I post a lot of pictures from the adventures that Cheryl and I undertake in good weather. Sunny days are conducive to photography. If nothing else, they have good light. Warm days also mean we're not bundled up in so many layers of clothes that pictures of us look like snapshots of potatoes wearing bike helmets. Not all seasons are pretty to look at. Fall has leaves, spring has blossoms, and summer has beaches and water. Unless it snows, our winter excursions are often through landscapes that are gray and brown and somewhat bleak.
Vere's the important thing: We probably wouldn't be outside on the good days if we didn't also go out on the bad days. If you write off going outside from November through March, you're going to develop habits that are going to make going outdoors the rest of the year inconvenient and, honestly, a little disappointing. You get outside and it's a little chilly, or kind of windy, or hot and sticky, or there are too many bugs, or thunder's getting closer. Who needs that?
Make yourself get outside three or four times a week in January and February when it's drizzling and gloomy, and you'll have a lot more appreciation for a not quite perfectly warm day in April.
Yesterday Cheryl and I took advantage of a forecasted break in the rain to get out to the ATT and grab an 11 mile ride a little before sunset. It was cold, and got a lot colder when the wind picked up. It was cloudy, so it got dark fast and we had to ride the last few miles in pitch blackness and load bikes by flashlight. When we got home, we were laughing as we undressed because to combat the cold we were wearing a ridiculous number of layers. We filled an entire washer load with just the clothes we'd had on for a single ride! I had on underwear, long underwear, and sweatpants, plus four shirts. Add in gloves, socks, shoes, a hat, and a rain coat and I probably had on ten pounds of clothing. And I was still cold!
On the other hand, we weren't the only crazy people on the trail. We passed a guy running in shorts... and he was barefoot! Still, on a warm, sunny day the trail can be so congested it almost feels like rush hour traffic. Last night, while there were other weirdo's out, they were few and far between . We could bike in freedom without the stress of passing or being passed.
Today we went for a walk on the Riverwalk. I think we saw two people in a mile and half. It was deeply overcast and gray, but there were patches of moss and grass in shades of green that could fairly be described as vibrant. No flowers in bloom, but lots of daffodil stalks that had pushed up through the leaf litter. In another week, there will be yellow flowers everywhere.
Because the trail was so empty, there were deer not ten feet off the trail, chewing buds on branches. There were four of them and they apparently really liked the branches they were eating because they kept their eyes on us as we passed but never bolted. On a nicer day, when people would have been out running the trail with dogs and kids, the deer would have kept their distance.
I don't want to oversell our toughness here. Today was 40 degrees and drizzle. If it had been 30 degrees, or hard rain, we'd probably have stayed inside. And, it was way too wet and cold to ride today. Yesterday was only about 5 degrees warmer, but it was just over the threshold of a tolerable ride. Looking at the forecast for the coming week, I see that Wednesday has a high of 38 and wind and drizzle in the forecast. We'll likely stay inside. On the other hand, Monday is a high of 59 and merely cloudy. We've already got the bikes loaded and plan to ride.
Cheryl and I study ten day weather forecasts the way some people study horoscopes. We arrange our lives around the weather, and if there's a great day amid a string of duds, we grab it. But sometimes it's all duds. My two week forecast doesn't have a picture of a sun on it until Feb 27, ten days away. There's no way we're going to stay indoors ten days in a row. We own raincoats. Might as well use 'em.
Today's weather was dismal, but the deer and the moss made for a pretty good walk. That's the important takeaway here. If you wait for the perfect day to go out and take a walk or a ride, you're going to let a lot of pretty good days sneak by you.
And, hey, at least in February there are no mosquitoes.
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