Day #56: Morton to Marshall (57 miles)

The day was supposed to be hotter than the previous few days ... hitting a high of 90 degrees, so I started around 6:15am. The sky was hazy and the sun had not risen yet:

The plan was for the day to be relatively easy: 46 miles and several restaurants along the way. The first thing I didn't account for was the humidity... within the first 6 miles sweat was dripping off me. But, second breakfast worked out ok:

After that, things went seriously awry, with Google leading me to a 15 mile stretch of gravel roads... ugh, I hate gravel! I got about 6 miles in and decided I needed to ride 4 miles out of my way to get back on paved roads. This meant I'd also need to ride 4 miles back to hit the path again, so my day turned in to a 57 mile ride, bare knuckling on the gravel and against the unrelenting north wind. I did make it in the end, but more exhausted than I planned...

Snapshot: 57 miles, starting at 6:15am and ending at 1:15pm, with 4.75 hours of actual riding (you can see the part that I was on gravel and against the wind from the lower speeds):