First Bike Ride of 2011...and Llamas

Jim and I were finally able to do our first bike ride of the season...the weather has been rainy and/or too cold forever. We had to get out early though because it's supposed to get into the 90s this afternoon and be windy. Doing your first ride of the year under those conditions would not be fun. As it was, all the rain had left the trails pretty muddy and full of gullies and puddles. So we got really dirty.

We went 17 miles, which is generally not stellar but pretty decent for a first ride of the season. Contrary to what I had thought would be the case, my legs did not seem better able to do the ride because of all my treadmill work. Really didn't seem to make much difference; perhaps it's different muscles being worked out?

There was a really cool bonus this ride (we often seem to have little 'moments' on the bike trails). This time, as we were riding along, we came upon a woman who was walking her two...llamas. Yeah, llamas! We stopped and I got to pet them (Jim wouldn't touch them).  One was the color of this guy pictured here, and the other was white. They stood about 6 feet tall, and their fur was very thick and soft. It was weird to see their feet too, which have two big toes and that's it. They were tame and quite used to people.

Nice way to kick off the biking season!