Monday, August 4, 2008

Trip 4 -- Riding in the Rain

So I figured I'd get a little wet today, but I didn't expect the monsoon that rained down upon me. I decided to ride part of the trail by the river...I think it's called the Greenway, but maybe that refers to the golf course, I'm not entirely sure. Anyways, as you can see from the map I entered the path around 24th ave. s. and I decided to head as far south as I could, assuming that it didn't take me all the way out to the country. I almost decided to turn around as I saw the clouds keep rolling in, but I really wanted to find the end of the trail...luckily the end was conveniently marked for me.

Of course when I found the end is about when it started pouring...and it didn't let up for around 15 minutes. So if you saw some crazy drenched guy riding his bicycle this afternoon, there's a good chance it was me. Thankfully my waterproof bike pouch worked as advertised, otherwise I would've been sitting on about $500 worth of wet electronics. I gotta say, riding in the rain felt pretty good. Something about being in heavy rain just makes me feel alive. It was really cool, although I could hardly keep my eyes open. I did draw some funny looks from people, but hey..don't knock it 'til you've tried it. Next time it's pouring, go outside...just don't get struck by lightning.

On to the trip:

Entering the bike trail. A sign of things to come in the sky.



A couple views of the path a little south of the Elks Dr. entrance. This was a very scenic path, it was nice being right by the river. I'll definitely be traveling this path again, next time I'll explore how far north it goes.



Getting darker, starting to sprinkle...



The end's in sight. At this point, the sprinkling started to pick up.


So this is where it ends, I had to kinda improvise in my Google Map, since a lot of the new southern stuff doesn't even show up yet. I'm not even sure if I traced the bike path correctly.


After I left the end of the trail, the rain really started to come down, and it did not let up. I was enjoying the rain until I thought about my bike's pouch, it said it was waterproof, but how waterproof was it? I decided to pull off into an overhang at an elementary school, and saw my favorite shed again.




I hung out there for a few minutes and the rain didn't let up very much. After discovering my bag was indeed waterproof, I roughed it out the rest of the way home. Needless to say, I was pretty drenched. I literally poured water out of my shoes. It's going to be a while before everything dries out, but was it worth it? Yeah I'd say so.

Trip: 8.3 mi.
Temp: 71 degrees
Started: 4:00 pm
Finished: 5:15 pm


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5 comments:

Anthony Strand said...

That's a good one.

I used to love biking in the rain back during my more exercise-heavy days (and also when my bike didn't have a flat).

JP said...

Yeah I'm dreading the day that something goes terribly wrong with my bike...it just feels like it's gonna happen soon.

Anonymous said...

jp - Stuffing newspaper into wetr shoes dries them out in not time. If they are really wet, you may want to replace the newspaper several times.

Anonymous said...

What are you carrying in that pouch?

JP said...

thanks bgm, i'll have to try that next time.

anon, I carry my cell phone and camera in the pouch....but not my wallet, so please don't mug me.