Trail Town Tour

Along Kent Lake in Kensington, Josh's usual running path. The last ten miles went by water

pretty lagoon off the Milford trail

cranes

Huron Valley Trail not far from Josh's house. I often run on it if we have Allie duty

Yesterday was a great day. Josh and I rode on the Trail Towns Tour put on by the same folks that put on the Michigander with the proceeds going to the organization that develops trails in Michigan. Even though we never were more than 10 miles from his house, most of the ride was unfamiliar to him excepting a bit of the Huron Valley trail he runs on and the Kensington trail.

Excepting one time, he hasn't been on a bike since our last Michigander together in 1997. He had picked up his bike earlier in the week that I had been riding for years but replaced this year with my new fancy bike that keeps breaking down (I thought I heard another spoke go yesterday but can't see yet where it is). He is in great shape from running but still that doesn't use the same muscles as bicycling 30 miles so I assume he is sore today. We made increasingly more stops towards the end of the ride for him to stretch. I would have taken more stops to photograph things but I was mindful that this was taking a good chuck of his time.

There was an optional single track  5 mile loop that went to the third trail town featured (Wixom) but we passed on that. Thirty miles was plenty.

I was very nervous about the weather as it was supposed to be in the 30s in the beginning with a possibility of rain and lots of wind. It rained on and off all night but it was a toasty 42 and dry when we set off. The winds didn't pick up until they were on our backs for the last 10 miles so yeah, we were lucky. I sacrificed my gloves to him as I seem to have unusually hot hands. We were comfortable temperature wise but many preregistered didn't show up because of the weather. I am hoping more people came on the day of the ride when they saw it was going to be nice.

We were on nicely paved trails the entire time excepting for the first 5 miles when we were on a pretty dirt road that was well packed clay and smooth. We were actually on this road before going north instead of south on Michigander 94, the day he became so hungry, he asked a stranger for food who retrieved a stale , dusty rice cake from the bottom of a backpack  and Josh gobbled it down. He doesn't remember the road at all.

Maybe about 25% of the trees have turned here. It will be more beautiful in a week or so. Still, plenty of beauty with thick tree canopies and lakes and rivers. I have been on most of this route before excepting for the new Milford trail north of Kensington,which was a great discovery. Josh will return to it. We were able to ride side by side  yakking away for most of the ride which I found special. The ride was great for him because he never realized where all these trails went and how nice they are.

I am usually well prepared but I had let my water bottle of top of the car. There was cider at the rest stops (and doughnuts which I did not eat due to my critical riding partner). A bicycle store in South Lyon donated a new Tour de France fancy water bottle to me. In downtown Milford, they had a special bicycle parking lot and lunch specials. We didn't go to our usual favorite Palate and went to a new place. It was good though the special included beer and I got some high alcohol, very hoppy thing called Dirty Bastard. Fortunately we had only a few minutes left to ride to our cars.

I stopped by to see Allie after the ride. Adorable as usual.