Headwind and... headwind.

Water is in abundance in Northern Arizona right now, which tends to happen after winters with lots of snow. And so I opted to take a long hard ride out past Lake Mary, around Mormon Lake, and back home, to see the lakes, the drainage, and just to see if I could do a 50+ mile ride this early in the season. I'll spoil the surprise and say yes, I can, and did, and 75% of it was into some variation of a headwind.

But, how do you manage to get a headwind for more than half of a basically out and back ride?

Easy, live in Flagstaff, where the wind swirls, and tends to stay at your back going down a hill, but blows in your face when you're trying to crank up a hill. It was even nice enough to stop blowing when I stopped to catch my breath half way up the steepest hill.

The wind and I are not friends.

But besides the wind, it was an enjoyable challenging ride. I saw lots of roadies out and about, shaking off their winter hibernation and dusting off their bikes. Surprisingly enough, some of them actually waved at me when I waved at them. I think by having a cross bike (which looks suspiciously like a road bike) I have increased my wave count from the spandex crowd from nearly 1% to a whopping 10%. However, 80% of that 10% were women, so either they're nicer than their male counterparts, or they liked my bike.

Of the men that waved, most of their blank looks of concentration quickly took a nonplussed look when they realized they had just waved at someone festooned in Fat Cyclist gear, wearing denim shorts with a mirror on his helmet astride a cross bike. Oh well.

Upper Lake Mary runneth over it's dam!

Looking down the spillway towards Lower Lake Mary. How long til Lower overflows?

Made it to Mormon Lake, which prompted a bike shot.

It really IS a lake!

This is looking up hill.

And downhill, where the water continues it's journey to fill the lake.

The amount of drainage running into Mormon Lake is amazing right now. I was riding past hills that are so saturated, that water was rolling down the entire hillside. Every bit of ground that was visible had water running down it. I've never seen the ground so saturated here.

I'll feel this one tomorrow.

Mileage: 58.5