Longest of the new season

Nice hard effort today getting some serious time in the saddle on a long adventure thanks to the return of the sun.

Sunny
55-63 degrees
Lt. wind
54 miles to Dousman and back


As I headed out early in the ride I had no handle on which way the wind was blowing as I tried to determine if I would head west or south. As it turned out I made the wrong decision, at least if I would have wanted a tailwind rather than a headwind all the way in from Dousman. Oh well.


This turned out to be my longest ride of the season at 54 miles. I wanted to pick up an application for a trail pass, needed on the Glacial-Drumlin Trail. (heads up-you can no longer get one on-line either)


The first box on the trail that I passed was empty, but the second one had the envelopes you can send in with a check. So I stuffed a couple into my jersey pocket and continued west to Wales.


Interesting thing happened on the way. East of the Wales rest stop a woman walking flagged me down. She asked if I had seen a guy walking his bike. I had not. She explained that she was riding with a friend when he crashed, so she rode ahead to get the car, then walked from the nearest road to find him.


Now I was worried. I told her I would ride ahead and check and if I saw him would tell him that she would wait for him at the rest stop.


Sure enough I saw the guy ahead. He was OK but looked a little dazed. I chatted him up while we walked toward the rest stop where the woman saw us and all was well.


I stopped there to open the turkey sandwich I had packed for lunch, but ate only half before getting back on the bike. It was just cool enough to not want to cool down sitting there so I finished the sandwich while on the bike.


The green buds are popping along the path now which is nice to see. Soon the canopy of trees and leaves will be formed overhead. It is quite beautiful in there. 


I decided to just keep going west. What the heck! Yup, went all the way to Dousman where I stopped in at Bicycle Doctor. The dude behind the counter gladly filled my empty water bottle with a smile and I was on my way back.


At times the slight wind was sucking the life out of my legs at this distance and I had to take it real easy up the Carroll University hill because my quads were ready to cramp.


From there is was just a matter of keeping up an easy spin heading east into that darned wind off the lake keeping it cooler than it should be.


I did regret not having a wind breaker on. But I always have to laugh when I see others on the path with much less on than my two long-sleeved layers. Like the young, tan girl rollerblading with tiny shorts and a tube top on. Really? Brrrrr. Nice to look at though I'll admit.


Back to rain on Thursday. I'll need a recovery day anyway. Maybe a ride to the south on Friday when the sun returns....

Season Miles: 488