I ended up with 400 miles on the bike in May. That’s not as many miles as I like to ride in the warmer part of the year. I need to kick it up a bit this month. I started off with 130 miles this first week of June. As is my pattern of late, they were all just short rides from home.

I took off on the F5 yesterday morning and rode to Purtis Creek, then on to CR 2900. Coming back on CR 2900, just before mile 23, I hit a large dog. I was on a downhill, with a tailwind, cruising along at about 25 mph, and had intentions of out-sprinting the dog. But he charged so hard from the right that even my swerve to the left side of the road didn’t miss him. I hit his left front shoulder with the right side of my front wheel. It was a hard, but glancing impact. Surprisingly, neither dog nor I went down, though he looked pretty wobbly afterward.

I stopped a little ways down the road to check the bike for damage. The only sign of impact I found was dog fur wedged in my spokes. It’s a good reminder of the dangers of trying to out-sprint a dog that’s still in front of you. Now that I have a bottle cage installed on the new seat, I guess I need to start carrying my spray bottle of ammonia again.

I ended up with 40.1 miles for the day.