The winner of the ride route, destination & direction questions for this AM (barely yet) would be decided by my feeling the need for some speed. Thought I felt decently strong at least to start with the downhill portion of Ricky Gap to Narrows along Wolf Creek & hit that slope fairly hard. Of course like the fast teammate pacesetter @ the beginning of a mile race on a track who fades badly @ the end, that left me w/ considerably less energy for the uphill return. Stuck to the straight script along Rt. 61, but with an anfractuous prefix & suffix to tack a few more miles on towards 2020 for the year. Important especially since I may not get the 500 from M2C unless we can find a relief vet, since Dr. Hobson will be a new Mom ~1 week before the ride. Just realized that today Thursday 7/30 (finally had an IT light bulb [very dim for me] come on tonight, "dummy, turn on the Garmin Edge so the phone w/ restored Garmin, after they finally on day 5~ shook off the Russian hacker-ransomer, somehow, can FIND the ride data & synch it", since I had been waiting to post the ride across apps for 3~ more days now). So will have to hustle to get another 1300 miles in before 12/31/20. Set a new PR for 40km on way down. Felt good. Sore for return, but no rain! Tried to get photo looking down on train from a rise along Lurich Rd, but just missed the caboose go by, after keeping pace on the flats, till the little rise. Bamboo groves look good this summer w/ the rain, hay has been good, everything is still pretty green & not turning brown & dry. Credit for the terrific barred owl pic @ the end goes to the expectant Dr. Hobson's MTB'ing husband Robbie's ride last weekend, I think up near Pocahontas County. Having a hard time getting him to do more road biking & join me on a 4-member team & do the bucket-list RAAM to support local animal rescues maybe in 2022 or 2023, Lord willing. But I haven't given up on Robbie yet...