KINGDOM TRAILS

July 16, 2014 I headed out to East Burke to try the Kingdom Trails.  Awesome.  Riding through the woods was a lot of fun.  The "medium" trails were probably the best.  I saw very few other bikers (it was a Thursday morning) but the first two who passed me disappeared into the woods VERY quickly.  I have no idea how they went on the fairly difficult path at that speed!  I'm pretty sure I went on a trail that was supposed to be closed for logging but wasn't marked too clearly.  That trail was straight up and the ground was loose, so my tire kept slipping.  I ended up getting really tired out, so didn't finish the path she'd highlighted for me.  At that point I took the VAST trail, which was pretty easy but still through the woods.  This was a great day.  Well worth the $15.

The camera had a hard time focusing, so the video isn't that great.

CORONARY (L) or CORONARY BYPASS (R)

Longest ride of the year (so far)

So it maybe wasn't the best idea to head to Newport Center on a school night.  Dark clouds came over suddenly.  It didn't start raining or thundering though, so I kept going.  As I headed down a big hill a dog came after me.  Because of that, I decided to loop around, adding many miles to my ride.  I knew I was going to be late, so I didn't take much of a break.  Two more dogs chased me, though they weren't as scary.  It started raining, then got better.  As I got on pavement in North Troy, it really started coming down.  At least it was warm.  I almost called for a ride, but the cliff bar energy kicked in.  It rained on and off again the whole, even while going back over Vance Hill.  I almost ran over a huge frog on the Lake Road.  As I got back on the bike path near Prouty Beach it REALLY started raining, and I was completely soaked through.  But I made it.  30 miles, 1400ft up & down.

Summer 2014

I just finished my May biking.  Already have 56 miles, but that's less than last year's May total.  I've got to get moving if I'm going to hit my 500 mile goal.  Today was the first day I did any hills - ranged from 683ft to 989ft.