Big Dogs Nipping at Your Toes

I rode nearly to Why-oh-ming today. It was freezing when we started and I had only brought arm warmers. Luckily, the girl I rode with had come prepared with a jacket she didn't want to wear (or so she said). But by about 10 miles in I was ready to lose the jacket and the pants I had on to boot. So there I stood taking off most of my clothes on the side of the road. Good thing there was very little traffic. We hid the clothes in the bushes, marked the hiding place with a broken reflector and continued on. Lots of rolling hills on the way out. Going out I'm thinking, "Oh man, I've got to save my legs if I'm going to make it back to the car." Those were some big rollers. But once we turned back, the road seemed to be all downhill. Weird.
Anyway, as I'm climbing one of the bigger climbs, a big, mean, scary, snarling white dog starts barking and I can tell by the look on it's face it wants to eat me. "Not now!" I think. "Not on this hill!" But, I must save myself from being a tasty doggie snack, so I stand it up and sprint. My riding partner, who was riding behind me, says it looked like the dog was nipping at my tires. By the time I dared to look back, the mangy mutt was standing in the road eyeballing her. She tells me all she had to do was look the dog in the eye and tell it to STAY. Good stratigy.
A little way up the road, I'm squinting, I can't believe my eyes. Could it really be? There's a herd of cattle being driven down the road. Why is this so surprising? I'll tell you why: the only two times I have ridden bikes with the person I rode with today, there has been a cattle drive on the road. The first time it happened in a road race, Garden Creek Gap. Click here to see a funny video my hubby took of the pros dealing with the cattle at that race.
After riding about 15 miles toward Wyoming, we decided it was getting too hot and we turned around and went back. The way back was really nice. I didn't realize how much climbing we had done on the way out until we turned around and everything felt fast and smooth.
It was a beautiful ride. Here's a picture of me on the way out: