We’ve been having unusually mild weather up here in the PacNW for this time of year, little bit of a reality check today. The day started out damp and cool and went to cold and wet. Stop us from riding? Gimme a break.
Off into the backcountry and up an old county road. When I say “up”, I mean lung busting, leg burning “up”. We headed up into the clouds, it went from drizzle to rain and got colder, but we didn’t notice because we were sweating. Major league grunt.
We got to the top of a really tough half mile climb to the trailhead that would take us back down the mountain.
Did I say “down”? I meant to say “mostly down”. A few steep uphills gave us all we could handle. Oh yeah, it was still rainy and cold. Good times.
The downhill wasn’t a cakewalk either. It was rocky and wet with plenty of wet leaves. Also, by this time, our fingers were frozen; tough to grip the handlebars and squeeze the brakes.
The local creek, normally something you can normally wade, or even jump across, was absolutely raging from all the recent rain and snowmelt. Nice to find a bridge.
Why go out and ride around in the boonies on a cold, rainy day? Because you see stuff like this…
Glad we went. It started snowing an hour after I got home from the ride.