Roctober Rides

[ny biker]

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

[rebeccaC]

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

[khg]

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.

[Sky King]

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

[Raindrop]

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.

[marni]

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.

[AppleTree]

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.

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.

[CAS]

Oh, Rebecca! I LOVE your photos--especially, the one you gave a vintage look!

[emily_in_nc]

Oh, Rebecca! I LOVE your photos--especially, the one you gave a vintage look!

Rebecca takes the most amazing photos!

Rebecca, if you are not a professional photographer, I am surprised. You certainly could be!