Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Canada Day Ride

I planned to take a longish ride today but the weather forecast was somewhat gloomy so I didn't get my hopes up. As the morning went on the sun made an appearance and the temperature climbed enough to get me moving. I pulled the clipless pedals from Jill and put them on Bridget, removed the front wheel and computer she shares with Eyowen, put her outside and lubed the chain. I wore long sleeves and something over my shorts since it really wasn't that warm. Before I even left the yard the speedometer wasn't reading and the clock was off. Rather than wasting more time I decided to just go without. I realized a few minutes later that I had no phone, no pump, no emergency goodies, just a bottle of water. Really not planning on leaving civilization I decided to go on without. I headed out through Westfort and down Rosslyn Road. Bridget's nice big tires and front shock smooth the ride nicely. I had always noticed Rosslyn Road continued right into Stanley but was gravel so I had never risked taking a skinny wheeler out there but had no excuses today. A few km past Rosslyn Village the road turns narrower and to gravel. Best of all there are zero cars. For more than 30 minutes I heard nothing but the tires crunching on dirt, the wind and a few birds. With a dead computer I wasn't worrying about average speed or how fast I was going I just enjoyed the ride. I love the farms along the Kam River and this trip I got to see them from both sides as I crossed over to River Road to start heading back to town. I decided to try another gravel road and came in on Candy Mountain Road and then Riverside Drive. The gravel didn't last long and a few turns had me wondering if I was heading the right way but since I was still going in the general direction I just plugged along and soon emerged on 61 and came in on Chipewa Road and then back through Westfort. 62 km in just under three hours so July is off to a good start. June was another failed month as fars as goals went and July will be tough to hit but we'll see. Birdget confirmed her place and now I need to fix a few things to get her into shape.

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