Tammy subbed for husband Glenn who had originally planned to lead this ride. Thorough leader that she is, Tammy had already ridden the 70 mile route on Monday to check it out. Her main reports: roads are all okay; you can no longer ride across the covered bridge since it has a locked gate now; the view of the old bridge from the new bridge is excellent; the store in Williams has minimal stuff for cyclists: no Gatorade or Powerbars.
Here’s a photo of the initial group at Bryan Park.
Almost that many more showed up before we took off around 9:10 or so. As you can see it was an excellent day for biking. Fair skies and moderate temperatures.
On the way out of town on Grimes we just glimpsed the big DeCycles group heading north on Rogers for their big adventure to the east coast.
Then fairly far south on Rogers Dan H. had a flat. The whole group stopped for a while. Eventually most of us took off and left a small group of faster riders to offer moral support. It looked like they would make quick work of it. But as it turned out they didn’t catch up until the stop at the convenience store in Judah, where old and new 37 cross.
At that point two of us headed back toward town via Guthrie and the “Alps” and by Lake Monroe, following Strain Ridge and then Ramp Creek back to town. Some others were still considering the shorter 50+ mile option, but most were aiming to do the whole route.
Quite frankly I was completely satisfied to do a 35 mile ride, arriving home before noon. Of course I’m not training for RAIN.
(If someone wants to send me some notes on the rest of the ride I can add that to this short report.)
-Allan