November 15th (Evening)

I’ve officially decided to start calling these rides home as “evening” rides, as they actually are… It bugs me to write “afternoon” when I ride home in pitch black and cold elements!!!

Today was a very wet day. Rainy all day long, with very heavy fog/cloud hanging low over Kamloops. So, it was not much of a surprise as I started on my ride when I was met with wet and foggy conditions. Thankfully, the rain had at least ceased to fall!

I went fairly slow on the paved stretches, as I didn’t feel like spraying too much water up and getting wet which would only add to my already chilly ride. And riding through Aberdeen there was an incredibly thick fog that had settled in, which made it hard for me to even see more than 10 feet in front of me.

By the time I got to the trailhead at Castle Towers, I was already pretty wet but not bad. I headed down the trail and the fog seemed to have subsided for a bit. I went pretty easy down into the Valley, noting how many puddles had formed throughout the day (I can’t remember ever seeing more than a single puddle on the Tom Moore trail before). The creek crossing wasn’t bad, but I didn’t make it over the root nor the climb out and over the east bank. I did make a pretty good effort up the long, straight and steep climb, though, so that was good (remember, I’m on a 7 speed cogset now!). Speaking of the cogset, the chain felt very grimy, sandy even, with every pedal today. I’m not sure if it was more road grime, or if it was because of the worn drivetrain. Either way, it was as annoying as heck!

I ended up taking the first trail (double-track) down to Frolek’s lower road because of the fog. I could hardly see where I was going, so I figured I would either be able to get below the fog this way or, at the very least, I’d be able to have less difficulty with the poor conditions on a wider road. Thankfully, up ‘till Rose Hill, I did manage to stay under the fog. Once I hit the trails to Juniper, however, the fog rolled back in again. The main trail to Juniper was lined up full of puddles the entire way. Not such a big deal, as I was almost home at this point and not that cold. However, in the morning these puddles will pose an issue as the colder morning air and a longer ride to finish will mean getting wet feet that early could be very uncomfortable… Hopefully they dry up or freeze over!

Still, not a bad ride considering the conditions. The light did pretty good, but really no light would’ve done that great in fog like that. It was very quiet, and the strange this was that the 4° felt warmer (like this morning felt warmer than it said it was too). I wonder if it was the fog, or just the fact that there was no wind? Either way, I was thankful for a bit of warmer air with such wet conditions.