2,500 miles (Road bike)

So I've laxed-off in both my bike riding and blogging in the last week.  We took an enjoyable trip to Idaho last weekend where we hung out with some friends in Island Park and did a little mountain biking and river rafting.  Then we headed out to Shelley to enjoy an Idaho Falls Fourth of July with my parents, grandmother and sister's family.  It was a great time and I have really missed being in Idaho Falls for the 4th, its been 10 years since I've been able to do it.  While there, I took a short 8 mile mountain bike ride along the canal to Gem Lake Reservoir.  It was a super muddy one.  I had to cut through a field as it was being irrigated.  I ended up in 6 inches of mud and water with no choice but to continue or stick my shoes in 6 inches of mud.  After all the excitement of the 4th of July, we took our time getting home and visited Yellowstone.  We had a great time an hopefully I'll get on top of things and blog about it all on  the family blog, http://tree-squirrels.blogspot.com. 

9 Miles

Because I was so wiped out from our trip and had a backlog of work to do, I was only able to sneak out once this week and do a ride.  I went to Two Moon Park and enjoyed the dry parts of the park although I did encounter some muddy sections.  I went back to the spot where I found the fox den hoping to see the kit foxes again.  No luck there so I turned down a trail called Fox Trot.  Out of the grass jumped a large adult red fox.  I followed it down the trail for at least 100 yards before it ducked back into the grass.  I'd always wondered why the trail was called Fox Trot.  At least I have an experience now to explain it. 

50 Miles

I slept in this morning and since I didn't have any real plans for today and Sarah didn't feel like riding at the time, I decided to take the road bike out and get some mileage in.  I did the Pryor Creek loop.  I really need to find out what kind of elevation change I encounter along this ride because it seems like all but about 8 miles is hills, and not gradual ones either.  I am pooped now and have been since I got back.  It was a nice ride but I felt that I was battling a head or a cross wind almost the entire ride except, of course, on the flats. On the way up the last hill I encountered a huge snake sunning on the road.  It wasn't a rattler but it was big enough that I gave it a wide girth.  

On a different note, I just turned over 2,500 miles on my road bike toady. I should have been months ago but I've been busy on Saturdays and have enjoyed playing too on the mountain bike.  In 2,500 miles (and two years) I have changed the chain once and bought new handle bar tape and desperately need to re-wrap the handlebars.  I have also gone through two water bottle cages and serviced the bike twice.  I only mention it because on my next ride on my mountain bike I will turn over 4,000 miles in just over 3 years.  I have a long list of things I've had to replace on that bike.