14.79

The weather dudes (and dudettes) prognosticated cool temps for this morning, so today was a day planned for riding. I knew it couldn’t be quite as long a ride as I wanted — two birthday parties to attend today — but I also knew I could get some quality saddle time in.

So the weather cooperated with the weather folks, and it was in the mid-50s this morning — right in my wheelhouse for good rides. I filled my CamelBak, loaded up and hit the road. I wasn’t quite sure where I wanted to start from or head toward, but the drop-in at Weldon Spring is the absolute closest point to the Katy Trail for me… but is still almost 20 miles from the house. As it ends up, that’s where I headed as a starting point.

Even getting there just after sunrise, I was already late — there were tons of folks out on the trail already. I guess mid-50s in June grabs folks’ attention! From Weldon, there are two nice medium-length rides: I can head to Pitman Hill for a 16mi ride, or I can head to the boat ramp at Klondike for a 15mi ride. I elected to hit Klondike. I hadn’t been there yet this year, and a decent bit of that ride is out from under cover, so the combination of cool air and low-angle sunlight would feel good.

I stopped about every five miles, and took a long drink, and ate a fruit cup. Between that regimen, and the cool weather, the ride was fabulous! Easy too — I didn’t bump into that crazy wall before three miles like I typically do. In fact, I felt pretty invinceable on the trail today, and really felt like there were more miles in the legs. However, that bit about planning for the return ride was front-of-mind, so I elected to go with what I knew, and plan for only fifteen miles.

I actually ended up shooting a little bit. The boat ramp at Klondike had obviously been flooded during the high waters recently. This high water decimated the grass on the sides of the ramp, and now that the waters had been gone for a week or two, the sun has parched the soil. This left some really cool dry soil, reminiscent of a parched river bed in the desert. Really cool, and fun to shoot, too. I tried some overheads and some ant’s-eye views as well. It was nice to hear my photography muse whispering in my ear on this one!