September rides

[emily_in_nc]

As for the mud thing, well, it's all part of the mountain bike image, I suppose. As they say, a clean mountain bike is a mountain bike that is not being used.

True, but there is such a thing as riding in dry areas! That's for me. I think the younger MTBers like to get as muddy as they possibly can as this shows how hard they rode, or some such. I am certainly not in that subculture, and I have nothing to prove. I think anyone 50+ who is on a MTB should be commended anyway. We are certainly in a distinct minority.

PS Really enjoying your blogs!

Thank you! It's nice when someone besides my mom reads 'em!

[Crankin]

So, it looks like I won't have anymore miles in September. Pathetic. It's going to be raining through Friday, except tomorrow, when I am working from 9-7. I will go to the gym, but unless I ride to work, no more. And the weekend looks even worse.

[ny biker]

Yes my weekly hill ride is rained out, and I'll be out of town this weekend.

Continuing this year's trend of working hard to get in shape then being off the bike just long enough to lose it.

[north woods gal]

Looks like you girls are getting that rain that has been hanging on, here, in northern Wisconsin for three days. Supposed to have sunshine, tomorrow, though. Hang in, there.

Picked up a cold, this week, but said the heck with it and just did a little mountain biking around the house. Might not be the smartest thing to do, but, hey, at least I did some riding.

[ny biker]

I think our rain has actually been coming up from the south. Though I was expecting to get hit with the same storms that have been hitting the midwest -- maybe they stayed farther north and that is what's hitting Massachusetts. We've had showers on and off since yesterday with very heavy rain overnight, more than 4" in Winchester VA which is west of DC, near the WV border, but also very heavy rains yesterday and overnight in southern Maryland, on either side of the Chesapeake Bay -- up to 7". Showers and gray skies and flash flooding expected to continue through tomorrow, and now they're saying rain will linger into the weekend.

It occurred to me this morning that I will be driving home from my weekend trip on Sunday through an area where I love to ride. But I'm already frazzled trying to get packed and all the errands run before I leave tomorrow night, and trying to pack up the bike and all the related gear on top of that would be too much. If I get home early enough and it's not raining (and if 'm not too hungover!) I will try to do a short local ride on Sunday afternoon/evening. I can't go mountain biking around my house but I can do loops on the roads in my 'hood, up and down the hills.

[Crankin]

Looks like the rain is holding off until late Friday night here, so I will be able to do a shorter ride after lunch tomorrow. I did go to the gym this morning and feel a bit better. Looks like the weekend will suck as far as weather goes. And we will have our granddaughter overnight Saturday; had planned to walk into town with her Sunday and take her to Octoberfest Saturday (never too young for a street fair), so even those walking things look doubtful. Hopefully, I will get to the gym.

[ny biker]

Looks like the rain is holding off until late Friday night here, so I will be able to do a shorter ride after lunch tomorrow. I did go to the gym this morning and feel a bit better. Looks like the weekend will suck as far as weather goes. And we will have our granddaughter overnight Saturday; had planned to walk into town with her Sunday and take her to Octoberfest Saturday (never too young for a street fair), so even those walking things look doubtful. Hopefully, I will get to the gym.

Will you or your husband be attaching a trailer to your bike for your grandchildren? I have a friend who took his kids to all the local parks by bike/trailer when they were younger.

[Crankin]

She's not old enough for a trailer, yet. They have to be able to hold their heads up! But, my DH is chomping at the bit to purchase one. He's done some introductory research.
Of course, he's telling me that I am going to be doing the pulling, just to annoy me. I am not sure if I feel comfortable doing that. But, anywhere we would take her would be fairly flat, like into West Concord village, 2 miles away, or even into Concord center, which is about 5 miles. There's a really nice playground in West Concord, so that might be the first place we ride to, with her. I imagine that this will be a purchase for the spring.
We purchased a base unit for her carseat, so that was our big thing for the weekend. Things are way more high tech than they were 34 years ago!

[azfiddle]

Sorry so many of you are being rained out! Actually, we've had rain the last two days but not all day- just afternoon storms. I actually got caught in one yesterday because I really didn't think it was going to rain. I rode 3 miles to go look at a bird and then stood under a shelter for most of an hour during an intense thunderstorm. It eventually slowed, but I finally had my son come to pick me up because it was getting dark and I didn't have my back light.

I posted my Grand Canyon bike tour separately- about 180 miles in four days. Since I got back it's been slower- 4 miles (errands) on Weds and 23 miles on Thursday- to a home visit with a student and some "birding by bike".

[emily_in_nc]

Got in a ride 28-mile ride today and went over 2500 miles on the year. We are in back in Missouri, where we spent a lot of time in early summer, at a different state park campground this time (Long Branch, near Macon). Nice area for riding, though the north wind was a bit chilly today. Still, some nice rural roads and interesting small towns in the area.

I had a close call today that was scary. There were two men riding horses on the road, and when we went to pass them, they got off the road and continued walking on the grass just to the right of the roadway. DH went all the way to the other lane to pass them. I followed him as it looked safe at the time, then I looked back at the men on horses and waved and wished them a good day. By the time I swung my head around to look forward again, there was a car coming right at me! He had decided to pass between me (assuming I was a wrong-way cyclist) and the horses. But I was already on a trajectory to cut back around the horses to the far right side and basically cut right in front of the car!

Fortunately he was going pretty slow. I yelled "oh sh*t!" and managed to dodge him to the right. A definite heart-beater moment! It was totally my fault as I should have looked carefully before pulling back into the right lane in front of the horses. If I had, I would have seen the car coming sooner and stayed far left. It seemed like he came out of nowhere! Very scary, but a wake-up call to me. I think I've been riding so many bike paths lately that sometimes I forget to check for cars. D'oh!

[azfiddle]

Oh - definitely scary!

[north woods gal]

Whew, Emily! If you ride enough miles ...

We've all done it or, at least, I have. Dang those cars, anyway.

[azfiddle]

Today's ride ended quite suddenly: CRASH!

Very pleasant 28 miles, almost all along the bike path that goes over 60 miles around Tucson. I stopped to look for birds at a park, along the path and at the Sweetwater Wetlands. I rode to my husband's work at the community college, with a plan to meet him in 20 minutes at one more stop. I got about 2 blocks further....

I rode through a construction area on the lane that was just dirt... when it became pavement again, there was a 4-5 inch abrupt rise to the asphalt surface and I hit it hard. I heard the whish of the front tire going flat as I jolted into the curb and landed on my side- got some road rash by my knee, scraped my elbow, and bruised my hip and my ego. I'm a little sore, and the bike is at the bike doctor because the front wheel is making a noise as it spins. I've got a few big band-aids on and some sore muscles still, but a good soak in the tub helped.

It's not too bad- I think i could probably ride the Surly tomorrow along the bike path....but a good reminder to stay focused!

Oh, and I saw about 35 species, including another Peregrine Falcon, possibly a Merlin and a variety of desert, urban and water birds.

[Catrin]

Yikes! Glad you and the bike aren't more damaged. It's also cool that you can still think about all of the different species you saw - especially the Peregrine and a maybe Merlin!

[emily_in_nc]

Yikes, AZ, that sounds painful! So sorry that happened. But like my near-miss, sometimes it takes something like that to remind us to always be in the moment and stay focused. A moment of inattention can cost us way too much!

Hope your boo-boos (and your bike's) heal up quickly with no lasting effects.