Sprint Like A Hare on Hare Cook
In the drive to ride 40+ miles I rearranged the “Stroker Road – Huffman” route into “Kingwood – Hare Cook Road – Kingwood”. I biked 43.54 miles on this route. This route is like the Stroker road one but instead of going west on Stroker Road from Ramsey Road I stayed on Ramsey Road going south until I came to Hare Cook Road. Hare Cook runs east and west and took me to FM2100 and then back to Huffman. I left home at 9:58 and returned at 1:34.
Prior to Hare Cook road I saw a dozen other bikers out enjoying the heat and humidity. They were in groups of two or single riders.
The roads on this route are smooth asphalt which allowed me to set a good pace. I averaged 15.4 mph overall but for most of the ride after the 15 mile point I averaged 15.5 to 15.7 mph. There was a breeze from the SSE (4 to 6 mph) which put up some resistance when I was riding into it but the other times I more than made up for that.
I thought I was going to have a dog chase free ride until I almost reached the corner of Hare Cook and Miller Wilson Road. A large German Shepherd spotted me from the house and ran to Hare Cook where the property gate was. The gate was closed but there was a big gap between a pole and the gate allowing the dog easy access to the road plus there wasn’t any fence just a ditch with some standing water. He started barking as soon as he spotted me and I sped up. I had a good lead on him and when I made the corner I looked in my mirror to see him stop in the road. If he knew I was turning onto Miller Wilson Road he could’ve caught me but thankfully dogs are not telepathic. This helped my speed and I was glad this was with the wind at my back rather than into a headwind.
Once I reached FM2100 I rode north to Huffman for a 40 minute rest stop at the Chevron station. From there it was about 11 miles to home. The sun was shinning to the west but to the east and south the sky was full of clouds and looked like it might rain. As I write this I can again hear thunder in the distance and some rain is falling here. This was one of those rides if I got caught in the rain I am not sure I could tell the difference. The sweat was flowing so much I was wet all over anyway. I rinsed my gloves at the Chevron station and dried them on some paper towels but they were still wet when I got ready to leave. I was thinking of washing my Jeep when I got home but the rain and thunder delayed that.
Mileage standings after today’s ride:
- 155.02 miles this week
- 630.39 miles so far in June
- 2863 miles year to date
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