Seven springs

Seven springs exploration ride.  I could tell this isn't as popular as I'm not the 245th guy on the various Strava segments.  I just paced out an 80k ride.  Cindy joined me for the first 45 minutes, but the call of wedding duty had her turn around at that point. A few roadies passed us, I wanted to zoom along and show them I wasn't droppable at their passing pace, but valued a nice spin with Cindy more.  We had a nice spin, and it was helpful to have a bottle to chug at that point so I could set off from the 45 minute in mark well hydrated.  It wasn't as warm today, but I'm concerned when there's cactuses around about being the dope who didn't figure out hydration well enough.  Shortly after the road turned to gravel exiting town, I hear some scuffling on the hill, and over my right shoulder there were deer up on the hill.  Not the easiest to spot, but I tried with this photo.

I was riding off to the side of whatever turnoffs there were to explore a bit, and eventually the campground just past this point on Seven Springs Road had enough of a map to relocate where I was.  I decided to ride past the county line by a couple kilometres and turn back.  Lots of climbing as you head north. 

The frequency of getting passed by other vehicles was a #DIV/0! if you're into Excel error comedy.  I ate and drank at my turnaround, figured that'd be about right with my water levels with some buffer, and tried to ride back at a solid pace into the headwind in that direction.  Surprisingly I got rained on for a bit - it wasn't cold at all though.  Dipped to like 20C for a while.

I had seen one snake earlier in the bushes on the side, but this time I saw this one on a downhill.  I went screaming by, locked up my brakes, and went back up logically to get as close as I could for a photo.  I had hoped to lay my bike down behind it for scale, but he was moving to the edge too fast so I clicked this.  I'd say he was about as long as me - definitely longer than a bike.

Naturally with no people around, no cars, and this vastness, snake spectating is the thing to do.

80k all in, not as warm as yesterday, but still nice.  Feels good to get in some miles with nobody else pushing pace, no place to be or time to be home by, and just exploring.  It's also fantastic to leave in shorts and jersey and not even consider that you'd need any more clothing!