Temperature declining

It's definitely getting cooler out, though nothing I would call cold yet.

The morning commute was in the standard long sleeve jersey and shorts, but when I left to ride home I stopped before I even got into the parking lot to put on the wind shell. There's a definite difference in low 50s with sun and low 50s at night.

I have recently been turning off my headlight when I get away from the roads and riding as much as I can on night vision. It's definitely an interesting experience--being able to see the edges of the path, but not the surface itself. I can make sure I don't run off into the grass, but there is no assurance at all of not hitting a tree branch.

While doing this today, another rider came up behind me. I saw that he was coming because his light caused my shadow to stand out in front of me. He pulled up next to me and informed me that there were a few people ahead, in case I couldn't see them (I could). I responded by turning my own light on full and completely drowning out his 1 watt LED. What can I say, I spent a long time building that light and I can be a bit of a showoff sometimes.

He then scored extra points by noticing I was riding a Long Haul Trucker, and mentioning that people kept asking him for bike advice so much that he wrote a 6 page article on it, and recommended the LHT most highly. I was starting to like this guy.

We talked for a bit as we rode--he is in the unfortunate situation of working in a location that is not safe to get to by bike, as well as living somewhere where he can't safely get to the trails, so he has to load up the bike after work, drive to an access point, then do all his riding after dark. That's dedication, I don't think that I would be doing very many rides at night if I wasn't commuting--except some occasional mountain biking, perhaps.

Soeaking of mountain biking, I might be able to do a night ride this weekend. I have decided that the trials are close enough to my apartment that I should be able to go when I'm on call, because I can get out of the woods and back to my apartment within an hour if something goes bad at work. I'm seeing a STOMP show that might interfere with this particular ride, though. Hopefully I'll be able to do both, but I guess if I miss this one ride I can survive. I'll just have to post at the Ohio Mountain Bike Association forums and see if I can get something together. It will read something like "Anyone up for a slow night ride this weekend? I break my collarbone on 50% of my nocturnal trail excursions."

Tomorrow's ride should be the chilliest yet, temps will be well below 50 in the morning. Not sure if I want to break out the tights yet or if I'll wear some loose pants that are comfortable enough to ride in. Decisions decisions... Normally I leave the tights for below 45, at least.