Definitely a bit of a chill in the air this morning; amazing to think that “winter” is still a full month away! Mostly-dry roads which, sadly, are not in the forecast for Thursday’s annual Turkey-Trot event (8am, 15 minutes later than our usual ride, and scheduled to return by about 1pm assuming weather allows us to do the full Pescadero/Tunitas ride).

Eric, George, Todd, new guy from Colorado whose name I forgot already (hate that!), both Kevins and Jim. Seems like I’m leaving somebody out. Right. Chris! Chris, who’s coming back up to speed very quickly after a voluntary (he claims) sabbatical from cycling so he could spend more time with his family after his intensive training for the Mt. Everest Challenge a couple months ago.

It was a pretty hard start up the first part of the hill, with the time to Huddart Park sitting right at 8 minutes (7:45 would be a very fast time for the summer), at which point I told Kevin (my son, not the pilot) that it was time to “shut down” for a while to avoid a seizure. Which he dutifully did… for a minute or two. Then Jim took off, with Kevin hot on his wheel. For about a minute. And then, predictably, Kevin had a seizure, thankfully one of the seizures where he has enough warning to get safely off the bike and on the ground. Two minutes later and he’s back up, no lingering effects, full-speed ahead.

West-side Old LaHonda, on the other hand, may not do so well this year. Check out the photo; if we have a winter & spring like last year, we may not have a road to ride anymore! The county has already cut into the hillside a bit to make enough room for cars to get through, but it’s entirely possible that entire hill could start sliding down across the road in a heavy rain, and it’s doubtful the funds exist to do a permanent repair. Cross your fingers for mild winters until the county has enough money to deal with its road issues!