Despite the some crap weather this week, and being an even crapper cyclist these days, I managed to get out for four rides this week. They weren’t all that long, one in particular being under twenty miles due to an exterminator coming to rid us of a hornet’s nest on the side of the house, but I got out, got some miles in, and the rainy weather gave me that rural photographic doom and gloom that I enjoy so much.
With the dirt and gravel roads muddy and rutted up from harvest time farm traffic, I opted to ride the Fatterson most days this week. It has the least expensive drivetrain of all my bikes, and of course the widest tires, so it makes for a great slop ride bike.
I also split the week’s rides up evenly between northern and southern dirt roads. Both directions offer great rides, and are similar, but different. Both offer many miles of dirt and gravel, but the south offers a few more hills, a few more rustic farms, and usually provides more wildlife beyond farm animals.
The shot directly above of the harvested corn field is OK, but the funny thing about the shot is that had I rode just another fifty feet or so and crested the hill, I would have seen that there was a large group of sandhill cranes, and geese commingling in the field. I took the shot, started putting my camera away, and they all took off. I fired off a couple of shots, but the shots were shit, and not worth posting. Such is life. You get some shots, you lose some.
I used the Fuji X-T1 for all my shooting this week. Really enjoying the camera, and I admit I was a little more at ease having a weather sealed camera for the rides this week. I still kept a large ZipLock around for when it was raining (given that my lens is NOT weather sealed), but it still gave me some peace of mind.
Friday’s ride was a REAL soggy one. Steady rain overnight made the roads extremely muddy, and brought out a ton of worms. I hate to think of the number of worms that suffered due to the Fatterson’s wheels.
About mid-way through Friday’s ride it started to drizzle, and that got things even wetter and soggier. The mud and water had the Fatterson sounding like a Word War II era tank ready for the scrap heap; brakes scraping, chain squeaking, gears grinding. Had to give it a good washing when I got home.
Once home the rain started coming down even harder and pretty much continued on through the night. As I type this there is still a mist in the air, but I am opting to just stay inside today. Four days in a row of riding in various levels of shit weather, has left me just happy to sit, do some writing, watch some footy, and start a pork butt in the slow cooker for some burritos after B’s soccer game late this afternoon.
Although this week’s riding will do little to get me fit again, they were fun, and my back and hip felt the best they have in a while. Not 100%, but I’ll take what I can get.
Later.