It's all in a day: Just find time to ride!

I had planned to ride from Miami Whitewater Forest to Oxford, Ohio on Saturday. This route has a few nice climbs, and some decent long flats which make area perfect for a day or an afternoon of riding. Variations are easily planned on many of the back roads in the area.

Instead of keeping to my schedule, which would have put me at the park at noon, I ended up fighting an oil filter which should have taken minutes to remove from the car. Apparently, the mechanic who last replaced the oil filter on this vehicle thought that the filter would need to be installed permanently, so it was cranked down as tight as possible. This rendered the filter almost impossible to remove. Lucky me! I spent an extra hour and a half fooling with the filter. This required 2 extra trips to the auto parts store. I finally wound up with a handy device which is more of a clamp than a oil filter wrench. The tool destroys the oil filter to wich you attach it, in in effect form a claw which rips the old filter off. It's really very cool! I finished by 1pm instead of 11, and by 2pm was headed to ride.

I knew it would be late when I got back, so I headed to the bike trail. I got out my MP3 and geared up my bike. It seemed warm enough when I got started, so I left the shoe cover in my back seat. I took off on the trail from the "Powder Factory" lot near Kings Mills. This ride was going to be a simple workout ride. I kept my pace between 16 and 18 mph, and went into cruise mode on the nearly deserted November trail.

The ride to Corwin, Ohio was mostly uneventful. I knew though by the position of the sun that I would be getting back to my car at, or slightly after sunset. Cruising back the way that I had already traveled up the path, I began passing the few travelers on the path either on foot, or bike whom I had passed in the opposite direction. I noticed a couple of riders with a dog. The dog was way too happy to see me coming at them in the opposite direction, and started running to greet me. I stopped before the dog killed us both. The gentleman riding along side of the dog assured me, "That is not my dog!" He reminded me of Peter Sellers, from one of the "The Pink Panther" movies.

I picked up speed and continued on. The sun was now ducking below the hill tops, and the temperature was dropping. I noticed two deer running along the trail, about 100 yards away in the middle of a field. I watched them closely, as I have almost been taken out by deer on the same trail. I had passed a hunter near here on the way out, but at this time of day, it would have been after hunting hours.

Farther up the trail, probably a good ten miles, a cyclist passed me. What was strange about being passed, was how fast this rider left me in the dust. I looked down, my speed was holding around 17.5 mph. This dude was "booking", then I realized why. I was getting cold, but this guy was wearing shorts and a cycling shirt. He must have been riding like hell because he was freezing and "riding like hell" was keeping him warm. I picked up the pace to 20 mph, to see if I could keep up. He left me in the dust.

I decided I didn't have to ride that fast, because I really wasn't that cold. It's important to dress for the weather. I had a good ride even if it wasn't the one I planned.