Raindrops keep fallin' on my head

Friday, July 6th

We knew in advance it was supposed to be cloudy with a 10% chance of rain.  Except it wasn't cloudy.  The sky was gray and the air chilly.  Who talks about the weather in California in the summer?  I didn't have my jacket but at least I had arm warmers.  Miss P. had a vest and The Boyfriend had a jacket.  We originally planned to do an 80 mile loop but realized that wouldn't be feasible since we needed to get to our next destination, a 2 hour drive to Nevada City after the ride. There are only so many hours in a day, right. So we agreed to do a 60 mile loop thanks to Miss P. charting out an alternative. Okay, we're off, heading towards the cute town of Graeagle and onwards to Hwy 89 and Gold Lake Hwy. Well.  Let me tell you how it really went down....  

Look, Bambi poses for me.  We warmed up fairly quickly.

Maverick (aka The BF) has the lead.  Sometimes he says that about me.  The density of the forest was spectacular.  The BF remarked later when we were driving to Nevada City how it almost seemed to be fake because the trees were so darn perfect. 

A shot of a lake.  Lakes are everywhere if you take a moment to appreciate your surroundings.  By the way, this is mountain biking territory and understandably from the glimpses we had on our journey.

Me, trying to look like I know what I'm doing as we climb Gold Lake Hwy, a long but not difficult climb.

The scenery was gorgeous but let's talk about the weather.  In a nutshell, it sucked.  Somewhere along this scenic route, I smelled the rain before it started to fall.  It started with a few drops that led to a steady rain, mile after mile after mile.  It wouldn't let up.  I discovered that my arm warmers are truly water repellent.  Unfortunately, my biking shorts felt like I was wearing wet diapers.   Love the squishy noise, not. My shoes were soaked as well and my white bike was no longer white.  I can't say I was miserable and it wasn't nearly as bad as the time on Mt. Baldy in the freezing rain with the temperature hovering in the 40s.  But, it was annoying.

Again, greeted by beautiful scenery.  I biked at a cautious speed given the rain.  I wasn't in the best of moods, alone and wondering if the rain would ever let up.  At this point, lo and behold, who appeared but my knight in shining armor, aka, The Boyfriend!  He had turned around after meeting Miss P somewhere on the route to see how I was doing.  He gave me my options:  continue into the unknown or turn around but face more of the same, a dreary drenched ride. I chose to turn around since I knew what to expect.  I was psychologically downtrodden and unwilling to complete the loop. We ended up doing 44 miles of which the majority of it was in the rain.  Can we say fun, not.  Miss P. continued on to sunnier skies, doing the full 60 mile loop.  And so it goes.  What a day. Not what I expected.  But certainly an adventure.....