the Way of the Turtle

16 Mile Night Ride Along the Mohawk-Hudson Bikeway
Tuesday, January 9, 2007

Did the whole ride in the dark... on the plus side, it stays light a little later each day!

A good ride overall... I was tempted to keep going for another half hour or so but decided to take it easy instead... I'd like my legs to be in good working order for the cane seminars tomorrow night...

My light was more than sufficient for a basically empty bike path... used the LEDs much of the time...

Almost collided with a group of "real" riders who had very bright lights and apparently were not paying much attention to where they were going... fortunately I had my wits about me (despite it being hard to see with their lights in my eyes.)

Looked up at one point and saw an owl silhouetted against the sky...

For a short time I was riding in snow flurries...

Passed something making some loud snuffling noises on the path past Lock 7... heard the same thing when I came back through, so I stopped a bit down the path and started walking the bike back with my lamp on full power... got close enough to hear the sound fairly loud without seeing the source and decided to spin gears out of there! Of course, now I'm really wondering what was making that noise - could it have been a bear? (I'll probably go back in daylight soon and find out that it was a tarp rustling in the wind or something!)

Despite the somewhat creepy aspect of something making noises in the dark - it was a great night for a ride!

JMH