Mar-17: Looping Falls Lake with "the Mallet"

I met my cycling friend Paul "the Mallet" early Saturday morning.
So early that lights were required during the cycle to the meeting point.
After ... some preliminaries ... we set off to loop Falls Lake.
Not a circuit of the ENTIRE lake, just what everyone refers to as "looping the lake".

It was a beautiful, calm morning.
Fog giving way to bright sunlight,
Not long before we got to Cheek Rd across the widest part of the lake.

Crossing the lake on the Cheek Rd causeway,
Enjoying the sun, the calm, the SMOOTH lake surface,
Suddenly Paul draws my attention to the lake two miles to our west.

We are in bright sunshine,
Two miles west, where the lake narrows
To essentially the channel of the Neuse River,
A cloud is resting upon the surface of the lake.

Dense fog cloud.
Blanketing the lake surface,
And the "hills" and trees on each side.
The top of the fog cloud was about another hundred or two feet above the tops of the trees.
Slowing drifting off, away from the base of the fog cloud.
Being pushed by the gentle breeze.

Sorry, no photo.

By the time we looped around to where that early morning fog remnant gave us the above view,
All was sunshine and building warmth.

Only two other interesting things on the day were ...

1. A hand-cyclist in the midst of the Gyro-"A" peloton. 
2. I dropped the Mallet on the Ghoston climb.  And he didn't even have a 20-lb barbell in his bag!  

Paul being three months away from any real cycling,
Combined with apparently getting a bit low on energy,
Did the trick.

I doubt I'll ever get to the top of any other climb before Paul.
And certainly not to the top of mountain climb.

Still ... 

-------------------------------------------------------------------
We had a enjoyable time in the early day sun and calm.
That is my story, and I'm sticking to it.
Paul might even agree with it.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Mar-17:  

--> Falls Lake Loop --> ; 59.3 m.; 3h51 in-motion; 15.4 mph (we were avg'ing 15.8 when we went our separate ways after 50.0 miles together -- probably avg'd faster than that around the lake).  

Jan tot: __6 rides; __426.2 m.; _28 h, 52 m; 14.8 mph. 

Feb tot: __6 rides; __591.0 m.; _40 h, 15 m; 14.7 mph. 

Mar tot: __6 rides; __311.5 m.; _21 h, 16 m; 14.6 mph. 

YTD tot: _18 rides; 1,328.7 m.; _90 h, 23 m; 14.7 mph.