As I started riding my mountain bike today some rain drops fell but it did not take long for the rain to disappear so I continued my ride. We could really use the rain though. After riding my road bike 5 days this week I decided to throw some variety into the mix and ride the Kingwood Trails. The shade on the trails mitigates the heat some and going through an open space even allows some breeze.

There wasn’t much variation in the heat with 91 when I started and 95 at the end of the ride. Of course starting at 11:34 means the the coolness (?) from overnight was long gone. Except for the fleeting rain drops the sky was scattered clouds and the breeze from the south at 10 mph. There was a section of the trail along side of a lake where the wind slowed me down. Pedaling my heavy mountain bike requires more effort than my road bike. The big knobby tires just do not glide over the pavement without a lot of effort. I bought two tires with a smoother tread but haven’t decided when to put them on. I did ride on grass and dirt in two places: across the soccer field at the North Park Recreation Area to the Woodridge subdivision and the soccer fields at River Grove Park.

Sometimes I see some strange things on the trails. today as I rode along the lake where the wind slowed me down I approached one of the wooden bridges. Off to my left were 4 people and two dogs. As I got closer one of the women started yelling real loud at a golden retriever looking dog that had jumped into the water and was chasing a duck. By the time I got to the other side of the bridge I could see one of the men reaching down into the water and pulling the duck up to the ground. The dog was swimming toward the duck. The yelling woman asked how the duck was as I rode away from where I could see them. I guess the dog thought it was his job to get that duck.

A little further on I rode on the trail along Kingwood Drive. In the distance I saw a fire truck, ambulance and a police car on the other side of the intersection working on a wreck. I think a SUV and a blue car crashed into each other. Surprisingly the SUV looked worst than the car. I did not see the expected herd of wreckers waiting to pull the vehicles away. Several people on the sidewalk watched as the responders worked on the wreck. A second police car arrived by the time I got to the intersection.

When I was at the boat ramp in River Grove Park I watched some boats out in the river as they moved around. Three people arrived to put their jet skis in the water. I wondered if the driver of the SUV was going to back to far into the water but he stopped just before the exhaust pipe was underwater.

Riding the trails I went 16.56 miles to finish off the week at 192.91 miles and boost June to 658.42 miles. Year to date I biked 3098 miles.

Links to RideWithGPS.com and Garmin Connect metrics and maps.

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