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Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Riding my bike

Came home from work and plopped on the couch, Judge Judy was on. I fell asleep and woke up and she was reaming somebody out two cases later. Felt semi comatose, I always do when I first wake up from falling asleep after work. Nuked the half cup of coffee that was still in the pot from this morning, poured some milk in with it, drank it down, and checked the outside temperature and dressed for a bike ride at 15 degrees F.



Headed out on the trails, was a pleasant thought to see that it was just enough light to still see at 5:30 p.m.
Soon the darkness won out and my light lit my path. Rode for an hour out away from town. Saw no one.
Headed back I saw lights dancing on the trail in front of me, I knew this meant snow mobiles behind me. I pulled over to let them by and raised my hand to let them know we share the same passion, to be out here day or night.
Two snow mobiles went by and waved, the third one stopped, and started saying something while I was trying to pull my ear buds out from underneath my balaclava so I could hear what he was saying. He held out his hand to share a high V and said to me while putting a hand on my 4 inch bike tire. "I ain't ever seen nothing like this before, I've rode Ragbrai, but never seen a bike like this."



We exchanged brief commentary and I told him without you snow mobiles making a path, I would not have these places to ride. He nodded and disappeared into the darkness.

I couldn't see my bike computer to see how fast I was going. Started sliding out a few times, but caught it in time to keep from bouncing on the trail.

I reflected on how much I love it out here, and how peaceful it is as night. I was thinking I would like to spend more time doing night rides, do some longer rides. Will have to make plans.



Thanks for stopping by.
DAve.

7 comments:

dawn marie giegerich said...

Winter brings its own kind of peace. The season seems to understand solitude.

Harry Legge's Cycling Blog said...

Nice!

Anonymous said...

I don't have the snow and trails to ride close by like you do, but I am starting to ride a bit at night and just love it.

Joboo said...

Riding at night makes trails you know like the back of your hand.....seem like new!!!
Ride on!!!

Peace

Clive Chapman said...

No pun intended mate, but that's very cool! :-)

Unknown said...

Makes me giddy seeing that. Mine should be here by Monday at the latest.

I found a Mukluk in your area and they shipped it yesterday.

Thanks for the motivation Dave

TrevorW�� said...

I agree - night riding is something special...