Night Rider

According to the weather forecast, this is the last warm day for a while. I took my mountain bike to work, but forgot my cycling clothes - doh! Tonight we had a family get-together at the in-laws. When we got home after 9 pm I felt I had to go for a ride since it was still 58 F and I wanted to give night riding another try.

If you remember, my first attempt to ride at night didn't go so well. This time the battery was fresh off the charger and I drove up to the trial head to make sure I had maximum dirt time.



I put the light on medium and had no trouble seeing as I rode up the trail (BST from above the Orem Cemetery). The pool of light on the trail was much brighter than it appears in the above photo. I couldn't see every tiny rock and stick like during daylight, but I could easily see enough detail of the trail to ride pretty aggressively. In fact, I think I rode faster because of the light - it's like I was trying to catch up to that spot of light ahead on the trail. I got a good workout going up and the few downhills were fine.

After the climb past (north of) Dry Canyon, I turned around for the (mostly) downhill. I kicked the light up to high to give me the maximum light for the higher speed. It worked pretty well. I'm sure I can ride it faster in the daylight, but I cooked along OK. I hit 17 mph and averaged 10.8 mph on a fairly narrow trail with lots of sidehill.

The verdict: Night riding is fun! Just as Sly said. I kept expecting to see some critters, and I finally startled some deer on the way down - seeing glowing eyes looking at you is a bit eerie. The city lights looked cool as I rode along, but this photo doesn't do the view justice. I'm looking forward to my next night ride.