Starting in the afternoon on Father’s Day in the sweltering heat I rode my Canyon Endurace CF 7 bike on Kingwood trails passing many of the village pools on what I’ll call the Tour de Pools. Getting home from church after noon I rolled away at 1:24 PM. I stuck to the trails mostly to ride in the shade and lessen the heat somewhat. Each pool I passed had people in the water probably trying to stay cool. I finished at 2:55 PM. I usually mix streets and trails but today I think the ride was 90% trails and 10% streets.

I passed by pools in these villages: North Woodland Hills, South Woodland Hills, Trailwood, Kings Forest, Greentree, Mills Branch, Sherwood Trails, Elm Grove, and Hunters Ridge. There are more pools I missed.

Houston is in the midst of sweltering heat with the heat index over 100 for the past several days and into next week. I kept the ride short at 14.3 miles because of the heat. Weather during my ride: Start 95 degrees, 59% humidity, dew point 78.5, partly cloudy, wind SW 8 mph; Finish 97 degrees, 49% humidity, dew point 75.1, a few clouds, wind S 15 mph gusts 24 mph. The trees surrounding most of the trails slowed the wind otherwise it would’ve felt like a convection oven.

I stopped at the lake in Kingwood Lakes Village and took these photos. Sadly, while I walked away from the Canyon to take a photo a gust of wind hit the bike and it fell onto the concrete scratching the right brake lever, pedal, and rear derailleur. After that one of the disc brakes started rubbing and the gears made some grinding sound. Fortunately the gear grinding went away and the disc rub lessened.

This week I rode every day working on my 800 mile goal for the month. The Cervelo Caledonia spent the week in the shop so I rode my Canyon Endurace bike each day. I swapped the wheels on the Canyon to the Alpha 46 ones from the Lynskey Helix bike on Thursday for the rest of the week’s rides. I’ll probably switch the wheels back for a couple of days and ride the Lynskey. I’m at 564.92 miles for June, 71% of the way to my goal. Year to date 2023 totals 4,437 miles. I’m ahead of each year since 2011 except for 2021 (I’m behind by 1 mile) and 2020 (I’m behind by 141 miles).