Ok so that average speed here wasn't that great -- BUT that's because it’s an average GROUND speed. My avg AIR speed on this ride must have been something like 30+ -- for the whole ride! It just never let up. The route, which was a new one for me, basically heads out Fern Ridge bike path and then northwest, past the north shore of Fern Ridge reservoir where it turns back east on Franklin before returning to the bike path on Greenhill road.

With the exception of a short stretch on Territorial all of the roads are quiet or have wide shoulders. In fact the only problem with the loop is that there is basically no shelter from the winds that rip across the fields. It would have been nice to have a wheel to suck for a while but the only other cyclist I came across was as I was coming into town on the bike path. Well, as my old swim coach would say "If it doesn't kill you it will make you stronger - or you'll drown - one or the other"....I was 9 when he would yell this at me at practice - more than once I thought about actually drowning just so he'd have to explain himself to my irate parents. Thankfully I never carried through with that.