Riding while freezing/freezing while riding

Wow was it cold today! Ten degrees this morning and Seventeen degrees when I left the house at 10 AM for a meeting along the way to my ride. First time riding from the Dodgingtown Road Melvin's parking lot. Showed up a few minutes late (I hate to be late) and yet I was still the first to arrive. Getting ready in the sun was pleasant but you could still feel the cold's bite. Out on the trail I new it would be cold, in fact it was definitely freezing.

When with my Army PT outfit, baggy mesh pants with my riding shorts liner and shamois, tube socks and neoprene over socks, short sleeve t, long sleeve t, fleece vest and my army goretex PT jacket. My C'dale coldweather riding gloves and an ear band. It's hard figuring out what to wear so that I'll be warm when stopped and not overheat while riding.

Met up with a NEMBA buddy for the ride at Huntington SP today. There was a suprising amount of snow on the ground. I would have thought there would be less. I let Tom lead the way, he obviously knew his way around these woods much better than me - he'd been riding here for twelve years compared to my third time riding here.

It was a great ride and boy can Tom hammer those hills. I was able to do a few and I had my share of hike-a-bikes. 6 miles in two hours. We covered quite a bit terrrain. Crossed two streams today, one successfully where I was able to ride the rocks without having to get off the bike and another not so successfully. In fact, I tried to jump the stream by pulling a wheelie and peddling fast but onto the other side but I stalled, slipped on ice and down I went on my forearm and then slid backwards into the water. Good thing I had on the goretex and neoprene! Brrrrrrrr, that water was cold!

Towards the end of the ride, ran into VinceMeat and MikeBrigade of Crankfire fame. They got a late start and were dressed to nines for stuntry. And while I readying to leave, in drives in my friend Charlie from work. It was old home week at the Mevlin's Road parking lot. Below is the map of the ride. Nice blend of dual and single track. Covered some terrain that I haven't ridden before and then some that I have.

Today's ride:




Today's and my previous two rides for a little comparisson of just how diverse this area is:


Oh and maybe I should mention that this blog was actually written up in the Danbury Newstimes. In fact, it was on the front cover! I wasn't expecting that. The title of the article was Blogged Out and I think it was a really good article, not for the fact that pictures of me were pasted all over the paper, but for the accuracy of the reporting and the reality of blogging.