2018 SMR 44

Well after almost two weeks of being scared to take a deep breath, I was *really* looking forward to this morning's ride.  A couple days of rain cleared the smoke out of the air and it was glorious.  I dug out my rain jacket and neoprene booties last night and mentally prepared myself for a January kind of morning, but the rain stopped over night and the sun was coming up into a blue sky so it was just freaking perfect.

The roads were all still pretty wet so we just kind of slogged up at a slower than usual Summit Pace.  A lot of grit on the road too, which stuck to our tires and made for kind a noisy rolling.  I wiped off the tire once but the grit just came right back so I gave up.  Also, grit got on my water bottle nozzles so of course it got in my teeth and lips as well.

Wildlife Encounter:  a mangy coyote below Clavicle Cracker.

From Junction to Juniper, we went through a pretty dense cloud bank and the wind kind of picked up - but it was still some good bike riding and I was breathing deep and thankful for clean air and good health.  Above Juniper the fog started to thin out a little.  At Muir it looked like they maybe had a small brush fire sometime since my last ride.  Finally after Devil's Elbow, we popped up above the fog layer and had a clear approach to The Summit.

Not a lot of riders on The Mountain this morning - some of the ones I did see were wearing shorts.  Every one of them had a big smile on their face though.