, Ohio Metro Park Trails. Managed to dodge the rain drops as well.

I did some backroad wandering on the Casseroll this afternoon. Someone told me about a paved route between two nearby towns, Haddock and Gray, that I had never been able to connect without using some dirt roads (short of riding the busy highways). The route was roundabout and rough, but it was paved. After stopping at a store in Gray, I came back using dirt roads part of the way. It was fun, but after 44 miles with lots of little hills, rough pavement and gravel scattered dirt, I was pretty tired. Leftovers tasted great.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/108422906

Weather station said it was going to be in the 90s, but it didn't feel that hot. 45 miles on my usual route.

Rode a total of 76 miles over the weekend. Practicing for the Hilly Hundred!

You guys were lucky, we were under a severe thunderstorm warning, practically all weekend, about 150km south of here, in Goderich, ON they got nailed by a tornado (high F2 to low F3) and nearly the whole downtown of this once pretty town, is now a disaster area. I don't ride if there is a warning out, my original plan was a nice ride to the beach on Saturday, 50km/h winds and the warning put the kibosh on that.

Sounds like a worthwhile adventure.

yes and I am whooped. Gonna be a long way back. 51 and sore.

In retrospect I guess my momma was right - riding a bicycle when the heat index is 107 is ill-advised. But I did it yesterday anyway and suffered for it. Pretty day though in spite of the heat; storm clouds to the south but bright sun overhead. Lots of birds busy along the hilly route out to Pinnacle Mountain. I guess most everyone else thought the storms would be farther north and stayed home as the park was empty. A few true athlete riders zipped past me now and then, and some Huffy riders out for a Sunday spin. The last 7 miles back to the car was a lesson in humility; 99 degrees and sunny, riding straight into 10-15 mph breeze, and even though it was flat ground I was on the 39-tooth ring and in the middle of the cassette all the way back - the first time I've used the small ring on the River Trail in months. *sigh* I'm so ashamed... but beer and ice cream made it all better when I got home.

Oh - 50 miles, couldn't guess the elevation shifts but it's not much. I don't have a bike computer. Frankly, most of the time I just don't want to know what it would tell me.

No ride today, but yesterday I had a nice 53-miler, all by my lonesome, from home in Indy up past Noblesville to Cicero and back via points west. Took some new roads to new destinations, found a nice breakfast spot for future reference, got caught in a pretty heavy shower for 20 minutes or so, and had a flat on the return leg at about mile 35. That return leg also featured a nice tailwind that had me toodling along very comfortably at 19-20 - fast for me. Here's the ride data.