Yesterday it dawned on me that the weather for Saturday was going to be great for a bike ride with clear skies and temperature in the 70’s. Looking at the Texbiker.net event calendar I saw the Puddle for Ducks ride in Katy, TX. This ride benefits Ducks Unlimited, a wildlife conservation group in North America. I have ridden in this area before but not this specific ride. Katy is about an hour from my home so I packed up the bike and left just before 6 AM this morning. I was thinking with the ride being rather early in the season that the attendance would not be large. Was I wrong! Cars were lined up to get off the Katy Freeway but we moved through the signals quickly. The parking lot around the Sun & Ski store at the Katy Mills Mall was packed. Since this was a last minute decision I was not pre-registered but that did not take long with the plentiful clipboards and ink pens at the front door of the store. I estimate there were over 2,000 bikers for this ride. The ducks were a no show. Thank goodness there were no puddles either.

We are gathered at the starting line.

After registering I almost walked off without my T-shirt. The T-shirt was unusual; a long sleeved camouflage color with the Ducks Unlimited  logo on the front and the sponsors on the back. You have to look closely to see the sponsors names with the camouflage background. Returning to the Jeep to get ready for the start I got the bike out, grabbed the camera and headed to the starting line. People were already in position. The person in charge announced that people would start based on their average riding speed. This sounded like a good idea to get the faster riders out front of the slower ones. The groups were 21 mph and up, 19-21, 17-19, 15-17 and so forth. I left at 7:48 AM in the 15-17 group so I did not hear the rest. The 17-19 group was very large so there were several groups sent out in batches of 100-200 riders.

My group moved away at a slow pace as we moved through the mall streets. Once we got out of the mall area the speed picked up. After heading west for a short distance we turned south and got the first taste of the strong wind for the day. The temperature was around 60 but the sun was up and we were keeping warm with the pedaling.

I was planning on riding the 70 mile route so I was watching for the markers. At first I kept seeing the white signs along the road with the letters “DU” on them. After seeing 10 or more it finally dawned on me this was for Ducks Unlimited and marked the route. There were no incidents from the start to the first rest stop. A fire truck did come by us as we were waiting to cross an intersection to the first rest stop but there was no indication where they were heading.

Rest stop #1. Water, cookies, fruit, porta-potties.

At the start the leader told us the portable toilet company had made a mistake and dropped the toilets for rest stop two at the starting line but they should have them moved by the time we got there. He was right. They were there when I got there. To be safe I stopped at rest stop one. From rest stop one to rest stop two we rode south for about a third of the distance but then we turned and enjoyed a tailwind for most of the miles to number two.

Rest Stop #2. Look at the variety of jerseys.

Traveling from rest stop two to rest stop three was easy with a tailwind almost all the way. It was at rest stop three that I made my route mistake and missed the road to the 70 mile route. I had looked at the map at rest stop one but did not see the route split there. By the time I realized the mistake I was just continued to the finish riding 45 miles. With the wind this was probably for the best because the return on the 70 mile was into the 23 mph wind (gusts to 26 mph).

Ducks at rest stop #3. The puddle was sand and rocks.

Heading east from rest stop three was a battle with the wind on my right. At times I could feel the bike being movedby the wind but I was riding faster than most of the other riders for some reason so I got some shelter as I passed them. I could tell when I went beside some object too. Turning south for a short distance brought us to the last couple of miles to the mall parking lot. One of the riders with me commented that we had a tailwind for the last 1/4 mile. I finished at 11:15. Venturing inside the Sun & Ski store there were sausage/bun/pickle on a stick. I ate one on the way back to the Jeep to pack up for the drive back home.

The Puddle for Ducks ride was well organized and the route was mostly flat (1 incline only) across the Katy prairie but the wind was tough. This reminded me of the Jalapeno 100 in Harlingen last year where the wind was 50 mph for the whole ride. Today’s wind wasn’t quite so strong but you could feel it. At rest stop one there was man there making duck calls with his hunting dog sitting beside his chair. No ducks landed or flew by that I saw.

The finish line crowd outside Sun & Ski.