A dry day with prediction of rain tomorrow. So, what else? I jumped on the bike thinking I’d do “the Groveland Loop.” Just a local ride of about 20 miles with about 2000’ of climbing – I don’t know the grades on the roads but some of them are STEEP. Anyway, I headed out and there’s a rider coming toward me, a female rider, who??? It’s Therese! What a pleasant surprise. She was preparing for Mr. Frog’s Wild Ride which is coming up in a few days. So, we rode together, chatted a bit and enjoyed one another’s company. Then Therese rode home while I continued on “the Groveland Loop.”
This ride takes me through the Pine Mountain Lake development. I don’t know who laid out the roads for the development but I think they didn’t concern themselves with anything other than a motorized vehicle using the roads. As I was going along, I decided to take a slight detour into The Marina. I’m glad I did. It was deserted except for me and my bike. Peaceful. After a short break to eat my banana and take a few photos, I continued.
Leaving the PML development, I was on Hwy 120 heading east. There are some roads that parallel 120. I like to take these to get off the main highway. One of them is East Sprague which has a creek running alongside it. Most of the year, the creek is dry but there was plenty of water this day…such a relaxing sound.
The final leg of this journey takes me past Tangled Hearts, a local eatery. Usually, I ride by when they are closed but today my timing was right so I stopped for lunch. Owner and baker, Amy, was at the register so we enjoyed doing a little catching up. She and her sweetheart (tangled hearts, get it) seem to be doing well in spite of the Big Oak Flat Road in Yosemite being closed due to the road’s collapse from all the rain this year. The closure of the road with no estimated repair date is hurting many of the businesses in our area so I’m glad they are doing ok.
As I finished up the day, I stopped to get photos of the storm clouds and was able to get a bird of prey just after it launched off a tree. Too bad my camera isn’t able to get better shots of far away stuff.
I ended up with 28 miles for the day.
thecyclingdiva 