Today started out pretty cold; on my morning dog walk I decided to go full winter gear, but by the time I rolled out of the garage it had already warmed up a little and the sky was bright and blue and clear.
I got to St. Tim's a few minutes early and was surprised that I didn't see the VSBC folks getting ready. I met a guy named Ed and he was with them and he didn't know either so he checked his phone and realized that they had re-scheduled for 9:30... looks like that's a seasonal thing that will stay the same for a while. I invited Ed to start up with us but he decided to wait for his club. Then Charlie arrived and we got started. The roads were still a little wet from yesterday, but not slippery. There was a lot of sandy debris though and I made a mental note to watch out for that on my descent.
In the Country Club we saw a guy mowing the putting green with some kind of sideways mower - we contemplated the engineering decisions that went into that contraption. Charlie described the criteria that the golf association uses for greens; so many feet deep of layers of different kinds of soil, how high the grass is.
I think it was my idea to do Juniper and Charlie agreed, so I said I would pace myself for a 50-minute Junction time... an effort that would leave me with Juniper legs and not wiped out. I know what that effort feels like at every point along SGR and I know exactly how hard to push. Proof:
At Junction we talked about politics and the weather and French bicycles. Then up Summit Road. At Juniper there was a driver getting a speeding ticket from the ranger. We kept going up to Dragonfly where Charlie showed me his new favorite energy bar and described the ingredients and nutritional data. We had a good ol time breaking down calories per gram of each ingredient and discussing the merits of fructose over sucrose.
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| Wet sandy danger. |
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| Wet sandy danger caution. |
