Today’s weather report called for a “100% chance of rain,” and for once, the weather forecast was right.
Because of that forecast, we decided to switch our Natural Bridges ride, which follows the coast from Santa Cruz to Pescadero, to next week. I hope the weather cooperates because that is a spectacular ride if the weather is good.
But, we had to get out and ride today, especially me because I took last week off due to general fatigue. So, George planned a different route that had multiple loops in case it started raining and people wanted to bail out early.
So, we started out going south for about 17 miles. It probably started raining at Mile 4, so we got pretty wet. Almost everyone decided they’d had enough, but the fast group, plus Samy and myself, decided to give the second loop a shot. It was warmer than two weeks ago (the last time I rode in wet weather), so I felt more comfortable.
We were already soaked when we headed north for about a 22-mile loop. At a few points, the rain felt like hail, but I’m sure it was just large raindrops stinging my face. Trying to keep up with the fast group helped keep me warm, but whenever we stopped, I got cold real fast. It was not a great day, but it felt great when we got to the parking lot. The third, 25-mile loop was not even an option; no one even had to bring it up. We all just loaded up our bikes, shucked our wet clothes, and went home.
Since I didn’t have any dry clothes with me besides my pants and TnT sweatshirt, it was kind of interesting. Like everything else I had on, my bike shorts were completely soaked. So, I didn’t want to put on dry pants over them; it would’ve just kept me sitting in wet shorts the whole ride home. I looked around the parking lot and we were the only ones there. And there was a decent amount of trees between the lot and the road. So I just stripped off my shorts and tried to get into my pants as quickly and nonchalantly as possible. I hope no one saw me, but at that point, I didn’t care! Next week, rain or shine, I have to plan a little more carefully.
The ride home was a little cold even with the heater on full blast, and there were times when I was shivering, which means I was pretty close to hypothermia. Maybe it’s time to invest in some real rain pants and a new rain jacket. My old rain jacket is probably 15 years old.