Monday, June 27, 2011

Ridin' the Storm Out!

this was my Memorial Day ride, after riding through our local cemetery to pay homage I pointed it west into a 10-12 mph head wind



rode some new gravel roads & there was a whole lot of this in front & behind me



finally made it to Lake McConaughy & gave myself & the Fargo a bit of a break




the lake is as full as I've ever seen it since I've moved here in 1990, still a lot of water to come yet by the way it sounds




not near as much of the morning glory showing as just one year ago





riding along the base of Kingsley dam I could see the ominous clouds quickly moving in from the northwest & knew I may be in for an interesting trip home






and man was I right, that grass blowing there meant some super strong wind & I was cruising with it at my back sometimes reaching speeds of 25 mph or more





I had a good 20 miles of gravel left so re-fueled with a Honey Stinger waffle, these things are awesome!





the canal is out of it's banks at a few places & actually had whitecaps for most of the trip home, my legs were getting sandblasted with the gravel/dust while at the same time I was getting a cool, wet mist from the water getting blown around




pushed on hard & fast through a 3-4 mile dustbowl were the visibility was like a thick fog & made it home from the lake in record time, never got any rain just huge winds & rolled into home base in time to share a few cold beers with some friends who were over visiting, with 50 miles of extremes in it was a very good character building session!



















Thursday, June 16, 2011

Against the Wind!

a cloudy, windy day a few weeks back found Lane & I back on the canal road riding straight into a 30 mph headwind for 15 miles RATHER than putting the wind at our backs like some roadies do! I was hearing Bob Seger in the back of my head singing "Against the Wind"

the secret is out & we are now having to share our pristine backroads with RUNNERS! What the $@#*!! Oh well, may need to make exceptions now & then, this gal had to be training for something as she was a long way from her destination & had a blistering pace.




got to the end of the canal & threw in the towel on the dang wind & headed up this paved road that has a HUGE climb to get back on some more G-roads to point it back east to home





with the wind now at our backs for 15 miles we made some awesome time back home sometimes reaching gravel speeds upwards of 25 mph, another GREAT gravel ride with my son on the backroads & it's funny I just noticed that in all these pics for 30 miles he was AHEAD of me...GO FIGURE!!!