later that day...

mileage: 13.4

total June mileage since I got batteries for my bike computer: 37.6

I rode out the coastal trail today. It was beautiful and I wanted to go all the way to Kincaid and back. I love riding the coastal trail, once I get about four miles out, right at the Point Woronzoff parking lot. The four miles from my house to there are filled with people, either walking, running around the trail screaming (usually the kids), biking really slow, swerving all over the trail while biking really slow, ect. It's nice to see people out having fun, but it's frustrating if you wanna get a good workout in. Once I got to mile four, I stopped for some water and to take the above picture. I headed back down to the path to keep going towards Kincaid, and saw movement down the trail. A small cow and her two new calves were slowly walking across the path 100 feet in front of me.
It was such a pleasure to just stand there and watch them, and interesting to observe just how protective the cow was. She came out first, stopped, looked around then looked back at her calves, who quickly trotted out to stand close to her. Then they walked the rest of the way together, slowly enough that I got a few good pictures. They hung out on the side of the trail for a bit, so I decided to go around via the road to the water processing plant and I continued on my way.
I kept going for about two and a half more miles down the bumpy Kincaid half of the Coastal Trail. I stopped for water and realized that one of my newly installed caps had come out of my newly taped handlebars. I didn't want the tape to unravel at the bottom, so I decided to turn around and head back. Going back was FUN. I pushed hard and kept my speed above about 18mph the entire way. There were two uphills that had me down to 12mph, but then I was quickly cruising back up. For most of the flat stretches, I was cruising around 20mph, my thighs and lungs burning, but it felt great. I got home, recapped my handlebars, and had an apple with PB while I uploaded my pictures. I lifted weights and am now debating what I should spend the rest of the beautiful day doing. Hmmm...