A Warm, Sunny Day in January

Yesterday we had an unexpected warm January day. And by warm I mean 60F. It is possible that we normally warm up for a day or two in January but I have not kept record of the weather. This year that has changed thanks to winter commuting. I'm trying to stay aware of temperature & how to dress for it. I never thought much beyond general warmth commuting by car. Anyway, back to unexpected warm days. We did what any cyclist does on a freebie,  warm day. We planned to go for a ride.

Lance has been bitten by the gravel grinding bug. He was bit last year around Dirty Kansa time and he hasn't shaken it. Now the guys around the shop have been bitten too and so gravel grinding has been on his mind. He built up a bike to take out on some dirt roads and yesterday was a shake down run.

I was game and we both agreed that we would just take a leisure ride in the county. Neither one of us has done anything other than commute over the past 2 months. No need to go out there and kill ourselves riding 40 miles on gravel!

So here's the thing...we both had a great time. We headed west of town and hit gravel roads pretty quickly, within 2 miles! Then we followed them until we thought we'd gone far enough. Some of the roads were super rocky& sketchy while others were pretty mellow. We climbed giant hills, some so steep that I was going about 3 miles an hr, eventually having to push my bike to the top.  The strange thing about our ride was that I had no idea where I was. I knew the general direction we were in relation to our house & town but it was strange riding up & down roads that I have never been on before and they were within 5 miles of my house! The scenery was beautiful, dead January. No snow and all greenery has been killed off so you can see throughout the countryside. I told Lance that if it had been greener I'd swear we were in Northern Ireland. Lots of rocky hillside.

Once again, my own town-area-neck of the woods has surprised me. I'm beginning to really believe that wonder & adventure can be found outside your own front door. We found it on a random Sunday.