It was a perfect winter day in January, too bad it's March tomorrow. It was cold, with a starting temp of 6, count 'em 6 whole degrees. We gained 10 degrees by the time we got home. Not even close to Spring. I have to admit though, it was really beautiful out. The sun and sky had worked pretty hard at cleaning up and had emptied everything out except royal blue. Fresh snow, bright sun....nothing could have produced a more high definition day.
We went out on the LRT just like last Saturday, except this time it was plowed. Guess who I saw? The guy with the light blue ski mask. He was at the intersection of his plowed path, from the townhouses, and the LRT. I made everybody stop and I pulled up to him. He had on all the same clothes. I said, "Hi I'm Tom, we met a few days back when the trail hadn't been plowed". It was hard, but I could see a smile through the mouth hole of his ski mask. He said, "yes", like he knew who I was before I had said my name. After watching him use his sense of hearing and touch last week, I'm quite sure he recognized my voice, in like one or two words.
I simply said, "it's nice to see you again, I hope you have a great walk, it's a perfect day, and the trail is plowed!" He said, "it is, thank you", and we rode off.
We played hard, which kept us plenty warm. The trails were in good shape for the most part, but I think the plows must have been playing with us little. There were areas that were cleared to the limestone, and then parts that had a good inch of snow on them. There was even a stretch of maybe 200 feet, just before Cty Rd 19, that hadn't been touched. Well...there were plow tracks, but the plow driver just lifted the plow, and left a good 6-8 inches. I tried to stay in the tire tracks...big mistake...I went down, but it was very graceful. On the way back, I knew better what to expect, and stayed up all the way through. I did have to wait for Steve and Cam. Apparently Steve was making snow angels after he went down.
Cam and I stopped in at Excelcycle and got free pastries and coffee, while Steve stopped at Dunn Bros. to buy his. He mumbled something about wanting to help out the economy.
Got back to the cities with about 35 miles on, so looped around Cedar Lake, Isles and Calhoun to finish off a very nice ride. 50/13.8
1 comment:
Sounds like you all had a nice 50 miler today. Ending at the coffee shop...that's perfect.
That little smile beneath the light blue sky mask...you made his day HL's!
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