To make my goal of riding 4,000 miles this year, with 4,000 kilometres within that being loaded touring…
I need to ride 350 miles each month, including 350 kilometres of touring: 350 miles/kms x 12 months = 4200 miles/kms
So for July I rode:
July Unloaded Miles: 193 miles
July Loaded Miles: 191 miles (307 kms)
July Total Miles Ridden: 384 miles
Year to Date Unloaded: 805 miles
Year to Date Loaded: 1883 miles (3030 kms)
Year to Date Total Miles: 2688 miles
The weather stats for the month go like this:
Rain on 25 of 31 days
117 mm rain total – normal is 70mm
It was another very wet month. Normally, the dirt/gravel roads ride better in winter when they’ve got a bit of moisture in them to hold them together. But we’ve had so much rain everything is saturated, and the dirt/gravel roads have often been really slow, sticky, muddy, squishy and sodden.
So I’ve had to stick to chip-seal on many of my day rides, and that is pretty boring to me. However, I’m happy with how many day ride miles I’ve done, because those are the hardest to find motivation to get out to do – especially when it’s grey every day and the road surface is so frequently wet or damp. The narrow, no-shoulder roads, 100kph speed limit, and being within the commute ring to the nearby city means I don’t take a chance on riding when it is raining and visibility is low… Plus it is still too dark before and after work to get in a ride, so there is no riding Wed-Friday. So, yeah, I’m happy with the mileage total given the restrictions and conditions.
Above average precipitation is forecast for August to October. So we’ll see what we can do for August. I am sooooooo itching to do a fully-loaded ride and spend a night or two in my tent! At least there will be no issues trying to get tent pegs in the ground when we finally do get in a camping weekend.
The plus side of all the rain is that the huge Lake Hume should fill this winter (it only does so about once every 20 years). In 2011 it got up to 90-something percent, and it was a real treat to ride along the shores instead of the empty, old river flats and dead, drowned trees. So there should be some really nice pics of a full dam coming this spring!
http://www.bordermail.com.au/story/4066629/rain-does-tumble-down-in-wet-july/?cs=53
