Night Riding

[Sky King]

I did it!! Between work, the broken foot and early sunsets getting out for anything beyond a few miles has been tough. But last night the DH and I took the bikes on one of our favorite loops, in the dark. We both have schmidt dynamo hubs and decent lamps (he has two) plus some excellent tail lights.
The two biggest things for me were climbing the hills (out of shape from not riding and still not back into my cycling shoes) and worried about descending in the dark and going "faster than the speed of light" No fears, we took our time, traffic wasn't too bad, we were reverse of the commuters. The peace and quiet and the STARS, oh the stars. It felt so wonderful to get out. Hope the rain, snow and ice hold off for a bit longer so we can do it again.

[Catrin]

Sounds like you had an awesome time, your description made me smile

[Rebecca19804]

The peace and quiet and the STARS, oh the stars.

This is why I love night riding! (That, and so little traffic.)
Glad you made it out and had such a wonderful time.

[Biciclista]

stars? wow. Unfortunately riding at night doesn't often give me a great stellar display... I guess I am far too busy watching the road for cracks, debris, and motor vehicles..

but congrats to you!

[shootingstar]

Yup, I agree with Mimi that is the case for me as well. Still it's lovely to cycle on quiet, open stretches of road at night. I used to cycle-commute daily through Stanley Park in Vancouver ----in the dark. This park if you are unfamiliar has tall old growth trees/woods, bushes. Totally different character and spooky compared to day time with tons of cyclists, roller bladers, joggers. Some areas don't have street lights along the inner roads.

However I guess we could go night wilderness riding in the Rockies ...and hope not to run into a deer, bear, elk, bighorn mountain goat, moose... Another extreme. The locals get bothered by elk and deer tromping around into their gardens and at the front door in the downtown area.

Seriously these animals are in abundance because they are in protected huge national and provincial parks. And night time would bring them out.

We live 120 kms. south of Banff, the start of combined urban and wilderness...which rapidly peeters out after only 10 kms. from town into wilderness. Most paths going out of town don't have any streetlights. It would be pitch black dark into wilderness.

[Crankin]

Most of the areas where I ride in the dark do not have many street lights. It's close to pitch dark, which is why I have a very good light. I can definitely see the stars! But most of my dark riding is in the early AM, so I not only see the stars, but I also see the sun rise at different times of the year. Two years ago, my town stopped lighting about 30% of the street lights to save $, but there was such an uproar, they were put back on. Still, I suspect most of you would think it's pretty dark around here, even with the lights back on.
I never thought I'd like riding in the dark, as I don't see that well when driving at night, but with riding, it's different. I just go slower and generally I am riding on roads I am very familiar with. I've had a few deer jump across the road at me, once, right across the street from my driveway, as I was slowing. I's kind of surreal when that happens.

[goride]

Sky King - your ride sounds like a beautiful, peaceful ride. I am glad you got a chance to get out on your bike now that your foot is good enough to ride and I hope the cycling season holds on for you for at least a little longer.

[Sky King]

Shooting Star - we call woods like that the boogey man forest and that would be spooky. I grew up in Yellowstone National Park so I totally hear you about who comes out at night when I was young, we weren't allowed to play outside after dark because of the bears raiding the garbage cans, which of course ended when they closed all the open dumps and changed all the cans.


[/QUOTE]We live 120 kms. south of Banff, the start of combined urban and wilderness...which rapidly peeters out after only 10 kms. from town into wilderness. Most paths going out of town don't have any streetlights. It would be pitch black dark into wilderness.[/QUOTE]

[Sky King]

stars? wow. Unfortunately riding at night doesn't often give me a great stellar display... I guess I am far too busy watching the road for cracks, debris, and motor vehicles..

but congrats to you!

Mimi, one thing about riding in the dark for me, I stop more. God forbid I would try to look at the sky while pedaling. We both comment on how much we notice the wobble of the front wheel when climbing in the dark because you see your headlight moving - I blame it on not being able to fix my eyes on something in the distance - certainly not my bike handling skills