Perfect morning for riding

I had the day off today and after not riding for the last three days due to the heat or rain it was great to finally get out in cooler weather. I wanted to do my complete 75 mile route I have done parts of, the route includes most of the bigger hills within 15 miles of my house. It is an out and back loop so you are doing some of the hills twice.

With all the rain we had yesterday I was afraid that the back roads would be really muddy but most were dry but one or two. It seemed that today was the day for grading the roads though as several of them were freshly graded which meant I had to ride on a much softer surface. I would have preferred a bumpier but solid road. I ran up on graders in two different spots, one of them waited on an uphill for me to pass before continuing. He didn't move very slowly though so I had to ride hard to stay ahead of him.

My route ended up being almost the exact length I had calculated it to be, a little over 75 miles. The total elevation gain was a little less though, just over 4100 feet. For flat SE michigan that isn't too bad, considering I was never more than 15 miles from my house. Doing some of the longer hills as repeats would get me the same elevation in fewer miles but wouldn't be as enjoyable. I'll save that for another time.