75

Yesterday was my longest mileage day so far. 75 miles of Kentucky roads in preparation for the Horsey Hundred in a couple weeks. I'm not one to go out and do long rides very often. Time rarely allows. So it was fun to spend a huge chunk of time on the bike. Jeff and Jason joined me on the excursion. 

We didn't have much of a route planned. We just picked out points of interest along the way and went for it however we could get there. We headed south (into a headwind) to catch Pauls Mill Road that has drawn attention from other cyclists. It's a tiny little stretch of road that used to be an old carriage road. But we took the long way to get there.

Our first obstacle was a creek covered road. I've ridden it before but the water was very high compared to other rides through it. I took bullet first and tried to pedal through it. The mossy floor and heavy pull of the water almost took me down. Some fancy footwork and catlike speed and reflexes kept me upright. The other fells chose to walk it (a wiser choice than my own).

This was on mile 15ish. So the remainder of the day left us with soggy shoes. Not a big deal, really. It was refreshing on a hot day, the first of the year actually.

Speaking of hot... here's a little snake-jerky we found on the road. I thought he was alive for a while. But when Jason kicked him, you could tell he was a bit dehydrated. And while on the subject of wildlife, we rode past the primate rescue sanctuary and heard some monkeys yelling. It was funny, awesome and a little eerie at the same time.

There were very few scenes like this. We spent most of the day on country roads. Lots of climbing. Lots of rain. But we had a blast. We saw some really great sights throughout the day. But I didn't get the camera out once after it started raining. Pauls Mill Road is awesome. So awesome, we didn't stop for photos. We just appreciated the scenery. It was like a journey back in time. Unfortunately, Jason threw the red log into the furnace and we were propelled back to the future.

All in all, it was an awesome ride. We laughed a lot, got lost a lot and had some decent adventure. Jason was on a super stealthy all carbon road bike demo from the shop. Jeff was on his sport Specialized TriCross and I was upon the trusty LHT. Three TOTALLY different bikes. But we shared equal enjoyment in the ride in spite of our differences in steeds.

Get out there.