Steve, Ray, and I rode Shellene Foster's 153k Quinlan Loop permanent today. I was ready for an easy weekend ride. It seems funny to consider a 100 mile ride an easy ride, but I hadn't had a weekend go by without at least 120 miles of riding since mid-September. So, when Steve invited me to join him on this ride, it seemed like a good idea.
 
This ride starts in Wylie, heads east through Lavon and Caddo Mills, then near the north end of Lake Tawakoni, loops south to Quinlan, then back through Caddo Mills and Lavon. I can say with some certainty that it will never be one of my favorite routes. It has too much really rough chipseal, too much traffic, and too many high speed roads with no shoulders. I haven't been passed close by vehicles this many times on one ride in quite a while.
 
In spite of that, today was a really fun day. It was cool enough this morning that Steve, Ray, and I all started out wearing arm warmers. I really felt like I had lead in my legs the first few miles. I didn't know why at the time, but looking at my Garmin graph, I can see that the first 20 miles were very uphill. It's a really flat route overall, but you wouldn't know it by that first 20 miles. And we were going against the wind most of that stretch, too. After we stopped at the first control in Caddo Mills, I started to feel like I had my legs working again.
 
That's not to say I could keep up with Ray and Steve when they decided to pick up the pace. We kind of alternated between an easy pace and brisk pace. During the stretches where the traffic was less and we could actually have a conversation while we rode, we tended to slow down. We had no particular finishing time in mind, and we took our time at the controls.
 
The roads near the north end of Lake Tawakoni were quiet and very scenic, but too much of the rest of the ride, I was watching traffic too much to enjoy the scenery. When we weren't going against the north wind, this was truly a beautiful day to be riding. We handled the busy parts of the route with no problems, and finished up in 8 hours even. With some turns we missed early in the ride, we ended up with 100 miles even (after circling the block a couple of times at the end to make it an even century), rather than the advertised 95 miles. My on the bike average was 16.5 mph, which figures to 6 hours of actual riding time, so we definitely spent a generous amount of time in the controls. Total climbing for the route was just 1833 feet. I haven't ridden a 100 mile route that flat since......... you guessed it, HHH, which only had 1600 feet of climbing.
 
After the ride, we had some excellent Mexican food at the Dos Charros restaurant in Wylie, and called it a day. Thanks, Steve and Ray, I had a great time today!
 

As Bud said ,he will be scratching this route off his "favorites list". The chip seal is brutal & the traffic is almost non-stop(on busy roads). In spite of those hurdles ,I enjoyed the day. The weather was perfect. I had originally planned to ride the route by myself. I'm thankful that Bud & Ray accepted my invitation to ride with me.  
 
The chip seal was to bad ,I felt it hard to get into a rhythm speed wise. A few wrong turns(bonus miles) in the beginning ,then the navigation was spot-on.  
 
I always enjoy riding with Ray & Bud. Yesterday was no exception. Thanks Ray for the meal. We made good time during the last 38+ plus miles.  
 
 
 

Well, I'm glad you guys usually find these chipseal-laden routes before me, so I never have to put them on my must-ride list  

North Denton & Collin counties can/do have some nasty chip seal. Most of the roads on the Dart will be worn chip seal. Like Nelson said ,it's unavoidable.

Hi Guys,
 
This was a great read, I dont even know what chipseal is can you explain it to me.  I was looking at bike racks at walmart and they have a 2 bike rack for around 40 dollars, i know i am going to need to get one soon, i want to get the 2 bike carrier so if i can ever talk the wife into riding with me we will not need to get another...plus i know i will need it so that one day i can try to make one of these runs with yawl.
 
On the blacktop roads i ride I just have to pull off the road if a car is coming to fast and i think they might not be paying attention. but i am thinking that the hills on these roads will be a good thing for me later when i go on my first outing with yawl.
 
You guys rock!
 
thanks for sharing,
 
Don

Thanks,
 
Yeah, i guess most all of the roads i have around me are chipseal then a few of the areas have the rocks still sticking out but not to bad.
 
Thanks for explaining it to me.
 
Don