This is the first time I’ve been up into my favorite mountain bike park since the hurricane.  You can see the downed trees in the background.  It was like this from one end of the park to the other.  Everything seemed different.  Everything also seemed harder, but I put that down to too much gym and racquetball, not enough humping the bike up over hill, rock, and root.  I had more shots planned, but it was too cold for the little battery in the camera.  It would work coming out of my pocket but shut down as it cooled.  It’s too bad — I was trying to use the picture excuse for some rest time!

I was enjoying a christmas present — even huffing and puffing — a new osprey pack from my sweetie.  Heck of a lot more comfortable than the one I traveled with in august and lighter to boot.

Snow coming in tomorrow is going to cancel my riding buddies before we even get started but I’ve charged up the camera and stocked the new bag with chemical hand warmers.  If fate shines, I’ll have a good morning ride before responsibilities catch up.

It’s been a month since my last post, and perhaps that long since I’ve taken out my camera.  I didn’t take a single photo today, either, but I’m still enjoying the effects of my sunday morning ride some twelve hours later.  It’s late, late fall in Hastings and the mornings run to slate grey and cold.  I suspected I’d be riding alone (true) and I’d give serious thought to going back to bed (also true) so I laid out my kit last night and staggered into it this morning.  The bike was already leaning against the back and I simply rode through the weak dawn light to the city.  I rode the simplest bike possible — canti brakes and a single speed.  A frame pack from 1982 held a spare tube and some tools.  I rode slowly but steadily through air that felt like suspended rain.  I’d dressed for ice, so I was actually toasty.  So toasty, in fact, that I stripped off the fleece at the new york city line.

Since then, I’ve spent the morning working, hit the gym, napped, and then worked some more until now.  Break time.  Then more work.  It’s been that kind of month.  But at least I got in a ride today.