October 18th (Morning)

A brisk 3° for this morning’s ride, and overcast. I didn’t leave the house ‘till close to 7am! About 10 minutes later than the latest I am comfortable leaving… Just means I got to work at 8:05am, 5 minutes late. No worries, I’ll just make up the time in the afternoon as even at 7 it was pretty dim/dark through Juniper. My light has made it through customs as of Friday evening, so I can’t wait to see if it gets here fast or not this week! Here’s hoping!

Physically it was a great ride. A decent time overall, but nothing killer by any stretch. I went pretty slow through Juniper, partly due to the lower visibility but also partly due to the temperature. My skull cap should arrive today, and it should cover my ears somewhat which will be great for rides like this morning. I did, however, take an old, wool neck warmer that I used to use for cold weather motorbike riding and stretched it over my helmet as a cover. Granted, it did make the helmet look a bit bigger than it already did look (tranlsation: dorky looking), but I figured I’d see how it worked and I was impressed! At some points I almost thought about taking it off feeling that it might be too warm… But, at the end of the ride as I came down Copperhead (my usual “brain freeze” section due to sweat and speed), it did it’s job and kept my head warm! Nice! Actually, my ears and toes were the only parts of me that were too cold this morning. Hopefully the skull cap will keep my ears warm, and maybe I need to find some warmer socks?

Anyways, as for the ride it was pretty good. The bike, however, was a bit annoying. The front derailleur knocked the chain off again as I tried to drop it on the granny gear for the 2nd to last climb at Rose Hill (meaning I had to walk top half of the hill). The rear derailleur was acting up, even though it was shifting 100% on the stand (slow shifts in both directions). The rear brake was completely non-existent for the first 20 minutes of the ride, meaning I must’ve gotten some degreaser or cleaner on the rotor again, even though I wrapped it with a plastic bag this time! The front brake started dragging about 1/2 across Frolek’s land… Yeah, it wasn’t a great mechanical ride to be sure! A bit frustrating…

But, other than that, it was a good ride. As I came up and out of Peterson’s Creek and onto Summit, two ladies were standing on the sidewalk and the one lady was talking about a bear she had just seen as she was pointing behind me, down the trails I had just come up! Sheesh, my observational skills for anything beyond the trail I’m riding are obviously lacking! Hah!