Thursday, December 8, 2011

Just Barely the Longest Ride...

...on Betsy so far.

It is December 8th. The sky is filled with clouds and an occasional glimmer of blue sky--just enough to tease. Chance of rain is minimal, so it looks like a good day for a long ride.

In my quest to get as many miles as possible on Betsy before New Zealand, I set out to cover at least 45 miles (my current Betsy high). I took the trail to Tenino where I stopped for lunch. Fueled up, I continued on Hwy 99 toward I-5. I rode past my friends the alpacas. They are looking pretty scruffy in their winter coats. As I turned onto Case Rd, the wind smacked me in the face. As this was, essentially, a training ride, I just thought of it as an opportunity to see how Betsy would conduct herself in conditions I will likely encounter in NZ. Yes, the going was a bit slower, but not too bad. I turned off of Case at Maytown Rd and rode over to Tilley. I opted to continue on Tilley rather than turning onto 113th. Might have been a good thing to do the climb up 113th (and corresponding downhill on the other side), but that would have resulted in less miles.

I turned off Tilley at 100th (a little back road barely two lanes wide), passed a tractor with a big pile of hay for the cows and came out at 93rd. From there I rode over to 99. It's kind of interesting how I was already on 99 earlier and there I am getting back on 99 but going the opposite direction...sort of.

I rode into Tumwater, cutting through Trails' End and out to Henderson. I decided to take the new part of Yelm Hwy to just before Blvd., then cut through a couple other neighborhoods to avoid the still bad section of Yelm Hwy.

I arrived home having done 46.8 miles. Feet were abit chilled, but otherwise all was good.

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