I rode 33 miles yesterday, my third time leading a club ride in a week, 11th so far this year. It was an all-class ride starting at 9:30 am. I had declared several weeks ago that I was done with getting up early for bike rides this year because I prefer to let the sun warm things up as much as possible before rides in the fall and winter. But yesterday's ride was special. It was billed as a rededication of a rail trail that had been closed for about a year due to utility work in the area, but really it was a surprise dedication of a new trailside bench in honor of two members of our club, a married couple who have devoted many hours to improving conditions for cyclists over the past several decades. The plan was to offer two routes -- an out-and-back on the trail and a slightly longer route that started on the trail and then circled around on roads back to the start. I volunteered as one of the leaders for the longer route.

The weather forecast did not look good when I went to bed the night before -- overnight lows in the 30s, highs the next day reaching 50 but with strong cold winds from the NW. I prepared a winter riding outfit. Happily when I woke up at 6 am I found that the temperature had not gone below the mid-40s. It was still windy, with the worst headwinds at the the start of the ride, but the sun warmed things up and we spent enough time with tailwinds or on roads sheltered from the wind to make it an unexpectedly good day for cycling. I still wore my warmest tights (PI Amfibs) and my Woolie Boolie socks, but otherwise wore lighter-weight clothes than I had originally planned and was more than warm enough.

As for the main event, the surprise bench dedication, no one expected that we would really be able to keep it a surprise from the honorees. But we were wrong -- it was such a surprise that only one of them came to the ride, as the other had a prior commitment helping out at a local food pantry. Nonetheless it was a nice ceremony, well worth an early start on a blustery day.