It’s been almost 4 years since I rode the FM1960 to FM686 – Back route east of Huffman. Probably the main reason is the road surface. Once upon a time FM1960 to Dayton was asphalt but several years ago the asphalt was removed and chip seal replaced. I as reminded of that on today’s bike ride. As I approached the Liberty County line I didn’t know what to expect for the shoulder surface. Surprisingly it was asphalt. Riding on the asphalt ended as the road tilted up for the railroad overpass and chip seal was there. The railroad overpass proper was concrete but as soon as I got up and over the chip seal was back all the way to FM686. Not only was it chip seal but rough and bumpy chip seal. So I will probably wait awhile before biking this route again.

I started a little earlier than yesterday riding away on my Canyon Endurace CF 7 at 11:06 AM. When I looked up my previous rides on the route they reminded me that some of the streets I ride now when going to Huffman weren’t part of the route. So I tried to follow the old route streets. I was pretty close biking 41.36 miles today compared to an average of 42 miles on the previous rides. Now I only need 133 miles to reach my 799 mile April goal. I’m getting close.

The weather didn’t quite live up to the forecast as far as the high temperature but the wind did. Good thing I wore a long sleeve jersey and wind jacket. Weather: Start 74 degrees, humidity 67%, dew point 62.2, mostly cloudy, wind S 9 mph gusts 11 mph; Finish 75 degrees, humidity 69%, dew point 64.1, mostly cloudy, wind SE 13 mph gusts 20 mph. The wind was strong when I stopped on top of the railroad overpass to wait for the Amtrak Sunset Limited train to pass a little after 1 PM. The wind was somewhat of a tailwind on the way back to Kingwood. I finished at 2:26 PM.