I ride about 90% of the time by myself... Same with skiing, maybe 50% of the time I kayak alone.. Finding people that want to participate in expensive time consuming hobbies with me at a similar level can be difficult... I'm not super fast or anything, but I'm more "hardcore" than your average weekend warrior. And I was pretty much finding that if I waited for someone to do it with me, I wasn't doing those activities.

I can't say that I'm thrilled with going to a restaurant alone and eating dinner, but for the most part, I've found that I enjoy hiking, biking, skiing or kayaking whether I do it by myself or with someone else. Part of it was just adjusting to the mindset that if I enjoy doing such activities with someone else, then I should be able to enjoy them on my own. It's fun going wheee all the way down a hill whether or not someone's with you to do it.

So when I started biking... I basically studied the road maps in my area (I'd just moved here) and learned the major roads - I head out with a map in my pack, and a GPS, but usually don't have a specific route in mind, I just ride, and take some road that I've never taken before, explore - so I'm always seeing something new, and eventually I get back to one of the major roads and i can find my way back home from there... Not doing a set ride means there's always a surprise or some discovery. I also take my camera along, and I love taking pictures, so I get to stop whenever I want and take pics. When I'm riding/hiking/whatevering with someone else, I'm invariably feeling like I'm slowing them down because I like to stop and take 20 pics of the pretty mushroom or whatever I've spotted. On my own, I can do all of that I want and not feel bad for interrupting someone else's ride/hike/what not.