After spending time at the Holiday Market, Eileen, Jojo and I went to the Laughing Planet for lunch. After that Jojo and I headed north on old 37, using Hillview and Audubon Streets to avoid the nasty, curvy ride up the highway.
Just after coming down Firehouse hill, I noticed Jojo was way behind me, and I pulled around to see what was up. His front shifter wire had snapped and he could use only the smallest front ring, making it hard to stay up to speed after the hill. We decided to go on to Sample Rd, as it was he had no problem climbing hills. We crossed the ridge on Sample, and came down Simpson Chapel to Bottom Road and through Cascades Park.
This was our first cold weather ride, and other than some chapped lips, not a problem. We both overdressed and had to be taking stuff off as we climbed and then putting it back on when we cooled off riding into the valleys.
Distance: 22 miles
Weather: Cool 35-45 degrees, but with sunshine behind lots of different types of clouds.
Nature Journal: Dandelions, fall purple asters. The pasture just north of Dolan finally has cattle grazing in it, for the past few years they have been scraping the topsoil and piling it up for sale, I would guess it is quite fertile. Years ago this pasture had brahma bulls and longhorn steers, now it looks like an angus herd has moved in.