I decided to risk the rain (which caught me at the end of the ride anyway) to ride about a two hour loop from my house to Buford Dam and back. It was a fairly simple ride, although I left my pre-planned route a few times to go exploring some of the side roads at the dam.

New Zumo 660

This is a shot of the new Zumo 660 installed and ready to go. It replaced the TomTom Rider 2 I had purchased just a few weeks ago. It has better Mac support and route planning, although there is a bug (that has reportedly been fixed in BETA) that alters routes that are created on a computer.

Buford Dam Visitor's Center

I arrived at Buford Dam and left my pre-planned route to explore side streets. First, I found the visitor center, as seen above.

Base Of The Dam

I left the visitor center and headed down another road where I found a parking area. From here, I was very close to the base of the dam.

Zoomed In On The Water

A closer shot of the area just left of the bridge.

Looking Back At The Dam

I went back out the road I came in on, and stopped to get a parting shot of the dam.

Picnic Area

I then crossed the dam, and found another road to explore. This one led to another parking area with a picnic spot and boat ramp. You can just barely see the dam, and off to the right of the dam is the parking area where I took the previous pictures.

Waters Near Boat Ramp

I stood on the boat ramp and got a shot of some people fishing in the waters controlled by the dam. There were actually quite a few people fishing, swimming, and one even jet skiing.

Dirt Road Leaving Picnic Area

This is the dirt road I went down to get to the parking and picnic area above. It wasn’t too bad, but there were potholes everywhere. Each time I tried to avoid one, an oncoming car tried to avoid one too. Luckily, we were all creeping along, so it wasn’t any big deal.

From here, I continued around the dam and took back roads through small towns until I got home. I was testing my Zumo 660, new camera (Canon SD780IS), and my new Camelbak (not a lot of testing required for that one). All in all, everything worked well, I was comfortable, and the ride was enjoyable, even when I got rained on pretty heavily. The only complaint I had was that at one point, the Zumo 660 refused to accept that I had passed a waypoint, so it kept trying to reroute me to the “missed” waypoint. Very frustrating, but a good learning experience nevertheless.