4th of July ride

I don't know if anyone actually reads my bike travellogs but I thought I'd jot this down anyway.

So today's ride was nothing special but I had the camera because I tried a new route. There is a ride that I've done with my MS team where we climb this small canyon called Duck Creek. (I call it a canyon for lack of a better word. Maybe its more of a gully or ravine.) Its a really pretty ride, and as far as climbing hills, its fairly easy......But as you enter the canyon, there is a road that takes off one of the hills at the mouth of the canyon and it is steep. We've never done it as a team but I decided to try to do it today.

Entrance to Duck Creek

Looking up the canyon

This is the first hill on Fritz Road. Its steeper than it looks in this picture. I had to shift almost all the way down to make it up the hill, then again I was kind of lazy this morning and rode pretty slow to fight the crosswind. I hit 42 mph just coasting down the hill. My top speed on this bike is 44.6 mph and I bet I could top that if the intersection weren't so rough at the bottom with such a tight turn.

Anyway, I crested the large hill and I could see the road go on for miles and thought it would be a really nice ride, little traffic and downhill the whole way back. However, about 2 miles later I ran out of pavement and had to turn around. That's alright. I told Sarah I'd be back by 10:30 and I didn't want to wear myself out so much that I wouldn't be able to enjoy the Fourth of July festivities.

Here I am at the end of the pavement. That black circle is a mirror. I just put it on my new $11 helmet. I found a medical supply place in town that sells them dirt cheap.

View from the end of the pavement

Looking back at Billings

I really love riding outside of town because you never know what kind of wildlife you might run into. I watched this osprey for quite a while. It was eating a fish when I first saw it and afterwards groomed its feathers. It didn't take any notice to me. In fact, I had to whistle at it to get it to look up so I could take this picture. I also saw two blue herons this morning. One of them was right off of the road. It paid no attention to me until I pulled out the camera and then it took off and landed off in the distance. As it did, another herrin popped its head up not to far from the first. It was pretty impressive.

Today's ride was about 28 1/2 miles. Not too bad for a lazy Fourth of July morning.

I'm sure more will follow with our Fourth of July festivities later in the day.