By Ben |

I thought today's ride might be too ambitious, but it turned out to be just right.  I started to feel some knee pain in the late morning, but I took a leisurely lunch break and it cleared up.  The weather was gorgeous in the afternoon: mid-70s and partly sunny.

I got my first fire-ant bite of the trip when I stopped to take off a layer and stepped right in one of their thousands of large hills.  Somehow an ant got all the way up to my knee and then bit me four times in a neat row, which promptly swelled to the size of a nickel.  I was lucky to get only one!  I had thought the ants were dormant this time of year, but I didn't test my theory until now.

I got into Lake Sommerville State Park, Nails Creek Unit (on the southern shore, rather than the northern) around 4:00 and was able to do an hour of transcription before sunset.

43.3 mi