End of the line!

End of the line!
Originally uploaded by d_j_critchley

I'm going for a record and posting four times in one month.

The end of last week was steamy hot and as a storm was forecast for Saturday I decided to potter around the house and garden. OK, so maybe I did check out the hammock for a bit and there was possibly some rugby on the TV, but my intentions were good. I thought that England did well fielding a young team against New Zealand and although the All Blacks were dominant for twenty minutes they did not get the rest of the match their own way. The storm did arrive in the early evening with strong winds, thunder and lightning but not a huge downpour.

On Sunday I managed to get out of the house and drive out to Ashburn to finish the W&OD ride that Helen and I have been doing. Annoyingly it was a bit of a drive, which is ironic when you think about it, but I was hoping for a rural ride with little traffic and to log a decent few miles. The day was still pretty steamy and I didn't get on the bike until 1100 due to my poor planning and I was a little bit worried as this was to be a forty mile plus ride with a reasonable climb. This final part of the trail had a lot less road crossings, less crossingful as we say hereabouts, than the rest and I was surprised when I got to the end of the trail and see that nearly an hour had gone. Now this is not too shabby when you consider this is an average speed of over eighteen miles an hour on a single-speed with a few road crossings, a bit of twisty turny and a climb. I checked out the aptly named Trail's End bike store and then headed back with the intention of taking a six mile detour to the see the mighty Potomac at White's ferry, so imagine my surprise when I arrive back at the start in less time than it took to get out! I was pleased with the speed but annoyed I had missed the turning for the detour.

I saw this quote from a H.G.Wells story and I think it sums up my riding style, "I came out for exercise, gentle exercise, and to notice the scenery and to botanise. And no sooner do I get on that accursed machine than off I go hammer and tongs; I never look to right or left, never notice a flower, never see a view - get hot, juicy, red - like a grilled chop. Get me on that machine and I have to go. I go scorching along the road, and cursing aloud at myself for doing it.".

When I got home I was slightly disappointed, but not surprised, to see that the pool elves had not paid a visit so I had a bath and turned up the AC to cool off.

Today (Monday) it was cooler but still very steamy this morning and then, oddly enough, there was a thunderstorm on the way home. Rain I don't mind, wind I can live with, downpours and storm force winds are not good, thunder and lightning on a bike, a steel bike, I'd like to say bad, really really bad. I managed to outrun the storm front until I hit Alexandria when it went from a few drops to gusting swirling winds and a deluge which made it difficult to see and stay on-course. Although the wind and rain did ease up the thunder announced it's arrival with a flash and crash in short time so I detoured to the tunnel to sit the worst out. Oddly enough there were a couple of other riders there before me so I had some company.

Shortly after I arrived a river started flowing through the tunnel and threatened to drown a chick that had fallen out of it's nest so I felt I had no choice to quickly pick it up and place it on a broad ledge above the water.

About twenty minutes later the wind subsided, the rain eased and the main storm headed off into the distance grumbling to itself like a teenager who has lost an argument and slamming a door now and then. It was amazing that, even though it hadn't been cold during the height of the storm, the temperature seemed to shoot up as the rain eased; and I'm sure there was more water vapour coming up off the tarmac than was coming down as rain. Another thing that surprised me was the amount of branches that had come down, seriously considering the amount of storms we've had here I didn't realise there was anything left up there. I did ease up slightly so that I could go around the worst of the branches although there was a nervous moment or two as I rolled over some of the bigger ones; I think the mountain biking is paying off. My clothes were wet when I got home but not much more than they get with normal weather here (hurrah for technical clothing) although my socs were sodden. You might think I got a bad deal, but I was glad I hadn't driven as there was a huge branch down on the GW Parkway blocking three lanes and causing big tailbacks in both directions. I hate to think how many fender benders there were during the heavy rain and, as always when there is a "non-normal" event, I heard a considerable number of emergency vehicles plying their trade back and forth.