Roctober Rides

I had a nice bike ride today. There were several good rides listed on the club calendar yesterday, but I had some bike issues to resolve at the LBS and wanted to visit a friend who's in the hospital. So I planned out a route in the rural area in southern Anne Arundel County, MD (west and south of Annapolis) that included a visit to the Chesapeake Bay, and I posted it for others to join me.

We had a small, compatible group. There were six of us in all, plus another friend who did a century yesterday, so he rode at a slower pace and took a shortcut after the first rest stop. It was cold last night, with lows in the 40s, so we started late morning to let things warm up a bit. It was a bit breezy but the sun was warm and the sky was a beautiful shade of blue. We had a very nice ride, 46 miles in all.

I took this in North Beach, on the Bay.

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25+ miles along the Interurban, clear blue October skies, and even a few flowers along the way still. I was excited to see this little one:

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I have no idea what it is, but I usually only see it June and July. And only in one spot, which ends up being mowed down at some point. This little guy somehow escaped the mower.

Also a sunflower forest alongside the trail:

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What a treat.

I always have trouble this time of year with over dressing for a ride. It starts out in the low 50s in the morning, which is cool, until I start riding, then I get overheated quickly. Especially when the sun is shining. Takes me a few autumn rides to get my layers worked out.

I keep a journal for non-summer rides so I can note what clothes were comfortable under different conditions. It can be hard to believe that the sun will really warm me up when it's 44 degrees when I wake up and 55 at the ride start. But in October, the sun is still reasonably strong. Of course if the clouds roll in, it's a whole different ballgame.

Today I tested a wool shrug from Moxie that I bought at REI over the summer. It was quite cozy.

http://www.moxiecycling.com/ProductD...tCode=BOL14500

Yay for sunflower forests!!! :)

Rode to Pasadena to photograph a 1913 bridge for a monthly photo thread on another site. 58 miles round trip on city streets. Being in the 90’s made me stop for some other photos AND some plum sorbet and a strawberry lemon crullant on the way back :)

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Sunday I got out for a beautiful 45-mile ride out to Mercer Island, going around it in both directions, and back home. There were tons of cyclists out--it might turn out to have been our last dry weekend before the autumn/winter falling damps set in.

I'll admit that I stepped outside looking forward to the refreshing crispness of fall air, and was almost disappointed at how summery it felt. But I eventually resigned myself to the tragedy of bicycling in 70 degrees and sunshine ;)

The good weather has made it easy to bike commute to my Tuesday/Saturday job (the easiest of my several to bike to)--I'm going to try to keep it up even as we transition into rain. I have a hard time starting a ride in the rain, but once I'm biking in the rain, I actually think it's pretty fun. I always feel better biking to this job, and more importantly, getting the time on the bike on the way home, so here's hoping I stick it out and have some rainy commutes to report as the month goes by :)

Meanwhile, I'm slowly getting blog posts up about my cycling trip in Italy, which has been really fun as I relive each day. And I can't recommend highly enough Cinghiale Tours if you're looking for an Italian cycling vacation.

We bit off a bit more than we'd expected for our first October Ride. Did a S24O in the desert. We rode a section of the Idaho Centennial Trail. Picked it up outside of Bruneau, Id at the Bruneau Canyon Overlook and rode to Indian Hot Springs. In hindsight tackling 35 miles of this trail on loaded bikes was a challenge. The Hot Springs were wonderful, the two mile bike push/climb out in the morning certainly got the heart rate up. Ride back was dubbed the infinity desert ride - miles and miles of open country - no fall foliage on this one. Very rocky and bumpy so quite a bit of bouncing around on the saddle, I think everyone came back with sore behinds :)Attachment 17413Attachment 17414Attachment 17415

The weather has been unseasonably warm so I'm making the best of it. I have a few routes that I like to ride on and was pleasantly surprised to find that the main road (very busy city street) I use to get out of town had actually been swept by the street sweeper. It was the cleanest I've ever experienced with no glass, gravel and the various stages of road kill were all gone. It made for a very pleasant beginning to my 30 mile loop.

today was a wet and windy 45 miles with the infamous Cochate road outside of Sealy- 17 hills or rollers that you neeed to peddle up in 5.8 miles and just to prove we could do it we did it in both directions. about half the ride was against a steady 15 mph hour wind and the whole ride was enlightened with frequent " cow pissing on a flat river rock" type down pours of anyting from 30 seconds to a couple of minutes. I consider having survived it a victory because it has been 6 months since I have done any climbing or had to deal with quite this much wind. The rain was just an added surprise.

