I needed a November 200K, and there are only two cycling weekends left for me in this month. Rather than hope for better weather next weekend, I decided to do it this weekend.
Early in the week, the weather looked iffy. Then, it solidified into yucky. Sunday would be crap, so I decided to ride Saturday ... when the forecast just called for crud. A couple of friends were coming along, and we were good to go Friday afternoon.
Then, one friend had to back out Friday night. Saturday morning about 4, I got a text from the other friend -- he was sick, and couldn't come.
So, it was just me riding the Cathey's Creek 200K permanent ... again. (This is the fourth time this year that I've ridden it solo.) And, as the sun supposedly arose at 6:10 this morning and I hit the rode, it was foggy and drizzly.
Like I said, dire. Supposedly, the fog would get blown away later that day by the 15 mph winds out of the south, about the time the rain chances went up.
Worse.
The drizzle came and went, but the fog stayed as I headed south towards Peytonsville. Most of the leaves have been blown off of the trees by recent rains and wind, but most of the roads on this route get enough traffic to come them clear of wet slippery stuff.
Starting up Pulltight, there were a bunch of turkeys in the road. Apparently, the wild ones don't worry about Thanksgiving.
Surprisingly, the wind was still light when I started heading south on US 431. I made a quick stop at Marcy Jo's, then hurried on trying to beat the wind.
The wind did begin blowing a little harder just before I turned east, but it was out of the southeast. In sailing terms, that left me on a broad reach -- a nice, fast way to go. I virtually flew to Glendale, and then on to Mt. Pleasant. It was just after 11 am when I finished a quick slice of pizza and headed towards Hampshire.
I had to fight the wind a bit heading up onto the ridge, but the wind was behind me again going down Cathey's Creek. Incredibly, it kept pushing me on the long climb up Love's Branch and on to Williamsport.
I didn't stay long at the control there since I wanted to beat the rain. It started spitting on me as I cruised north for the last 25 miles, but I was smelling the barn ... or some hot chocolate from Frothy Monkey.
Like I said, it looked like it was going to be a crappy ride -- and, in the pictures, it looks like it was a crappy ride. But it turned out to be one of the fastest and easiest times that I've ever had on that route. Sometimes, you just gotta go ahead and do the ride and hope that things work out well.
