It’s gotten so my ride in the morning is in complete darkness. For a while, the last mile or so was in that grey light before dawn: eerie, but pleasantly so. Not now, especially since most mornings are at least partially overcast, foggy, or both. I’ve seen the moon breaking through clouds and fog from the full moon last week at my back as I set off onto the trail to the slightly waning one over my right shoulder as I turned south, to riding towards the half-moon these last few days. Yesterday was deep fog, and as I rode I had to keep wiping my glasses off with the backs of my gloves. I even wiped my headlight once, and was startled at the increase in brightness.
I’m not the only one out there, though, riding through the dark. There’s a half-dozen other riders, mostly heading the opposite direction, plus a few walkers, and that guy who roller-blades to work. I’m finding that I dislike overly-bright headlights, and loathe blinking headlights. (Of course, blinking headlights are pretty much always very bright as well.) My eyes get adjusted to the amount of light put out by my basic little headlight and the ambient light from adjacent buildings, etc. Then a blinding headlight comes zipping up towards me, and I can’t see anything else. I find myself wavering either towards the light or veering away from it, neither of which is the direction I want to go. Blinking just completely disorientates me. I keep my eyes down and try to focus on the path in front of me. Just keep riding.
But this week the fog and overcast have been burning off, so the afternoon rides are beautiful. As Dorothea described sunrise in Madison, “utterly glorious […], the ones that look so stupidly fake when painters try to reproduce them.” The sun cuts horizontally through the trees, across those open spaces that still remain, and the light sifts through leaves running from still mostly-green to vibrant orange. Not much red along the trail; I think the red-leaved trees are mostly imports, the locals (esp the vine maples) tend towards yellow and orange. (Oh, and I took pictures.)
About the time I get to the house the sun is just vanishing over the horizon, but when the weather is clear, it means the whole sky is full of light for just a little longer. I’m going to cherish the afternoon beauty as long as I can; as soon as Daylight Savings Time ends, sunset moves in before the end of the day, and even twilight coincides with the end of my work day. (This is where I need to decide whether to continue my 9/80 schedule through the winter: can I handle darkness at both ends of the day so quickly?)
Although, I see that I’ll get the dawn back for a few weeks at least. That could be quite nice. Even if the weather is gloomy, there’ll be a bit more light. And then the Christmas lights should start coming out; that’ll hold me until the doldrums of January & February.
Yes, I’m planning to ride through the winter this year, even if I have been procrastinating on getting gear. I’m pretty sure I won’t ride if it’s much below freezing, or if there’s ice on the road, or if it’s snowing. But that leaves a lot of days where I can ride, assuming I’ve got rain gear. So I’m going to try, and maybe keep from putting my bike entirely away from November through February.
(As a side note re: my last post, this is one of the things that I care about and want to do more.)