Well, Sunday was another amazing day for riding. I was doing yard work, and kept watching people whip by on their road bikes. The temps got to the cool side of perfect around 10:30/11:00, and I couldn’t stand being indoors. I wanted to watch the Patriot’s game, but, there are so few days with weather like we had this weekend, it was impossible to pass up.
I headed to the basement and greased up the bearings on the bottom bracket, because I developed a nasty creak last weekend. As I was packing up my gear, my friend was hanging around like stink on a monkey, and I started to feel bad that I wasn’t going to invite him on the ride. After weighing the potential hazards – it was open season for deer with long arms, and it sounded like war zone in my normally quiet part of town in Amherst. Forget about when I got out in the woods and on the trails.
Sunny out for a Ride
The shots were a long ways out, but I do always get a bit nervous when I stop next to a tree or out in the open to get some water or a tweak my bike. Despite wearing orange, and having bells, there’s always that thought nagging at the back of my brain – they’re gonna shoot at me because I’m scaring the deer. Hopefully I’m helping scare the deer towards the hunters and keeping their shots down range. That’s all part of it, I guess. But, staying on the trails, that are well marked and recognized as recreation areas is definitely part of staying safe. So, sunny got a bell, a bright red collar, and a vest, not shown in the photo.
Enough about that, we got to the trails at Grater road – yeah, super boring me, I’m kind of a one trick pony when I have limited time. Plus, the trails are in pristine condition. As much as I want to ski, and am totally jealous that Snowbird, UT opened with 50″ of Utah powder – the dirt and the trails here are incredible. The frosts are keeping the ground hard, and the warm-ups are making the top-soil tacky and fresh. The best part is the warm-ups keep the air at a reasonable high-40s/low 50s. Who knows how long this is going to last, so we have to jump on it while we can. The air temp was perfect for riding, and way too nice to sit inside watching Gronkowski get his arm broken.
Riding with Sunny was great! Dogs basically never have mechanicals, are always having fun, and don’t really care which trails you choose. Just be careful, especially this time of year, and make sure they have water and food. But, sometimes it’s nice to have a friend along for the ride, who isn’t really riding.