Mid-Summer (Lughnasad) Night Ride: Ride Report

We never know quite what to expect from our Seasonal Celebration Night Rides.  This past Monday was no exception.  To begin with, we had a much smaller group than usual.  Most likely many were put off by an uncertain weather forecast, coupled with overcast sky.  Present at the start were Cindy, Scott, Judy, Dan, Courtenay, Chris, and your correspondent.  A small but happy group.

Things looked especially forbidding right at the 7:30 start time.  Th sky was lowering, and it was getting dark.  So of course we pushed off and rode.

Almost immediately the clouds started to part.  By the time we crossed GA-16 the sky was a spectacular mix of awesome cloudforms, and the lowering sun was painting them in glorious colors.  The sky continued to clear, and by the time we had full dark, it was impossible to detect a cloud up there.  Stars yes!  But no clouds.  No rain.  Pleasant temperatures, down in the mid 70s.  A good night to be out on the road.

This route has its share of good hills.  Dan has a new toy, a brand new, feature-loaded cyclocomputer.  Apparently it has a grade detector feature.  At any rate, he was quite gleeful about reporting the grade percentages.  “This one is 7%!  No, now it’s eight!”

Every ride is different.  This one seemed to be about a lot of chatter and a good bit of laughter.  I rather enjoy rides like that. 

Traffic remained mostly light, even on the four mile stretch of GA-54alt that led us into Luthersville.  The smooth pavement of last year’s work on that road was greatly appreciated too.

Of course, as soon as we hit Luthersville, we turned back to the East, and continued on Luthersville Rd.  There the pavement could use some refinishing.  The surface is almost more patches than original roadway.  Bump and bouncy.  Some good hills add to the fun on Luthersville Rd, but the sky was great, and the traffic continued to be very light.

On the traffic, we only had one “horn-honker” and that was not until we had turned onto GA-85, in Alvaton.  More, as “honkers” go, this one was fairly benign.  He felt it necessary to give us a blast of his “train horn,” from a bit back, and then he roared by in his one-ton “dualie.”  My my, but we are all so impressed.

Have you ever noticed?  After leaving Alvaton, heading north, you descend to the new bridge, and from there it is uphill, not steep, but constant, all the way to Harralson!

We did manage to ride a fairly brisk conversational pace, covering the 40.6 miles of this loop in two hours and 50 minutes.  (For the enquiring minds, that’s a 14.33 MPH overall average.  Not too shabby.)  All in all we had us a good, incident-free, happy, quiet night ride.

I can hardly wait for the “Spoke Breaker” ride on September 24^th.  I’m referring to the annual Autumn Equinox Celebration Night Ride.  (Seems like someone always volunteers to break a spoke on this one.  Let’s break the hoo-doo this year!)