I was thinking of potential northerly routes for today’s ride when I remembered I haven’t been to Plum Grove in a long time. I wasn’t sure how long the route would be but I guessed it might be around 25 miles. The weather played a factor with overcast gray clouds and maybe a chance of rain. Earlier this morning we did get a little rain (.13″ at my home weather station) but with a nice breeze the roads dried off pretty quickly. There were a few puddles and water in road depressions but nothing I couldn’t ride around. The temperature was 76 degrees which felt a little cool with the wind blowing so I chose a long sleeve jersey to top off the shorts.

Loading the bike into the Jeep I drove to Brookshire Brothers in New Caney to park and start riding. I was going to ride FM1485 east to the Plum Grove – Cleveland Road but in order to add some miles I went north and through Roman Forest. By the Plum Grove – Cleveland turn I was at 10+ miles. Earlier on FM1485 just east of the bridge over the East Fork of the San Jacinto River I had dog sprint. The smallish dog (15″ at the shoulder may be) had the angle on me and got to the road before I was past him. Fortunately he overran my direction and I cut past him. He chased me a short ways but gave up. Fortunately it wasn’t uphill like it was just before I reached this property. I have been reading a thread on Bikeforums.net about dogs on rural roads. The comments offer tactics people use and some stories of success and failure. I can identify with them all. No more loose dogs after that but some fenced and chained ones looked like they wanted to chase if it wasn’t for the restraints.

On the Plum Grove – Cleveland Road I rode through some rain drops but it didn’t last thank goodness because there was no shelter. I haven’t been on this road in a long time and some developments popped up in Plum Grove. There is a new volunteer fire department building replacing the outdoor spot where the trucks parked across FM1010. The old genral store is still closed though. I rode over to the new volunteer fire building to turn to the west. The curve in FM1010 at the Plum Grove – Cleveland Road intersection is a wide sweeping one with limited visibility of traffic coming from Splendora. After waiting for some traffic to pass I started biking to the west on FM1010 which became FM2090 before the Montgomery County Line.

This was an unusual ride passing through 3 different counties: Montgomery, Harris and Liberty. Usually riding in two counties is the most on one route around home.

I rode to Splendora and stopped at the Chevron to rest and eat some snacks. No sport drink today, just water. I was at 21.1 miles which confirmed my guess on the mileage today. After the break I started to the south bound US59 service road thinking I would take a side trip on SH 242 to check on the Grand Texas construction and then get back on the service road to New Caney probably ending up biking 27 miles. When I got to SH 242 I turned to the west. I looked for some construction activity south of 242 but couldn’t see any. As I rode by the construction office on the north side I tried to see any activity there but the lone SUV in front of a portable office was all that was there. So I am not sure where the go-cart track is located but according to some newspaper articles it is being built.

The wind was at my back on SH 242 so I decided to stay on it all the way to FM1485 and then ride FM1485 to New Caney and Brookshire Brothers. This would added miles and with the weather clearing up some rain was no longer in the picture. I was able to get my average speed up to 16.2 mph on 242 by the time I pulled into the Chevron station at FM1485 and 242. I pause there to let some traffic go by on FM1485 before heading east to New Caney. The helpful wind was now a headwind and my average speed started to go down some. By the time I got to the Jeep I biked 37.25 miles averaging 15.9 mph. If I had not stopped at two traffic lights in the last 1/2 mile I think my average speed would have been 16.0 or 16.1 mph.

Weather at the start of the ride

Weather at the end of the ride

A cool front is supposed to arrive this evening dropping the temperature into the 50’s with tomorrow’s high of 69. It will be partly cloudy to clear. Not sure how this affects my biking.

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