Hilly Route

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Today I pulled out my bike and went riding under a gray flat sky. No wind, except the wind created by rolling down the road on two 29" tires. 49°F degrees. It rained yesterday, on Christmas, so the road still had a few small puddles, but the road was almost dry. I had the day off because of the holiday so it gave me the rare opportunity this time of year to ride during daylight hours!

After a short distance I got on the Yelm-Tenino trail to ride into town. My only destination on the ride was the post office, to check my box there. After recycling the ad circular I got back on the bike and headed out down the street. I took the steep road out of town. It's not a big hill, but it's a hill. There aren't a lot of options around here to find hills.

From there I pedaled down Rainier road to Military, then followed a series of roads to loop around Rainier. While I rode along I saw cows, dogs, alpacas, horses and even pigs. The back roads were sparsely traveled today so I mostly had the road to myself. One benefit with taking this route were more hills, a couple good ones but ultimately hardly more than bumps in the road compared with climbing passes for the continental divide. As my training progresses I'm going to have to ride farther afield to find some significant mountains to ride!

But for today it was fine. A nice short loop as I start getting in better shape. Bike and rider both functioned fine. I'm planning to start riding more at the gym before work, so I can get in some morning time. Hopefully by the time the days get longer and I start riding to work again I'll be in good shape for the rides. I have some new routes mapped out that I'd like to try.