John’s Ramblings

It is a significantly different experience riding a bicycle at 38 degrees Fahrenheit vs. 48.

Tuesday last week, Use It or Lose It was basking in a tropical 48 degrees. One fellow had fingerless gloves on. Not everyone covered their ears, and shoe covers were the exception.

Last night it was 38 degrees by the time we finished our 21 mile loop. Even though I wore heavy wool socks AND neoprene shoe covers, my toes were mighty cold by the end of the ride. It was fortunate that my co-leader Tom took inventory of heads at the start of the ride, as we were able to lend out head- or ear-covering to two riders who were slightly less equipped. We had 8 riders total, which is a great turnout for such a chilly evening.

It was a nice ride. I was surprised at the amount of traffic on the trail last night. I had speculated that few riders would brave the cold, but we saw several riders heading in the opposite direction. There was one owl sighting, and dozens of rabbits were grazing alongside the trail, getting spooked by the group of cyclists. One bunny did the “suicide dash” between a rider’s wheels. From what I could tell at 17 mph, the bunny made it through without serious injury, but his cottontail may have a little less cotton this morning.

21 miles on the night, but only 67 miles month to date. I’m going to have to get my ass in gear if I am going to make 200 miles in November. I may need to concoct a longish ride on Saturday to pad things a bit.

4,671 miles y-t-d.

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.