Evening Family Ride; Night Solo Ride

Evening on the Stillwater 
My last training ride before the race couldn't have been better.  We started next to Jeffrey's Landing, on the Stillwater River, with the four of us: Rose, Yokie, Kip and myself.  It had been a super hot day, and as the sun set the river bottom became nice and cool and breezy.  Yokie and I rode together while Rose rode ahead with Kip usually following her.  They did eight miles!  Yokie did eight miles on a dirt road, with a cruiser bike with skinny tires, really proud of her.
Nite Solo Ride
I loaded up Kip and the girls, turned the truck around for Yokie, and she drove home.  Kip had to be locked up outside while I was gone because he found a rotten fish on the riverbank and rolled all around in it.  He went home to air out, and I headed up to try Buck Creek Mesa Loop, south of town.  The ride was a pleasant surprise, with one special highlight.  In all my years in Albuquerque, in the hot parts of Montana and Colorado, Utah and Wyoming, I've never actually run into a rattlesnake.  I can cross that off my list.  About three miles up the climb just as the sun set, I almost literally ran into this guy:

He never did rattle, and I'm not %100 sure it's a rattler, but it sure looks like one.  I didn't want to go any closer to get a good pic.  I've seen a few of the other MT snakes (Gopher, Garter) and this one was different, much stouter and more tense, like a loaded spring.
It was the perfect sendoff for a big race in NoDak!