Cold and Lonely

This morning felt, officially, like the real thing -- Winter.  The temperature was in the upper 30s with a mild but noticeable wind, and the sky was uniformly grey from horizon to horizon.  In a word -- dreary.  To make matters worse, I'd set my alarm for the wrong time, and when, after the dog nudged me with his nose a few times, I finally looked over at the clock, it read 6:00 am.  If it had been summer I might have had a chance to make it out to the levee by 6:15, but Winter carries with it a large amount of wardrobe overhead and I knew it would be impossible.  By the time I was layered up enough to keep the ride from being miserable it was probably around 6:15, and so I guess I arrived at the meeting spot about ten minutes late.

There was a light tailwind on the way out today, which made it easy to spin along at 18-20 mph. The bike path was predictably deserted for the most part, except for a lone coyote who I startled near the Construction Aggregate place.  He had been walking casually down the middle of the bike path as I approached him from behind, and I was quite close by the time he heard me and bolted off toward the batture. Once he was sufficiently out of reach he stopped for a little while to watch me.  I did the same for a few seconds until he finally dashed off into the bushes. I guess I saw a couple other people out on the levee on my way out to the Little Dip, where I turned around, but otherwise it was just a cold and lonely ride.  I'd been hoping to see a rider or two from the morning group, but I guess that anyone who showed up either went all the way out to Destrehan.  More likely, though, nobody else showed up.

I fought a little bit of headwind most of the way back, and since I wasn't really in the mood to push myself, that brought my speed down into the 15-18 mph range.  The combination of wind and easy pace resulted in some seriously cold feet (I was using only those little toe-cover things) by the time I got back home, but thanks to my favorite NOBC winter jacket and tights, the rest of me was pretty comfortable.  It looks like a couple more chilly mornings before things start to warm up a bit around here, but it still beats the heck out of someplace like Minnesota.