The thrills of riding at night

I have so many hours banked up in night riding but there are times that I still get a little freaked. Last nights road ride mother nature again was in a good mood and stopped the rain just a little before I headed out. The route was one of those lets see where this gravel road leads to. I've seen it on the map. Interesting enough I think maps lie sometimes.

What I thought would have been a loop turned into a half out and back then a redirect onto another concession. So all the normal things about night ride, can't see how high or long the hill is, can't really gauge how long you go straight before turning and you can't always tell the difference between a dog and a wolf from a distance.

This random road was on had very very little civilisation and of course when I see this 4 legged pointy ear close to the same size and stature of a wolf the mind thought it was a wolf. A wolf that should be more scared than me and should run away but didn't type wolf. A wolf that kept staring at me as hard as I was at him type wolf. A wolf that may be starving and think that even my skinny body would make one hell of a pre winter meal type wolf.

Of course I'm the cyclist with the over active mind who is not wearing his prescription glasses, is on a bike with cross tires and fenders and a small gear ratio available that gives me the ability to barely out sprint grandma's electric scooter. Put those things together and a big white husky type breed dog becomes a wolf. Of course it wasn't, but it could be a really bored dog as I went past him staring intently at me. This is where not knowing where I was going completely led me to a dead end road. HMMMM I turned around and headed back to the wolf/dog's area to now see him on the other side of the road waiting patiently, staring!!!

He held his ground and I pedalled away a little faster with nothing in chase. On the cross bike I'm not wearing my helmet light just the bar light so of course looking back to see if anything is in chase is pretty much useless when you are on a dark road that has absolutely no lights. Unless it's closes enough, like at my ankles, I wouldn't' see shit coming. Of course the one ear phone in with the ipod cranked does wonders at killing of the ability to hear much.

The rest of the ride was pretty uneventful as I made my way into Coldwater by way of back roads. I did the half coin toss with out the coin and lost so I made my way up the great climb of Vasey Line. Now that great gear ratios that won't help me go super fast balanced its self with the climb. At the top made my way down the 8th towards home. More gravel roads but I knew what and where I might something unusual. Nothing.

The sky had cleared, the stars had come out and the temperature had started to drop. All in great timing as I spun my way home. My feet were just started to get cold enough where they were getting mad at me but the job was done, 2 hours. Some good climbs, lots of steady pace and a couple new roads that I now know where they go. HMMMM where should I ride this weekend? Time to look at the map, I wonder where this goes???

Right now it's off to work.