The temperature dropped 20 deg in less than 20 minutes! (And for any geeks out there who care, the pressure rose by 11 mb in 30 minutes.) It literally felt like I rode into a freezer when I turned off some pavement and onto a singletrack in Gunbarrel the change happened so abruptly. I've never experienced something like that. I convinced myself that it must have been a cold spot I was riding through, but climbing over Gunbarrel Hill, probably the most exposed spot east of town, I was being blasted by 30-40 mph wind gusts that made the left side of my face go numb. And a few minutes later I discovered my water had frozen. This all would not have been a problem had I dressed for 20 deg weather, but light gloves, no booties, no warm jacket, and only shorts and legwarmers meant the last 90 minutes of my ride were pretty, uh, painful. I found a Smartwool glove on the trail at one point, stopped, and put it on my left hand. At least I'd have one slightly comfortable hand for the rest of the ride. Never before have I put on items of clothing I found when on a ride.
Well, I'm warm now, but my fingers and toes are still sore. Hopefully it'll be nicer the next couple days, because there are a couple of 7-8 hour rides in store...
3 comments:
Holy freakin' Jesus!
Might have to start hauling some of your layers with you as if your in the GDR (Tour Divide) this coming June. As you know, you can never know exactly when the weather can change in the Rockys.
That's Mother Nature's way of telling you that you should have been skiing the Birkie instead! :-) Glad to hear you survived your ride, though.
Post a Comment