Early rides to beat the heat are a fool’s gambit because the humidity at Dawn is 98% although the temperature is a cool 70° & at 2 the temperature is 98° although the humidity is 56%. My single bidon holder is still an issue but I’m working on a few devious plans.
Yet today I rode again on the sprinting-gear up into some fine hills on a large double Monday route & saw what I’m told is a Rafter of wild turkeys – large & untroubled by a sweating cyclist at fewer than 3 feet of distance. Ben Franklin may have been right about them, but I’m glad we chose our Eagle; Thanksgivings would have been very awkward. 2 Fauns I also saw & they too were untroubled by my passage. Some who live nearer to the park than I have been hand-feeding deer for years now & it often shows.
Hills in the sprinting-gear always remind me (1) that I admire The Jensie for good reasons & (2) that 14 teeth feel more natural to my style of pedaling than any other ring. I took for the first time in the big gear the right up Sevier off of 14th; 2 blocks is as far as I went but I as the route dictated rode it twice. I took the Shelby exit up to 19th also twice & neither time felt Herculean. 46 miles I went but figure a triple is one more extended loop.
Ecbatan 