It feels like it’s going to be a long winter; if it’s not raining, it’s cold. I find myself impatient for mid-April when temps warm up reliably and most of the rain will reliably be behind us. Funny to think that, for all the rain & cold & windy conditions I’ll often ride in, I can’t wait for warm, even hot conditions to ride. It’s a bit odd since you can always dress for the cold but when it’s really hot, it’s not like you can bring an air conditioner with you!

This morning Kevin and I got off to a slightly-late start; seemed to take him a while to get his act together. I actually ended up leaving first, knowing he could catch up to me. We ended up arriving at the start two minutes late and, seeing nobody else waiting for us, continued onto the circuit. We looked for tire tracks on the wet pavement but found none; nevertheless, we pushed a reasonable pace climbing the first part of Kings, thinking there could be somebody just ahead of us, and at the park entrance, there was. Kevin (pilot) and Marcus had briefly stopped to adjust clothing and maybe give anyone chasing a chance to catch up.

Not a very fast pace up the hill, but still fast enough to drop me about halfway up. I’m kinda used to that, but thankfully once on top, I can hang on pretty well. We chose the correct bikes to ride as it was wet nearly everywhere but the section of West Old LaHonda shown in the photo. At 32 degrees we had to be careful of the possibility of ice, but thankfully there was none.

It was tempting to skip the West Old LaHonda loop but Kevin (pilot) was going to ride it anyway, so against younger Kevin’s better judgment, we continued. It shouldn’t have been a problem except for the roadwork being done on the east side of 84; we were hung up 14 minutes waiting for them to let us through.

Definitely looking forward to Thursday’s ride, when we should be able to get back on our Trek Emondas and leave the heavier, disc-brake cross bikes, behind. Of course, then I won’t have any excuse for being slow!