I rode south staying west of Lake Houston going through Atascocita, The Groves, Balmoral, to W. Lake Houston Parkway. The last time I rode this route was May 10th and I wondered if much changed during my absence. Houses under construction flanked parts of Timber Forest Drive around Greens Road. I could here nail guns as I rode by. I call this the Atascocita – Balmoral – W Lake Houston Pkwy – Walden route. A long name because of the places it goes through. I stopped at the Blue Lagoon in Balmoral with dazzling blue water but no one in the water that I could see. From there I rode up over the Timber Forest Drive railroad overpass for my “mountain” climb (and back up over it on the way back). Just before W. Lake Houston Parkway I stopped at the Lakewood Pines Pool for a break sitting in the shade with the 7 mph westerly breeze cooling me off. A mother duck and 5 or 6 ducklings waddled through the grass in front of me. All of a sudden the duck start flapping her wings and making loud screeches as a hawk swooped in, grabbed a duckling with its talons. The duck went over the sidewalk and down the bank flapping her wings out my sight, the hawk dropped the duckling and stood in the grass. The remaining ducklings scurried through the grass towards the lake. The hawk flew away maybe holding something with its talons. I walked to the grass on the other side of the sidewalk to look for the duck but couldn’t see her anywhere. I saw four ducklings swimming in the lake that might have been the survivors. Maybe the hawk took the duck? I’ve never seen anything like this that close. I didn’t have my GoPro nearby to record it but there is a clip in the video where I talk about what happened.

The ride began at 9:36 AM with me riding my Cervelo Caledonia. This was a few minutes later than yesterday because I took time to air up the tire on the Cervelo using the Fanttik battery powered compressor. It takes a little longer than the floor pump mainly because screwing the air chuck on isn’t easy. The west breeze felt cooling when I was in the shade. I could tell this wasn’t going to be a fast paced ride because my legs didn’t have zip in them. With the ride mostly going south and north the wind wasn’t much of an issue.

On the way back I located the Atascocita Hike & Bike Trail beside Aerobic Drive in Walden and rode it to Trophy Place Drive after making a wrong turn and back tracking.

The ride ended at 1:06 PM after covering 38.47 miles. I now need just 8 miles to reach my 908 mile goal for June.

Weather: Start 86 degrees, humidity 76%, dew point 77.5, partly cloudy, wind W 7 mph; @ Lakewood Pines Pool 90 degrees, humidity 63%, dew point 76, wind W 8 mph; Finish 90 degrees, humidity 68%, dew point 77.7, mostly cloudy, wind NW 4 mph.