Lights & Tights

What a difference 4 weeks makes.

The last time I went out to do the Thursday night "Thrilla in Woodinvilla" ride, I was in shorts, the evening temps were in the upper 70's, and it stayed light well past the time we finished. Then the work crush began and I was off the bike for nearly a month. Made it back out last night, finally, and was none too pleased to find the temperature in the upper 50's and that I needed to turn my night riding lights on by 7:20. We did an extended version of the normal ride last night -- we added a brief tour of the trails through the ever-so-pretentious sounding "Tuscany" neighborhood -- and got back to the cars well past dark. It wasn't exactly cold last night, especially if you kept moving, but it was definitely kind of clammy, what with the humidity from the rain earlier in the day still lying around.

I'm currently signed up for two big weekends of riding in the Okanagan National Forest area to cap off the season, but it's going to depend on the weather. All of the rides that we have planned these next two weekends venture up to about 8,000 feet in elevation and the snow level has already been reported down to about 7,000 in some areas. The scenery in the Okanagan is especially gorgeous in the fall when the needles of the larch trees turn from a dark green to a golden yellow and I really don't want to miss it a second year in a row. I hate to go without Kristin and she's got way too much school-related stuff to come. And I'd hate to go alone because it's a 4-hour drive each way.

I think this will be one of those times when I stay home if I can't find a carpool buddy. Or maybe the weather will make the decision for all of us and nobody goes. That would suck, but it wouldn't be the first time a late September trip to the North Cascades got snowed out.