October rides...

[ny biker]

Hoping to get out and ride after work tonight. Anyone else?

[north woods gal]

Pretty steady rain, at the moment, so probably not me.

Did get out and do some mountain biking, yesterday, though, but careful not to overdo because still have a touch of my lingering cold. Love biking this time of year, as I've said, but now find all my mountain bike trails covered in leaves. Not good. Those leaves make it hard to actually see the trail and some of the sections are very narrow, not to mention the leaves cover some tricky spots. May just drag a rake down my trails around the house, but not much I can do on the backcountry MTB trails other than be extra careful. Oh, well, that's mountain biking.

For those of you on pavement, watch those leaves when wet. Ask me how I know.

[Crankin]

*Finally* went out on a longer ride today and it was fabulous. Went with my normal group, my friend was leading and all of the super fast people went out ahead of the group, so it was not too big. Most of this ride was going in an opposite direction than I usually ride these roads and there was one small section of neighborhood streets i had never been on. Basically, the ride went from Bedford, MA, to Billerica, south Chelmsford, a teeny bit in Carlisle, then Concord, and back to the start. The weather started out chilly, but warmed quickly. I was dressed just a bit warm, but I would rather have that than the opposite. I did change to short fingered gloves at the rest, and had my vest and jersey (light thermal) unzipped. However, a lot of the ride was in the shade, so no overheating... until the 2 climbs. The first was going the opposite way than usual on Vose Hill Rd., a climb I did twice this year in close to 90 degree heat. It's a neighborhood street, a loop, and it was easier going this way, but not easy. I could stay with the faster people. Then, lo and behold, the second climb was my old street. I have not ridden up it since March. It is also a loop and we went up the steeper grade side. Couldn't keep up with the fast guys here, but I was not with the slow ones, either. All I can say, is I am glad I don't have to do this every time I ride anymore.
There are pops of fall color, but not enough to take pictures. We will do some riding this holiday weekend, west of here, where I might get some pics. Today's ride was 33 miles, with 1,719 feet of climbing.

[ny biker]

Crankin, does "Bedford" rhyme with "Medford"? (I have a friend whose family is from Medford and he has schooled me in the correct pronunciation. )

It was chilly here last night, in the 60s, when I got home from work. Since then I've been thinking about what I need to wear to ride comfortably tonight. We skipped over short sleeves and shorts weather and are going straight from tank tops to long sleeves, capris and wool socks.

[Crankin]

Ha, ha. My son lives in Medford, also pronounced as "Meffa" or "Medfa," or "Medfid." The first is the really old Italian townie pronunciation, which is who settled the city. The others are just variations of the Boston accent, which gets stronger as you get closer to the city. So, my answer is, not really, but you probably won't hear Bed-ford, with the last syllable accented and pronounced like the car brand. You probably will hear Bedferd, which is probably what I sound like. I moved away in 1969, came back in 1990, and I still have to force some of the "r" syllables.
It was 39 here last night and 53 when we started our ride.

[emily_in_nc]

We finally got out for a good long ride today after many days of traveling. We are in western Ohio now and rode on gorgeous rural roads from our campground, out through Amish areas, lovely farms, and over into eastern Indiana, where we picked up the Cardinal Trail. We had ridden this trail a couple of years ago when staying in Richmond, IN, but this time we only did around 8 miles each way into town, grabbed some ice cream, then headed back north. On the way north on the Cardinal, a passing shower caught us by surprise as we thought it was supposed to be sunny and warm all day long, but that's the midwest for you!

Ended up with over 51 miles, so made up for lost time. Even though the terrain was not too bad -- flat to rolling -- my quads were burning on the last 25% of the ride since I hadn't done anything over 30 miles for quite awhile. Fortunately my lungs seem to be doing very well after being in the high-altitude west for so long. No more huffing and puffing to extremes, thank goodness!

Very little fall foliage here; it's like going back in time after being in Colorado!