Alien Hitchhiker

Leaf fell out of a clear blue sky, hit me in the face, and latched on to my jersey for the next five miles, almost all the way home.  Welcome to fall.

Riding around in the dark

I woke up excessively early on a recent Saturday morning, and decided to squeeze in a quick bike ride.

4:50 am: Roll out of bed and put on clothes.

4:55 am: Fill water bottles and attach flashlight to front of bike and freshly-charged taillight to back.

4:58 am: Roll down the driveway into the dark.

5:10 am: Marvel at the complete lack of traffic.

5:20 am: Turn off of Foothill up El Monte towards Moody.  Note that flashlight being used as headlight has started blinking of its own accord despite being supposedly in a different setting.  Still quite dark yet, reset setting to constant light.

5:22 am: Headlight blinking again.  Weird.  Its brains must be scrambled.

5:25 am: Wait -- last time flashlight was scrambled, it had a dying battery.  While taillight was carefully plugged in the previous night, flashlight lasts a long time and I didn't bother to charge it.  When was it last recharged?

5:27 am: Aha!  Last recharged before we went to New Zealand.  Lots of cave exploration and general use since then.  Uh oh...

5:35 am:  Blinking seems to be slower than it was.  Hmmm.  Heading into dark canyon.  Count seconds.  One second on, five seconds off.  Look ahead while light is on, remember that section of road and ride through it until the next blink.  This works going up, but won't be enough going down.  Clearly, I must climb until it gets light. 

5:40 am: Really quite dark back in the canyon.  Reassure myself that it will be lighter once I hit the top of Moody and am on the ridge rather than down in a hole.  Taillight working fine, and there aren't any cars on the road anyway.

5:42 am: Darkest part of canyon before climb gets steep.  One second in every eight illuminated.  Neat night sounds in the dark.

5:48 am:  Top of Moody.  A bit lighter here now that I can see the sky.  Good thing too.  Only one second in ten light.  Head up Page Mill.

5:55 am:  Slight descent.  Still kind of dim out.  One blink per 12 seconds.  Be careful.

5:56 am: Heading back up.  Easier.

6:00 am: Really enjoying the dim climb.  One blink in 14 seconds.

6:05 am: Down to one blink in 16 seconds.  Plausibly enough light from the sky that I don't need headlight to see.

6:08 am:  Bright light approaches.  Looks like an oncoming cyclist.  Hope my light blinks on as he passes so I don't look like an idiot riding around in the dark with no light.  It doesn't.  

6:12 am:  Enter the marine layer.  Hope I pop through it. One blink in 20 seconds.

6:15 am:  Trees precipitating drips from the fog.  Who needs it??

6:20 am:  Wait -- these new drips are sweat coming off of my hair.  Not the fog any more.

6:22 am:  Deer in the mist, staring at me.  With horns.

6:25 am:   Oooh -- out of the fog!  Gently colored pre-sunrise sky.

6:27 am:  Bunnies!  Many bunnies streaking across the road.

6:29 am: Los Trancos parking lot -- what I consider to be the top.  Looking pretty light, though sun not yet risen.  Enjoy looking down on the fog bank blanketing the Bay Area below.  2100 feet climbed before sunrise.  Definitely light enough to descend now.

6:30 am:  Good thing, too, as light is down to one blink per 25 seconds.

6:34:  What a goofy ride.  Clearly I must now ride the dirt trails up and over Black Mountain to make a loop.  Alas, trails don't open until sunrise.  Have snack to kill time.  (By the way, when is breakfast?)

6:42 am:  Official sunrise.  No longer against the rules to be in the open space preserve.  Roll down to Montebello entrance and head onto trail.

6:47 am:  Pretty.  Not pictured is the coyote pack that sounds like it is having a party in the drainage below.

 6:55 am: Look back at the sea of fog to the west.

7:00 am:  Look forward at the tongue of fog to the south.  Enjoy the residual heat from yesterday afternoon radiating out of the hills.

 7:05 am: Enjoy the low angle morning light near the summit of Black Mountain.

 7:10 am: Anticipate easy descent down to breakfast at home.

7:13 am:  Ack, ack argh!!!!!  Sun shining directly in eyes, squirrelly dirt descent.  Can't see loose patches of gravel.  Descend gingerly to paved road.

7:20 am: Hit paved road.  Sun still in eyes.  Can't see giant bike-eating potholes in the ugly top section of the road.  Oh bother.

7:24 am: Hit main road, better pavement.  Yay!

7:27 am:  Hit fog layer descending.  Brrrr....

7:31 am: Out the bottom side of the fog layer.   Start seeing other cyclists going up.

7:45 am: Near bottom of descent.  Cyclist count up to 13.  Quite a number to be climbing Montebello before 8am on a Saturday morning.

7:50 am:  What are all of these car-things doing out so early??  Bleah.  Welcome to civilization.

8:15 am: Roll back into home driveway.   Nim playing on the computer.  Chad still in bed.  Time to make breakfast.

A most enjoyable morning.

Big

Nim now 5 feet, 2.5 inches.  She heads off to 7th grade every morning,

  and comes home and diligently does her homework, sometimes with feline help.

 When there is no school, she goes on bike rides with Ma

 even when there are big oak branches across the road,

and I just let her ride her bike to the park by herself.  "I'll be back by 5," she says.