Night Ride

This seems foolish in light of what Josh is going through, but here we go.

Rather than an early am Sunday ride, with Heather’s blessing, I headed out for a ride through twilight into the dark.

Outstanding. I need to do this more.

Took off from 332 trail head on Iron Springs just after sunset at 7:15. Proceeded up, up, up and ended up on pavement where Happy Valley road meets Skyline. Did a road descent to Iron Springs, then descended further to Little Granite trailhead. Needed to turn on the lights at the trailhead.

My primary light was my Dinotte 5W led light on the helmet, secondary light was a Light and Motion Commuter model 12W halogen My tertiary back up light was the nearly full moon.

I climbed up 37, walking more of it than I would have liked to, the descended down to 40, and down into Granite Basin. I blazed both lights full power on the descents. I found myself descending a bit slower than usual. It is really amazing all the minute things your brain is picking up and processing in daylight. All those cues are gone, and I found myself having to trust the bike a bit more since I was not able to read the traction of the trail quite as well with the lights. I definitely skidded the rear more for some reason. Interestingly, technical sections actually looked quite a bit easier under the lights. Switchbacks foiled me badly since it was hard to plan a line up them.

I have the Reba on El Comandante again, and was reminded just how much I like riding a hardtail. Beats you up enough to know you had fun, but lots of forgiveness and control. Not too beat up like rigid. Definitely does not climb as well, however.

I climbed up 349, through Cayuse area, and up to 332. I sat there a while debating a loop around the Basin, and decided to go for it, so it was left and downhill, left at the next turn. Down the tight technical trail into Mint Wash, left to the lake, back up to 332 again, the out to Iron Springs.

All in all 2:45, and my lights did not burn out with my power management, so they should be adequate for any night ride I want to do in the future.

It was a little freaky being out there alone in the dark. Knowing I’m in prime lion habitat at their prime hunting time. I only freaked once when I scared something off the trail in front of me. Luckily I was hauling down 40 at the time, so it was well behind me quickly. I mainly worried in Mint wash and near the lake since that is the primary water source in the area. Kitty’s got to drink you know.

Animals seen:

One rear of a Javelina trying to get off the trail in front of me.

Several speckled ground roosting birds slightly smaller than a quail. No idea what they were as I have never seen them before. They would freak you out because they sit on the ground like a rock until you are right on top of them, the fly up in front of you.

A very pleasant experience it was to bike under the moon. I turned the lights off a few times, and if I was outside of the tree cover, I could see fairly clearly. I got to watch Venus set behind Granite Mountain.

Josh was on my mind a lot, and I spent a decent portion of the ride praying for him. I took him out to GB once, and distinctly remember him crashing in a certain part. I doubt we will get to ride again.