I think there’s something to this “getting old” thing. For the second straight Saturday, I’m incredibly sore after a ride. But that never deters me. The payoff during the ride and after the pain has faded makes it worth it.
A look at the weather report earlier this week had me thinking about going toward the Northwest. Joon and I did a great ride out there around a year and a half ago. But then Albert shows us a video of a few Korean gravel riders taking some of the rougher roads in that direction too, so I looked into it. I knew there’d be challenges — a few gates to get around, and one big challenge you’ll see in the pictures (that we weren’t expecting) — but it all seemed manageable.
Very cold this morning — our first autumn ride that started in the 30s. Layering was important, and I did quite well, not getting too hot even though the day ended in the 60s. We just didn’t want to get wet anywhere along the route. There’s nothing quite so miserable as getting soaked when the temps are below 50 as it is, so we had to be cautious. Still, you can’t control whether a squall is going to come through and give you a bit of a dousing, and that’s almost what happened to us. We caught a few sprinkles (quite a few in one spot, along with a stiff wind to drive them), and looking back from where we came, we saw we avoided what looked like a downpour. But we still got a little wet, and the radar was showing more on the way.
Except there wasn’t. It all moved rather quickly to the east of us, and by the time we got out in the open on roads that ran through some beautiful waterfowl habitat, the sky had cleared almost completely (and the few clouds left were beautiful themselves). It turned out to be a wonderful ride. One for the memories…
