“Metric # 5 in the books. This was such an enjoyable ride for me. I really didn’t plan on doing a metric this evening. I went out about 4 PM on the bike taking 4 water bottles with me, just in case I wanted to ride, but more because I wanted to hydrate extremely well and see how my body would handle it. I started my ride out north of Emporia, just planning on taking it easy and doing maybe a 20-25 mile loop. The first part went well, I pushed through mild, but easy wind compared to most out here as I turned east.
About 24 miles in I turned south and hit new gravel. I HATE when the county puts down new gravel. That made things a pain for about 6 miles and I often thought about turning towards home and being happy with my 30 miles that I had in. However, I also knew I was halfway to a metric and it was still daylight and warm out so I called my wife while riding, told her I wasn’t coming home and to not cook dinner for me. She was super supportive, but also didn’t realize I decided to ride and talk at the same time. She had a lot she wanted to tell me before I cut her off and told her I was still on the bike and the peddling and talking was getting rough on me.
Through that portion of the ride I hit an awesome road, picture included. I love roads like this. Anytime I hit one I always turn down it. We had some rain recently so there were some sloppy parts to it, but the coolest thing was there were only horse tracks in the mud. No cars had gone down that road for days!!! That’s one of my favorite things about biking, going where the cars don’t go.

About 40 miles in 3 young deer crossed the road in front of me. Things like that always get my blood pumping. I love being in nature. I turned north and started the trek back home. I knew I would have to wiggle around a bit to get a metric, but I had a plan. I started working out the milage from where I was and picked a route. It is fun going out without a plan and just riding. I also quit going to my drinks as fast as I originally planned so that I could have enough to get home. I ended up heading down some more sweet looking dirt roads that hat some stretches of mud. I rode past a couple prairie fires just before it started getting dark. Thankfully I grabbed my head light before leaving. I always like to bring in if I ride after 4 or 5. Never know when you will get caught up in biking, or have to change a bunch of flats and get delayed. Today it was good because the clouds rolled in about 6:30 and it was getting dark. I took off my sunglasses and realized quickly that I need to invest in some clear lens glasses. Ended up with about 3 flies in my eyes during the last 15 miles.
Overall this was probably my favorite metric of the year. It was unplanned and very enjoyable. Ended up with 63.6 miles in 4 hr 26 min. Only 2,100 feet of elevation climb, but I earned that break after loop 2 at Hermann. Hoping our rain here will stop so i can get a few more metrics in before the end of April.”
– Neil T.