However that makes 100 miles for the week so I can't complain.

The bridge pictures were just stunning...wow!

A couple of interesting rides this week. A few days ago, just on the way home from the grocery store, saw a coyote trotting along near my neighborhood. Just looked like he was on a mission, glanced over at me and kept going. A few people out walking were a little freaked out, I guess I would have been too. Somehow felt safe on the bike anyway, I don't know if I WAS safe, but I wasn't too worried about him. :rolleyes:

Yesterday did about 20 miles along the Interurban, and found someone's credit cards laying on the trail! At first I rode by them thinking it was just trash, but something made me stop and turn around and have a second look... This is the 2nd time I've rescued credit cards laying on the ground in the last few years. No wallet or anything, just a couple of debit cards (for the same person) and a McDonalds gift certificate. I decided I should drop them off at the bank on my way home, about 4-5 miles out of my way, only to discover when I got there they were closed for Columbus Day... rats. Took them by the bank this morning though. Other than that it was a terrific morning ride before our rain and wind storm hit later that day. The light was beautiful with the storm clouds just hanging out to the north.

We were in the Burlington, VT for our Canadian Thanksgiving long weekend. Rode 2 days. A cold and cloudy Saturday and warm, sunny but windy Sunday. Took roads and bike paths and drivers are so courteous on the roads we cycled. Very different than Montreal area for sure. We'll have to go back. :) No pictures taken but scenery was spectaculor as usual at this time of the year.

Our campings are already booked for 2015 season. :)

We now only bike on weekends as it is dark too early and I have dogs to take care of when we get home from work. That and some outdoor chores we try to do during that little light we have left.

I have been super lazy about posting- have ridden over 300 miles this month but nothing longer than about 45 miles. I'm supposed to ride a century Sunday.... not sure if I will stick with the century distance or do the 71. I did a couple of 60+ mile rides in September and then had a cranky IT band and hip for a few weeks. Trying to get ready for El Tour de Tucson in November.

I too have been riding but not posting. We've been traveling from the NW to the SE and stopping to ride in many places along the way. I'm behind on the blog (we're now in Mississippi and blog is still back in the west), but here are some of the rides I have had time to blog:

Crater Lake NP (only my DH rode this one, I drove it): http://travelingtwosome.weebly.com/t...y-bike-and-car

Northern California Redwoods: http://travelingtwosome.weebly.com/t...g-the-redwoods

Redding, California: http://travelingtwosome.weebly.com/t...ing-california

Reno, Nevada: http://travelingtwosome.weebly.com/t...-reno-and-elko

Salt Lake City (various bike trails and "Cycle the City" downtown: http://travelingtwosome.weebly.com/t...lake-city-utah

~~ Emily

I've been to Elko. My sister lives there. Lamoille Canyon is nearby, and it's a nice place for a hike.

Did you take I-80 to SLC? It's quite a drive. There's a 50-mile stretch that is completely straight, and the salt flats are like another planet. And at the state line, the difference between Wendover, NV and Wendover, UT is striking.

Really nice, Emily. I find it interesting that all of these places have bike trails that you can ride for miles. We have nothing like that around here.
This really reminds me that I have seen very little of this country.

So many memories with that blog. We traveled those areas a few years ago and loved it. Salt Lake city flats are something to see in a lifetime too. Can't wait to retire in a few years to travel and cycle as much as we will like in X area.

True we do not have such paths here either but we have a few. And road conditions are rarely wow.