Last update was a week ago? I can claim a very clouded mind… clouded by smoke from the fires up north. But today the air finally cleared, at least in the morning.

Sunday’s ride almost didn’t happen. The air was so bad I didn’t think it would be a good idea to get smoke-coated lungs, so I grabbed my son’s Ebike with the intention of keeping my heart rate and breathing not much higher than they’d be if I wasn’t riding. Basically let the heart rate max at 110, although really did try keeping it below 100. Compared to my usual rides, where my heart rate might be above 150 for the majority of the ride, I was basically in idle mode. And yet, I was still out there riding, still spinning the pedals. Tried to go up West Old LaHonda but it was open to local residents only, so I backtracked and rode Kings via the park. Met up with an interesting group of middle-aged folk all on ebikes! Actually saw them first heading over Jefferson, then again at the base of Huddart after my backtracking.

Virtually zero traffic; a small number of cars and even smaller number of bikes. But a lot of smoke. First time I’ve ridden actually wearing a mask while riding!

Tuesday? Smoke again! So Kevin’s ebike again. Solo ride, which was probably a good thing since I was on an ebike. After heading down 84 (still no West Old LaHonda loop due to the road closures) I decided hey, who would this bike be heading up Summit Springs? Turns out, really nice! Didn’t even have to ride in Turbo mode.

And now today. I was really anxious to get back out on my “real” bike again, although with a small amount of fear & trepidation since I’d been spending so much time on an ebike. Thankfully beautiful blue skies; the air actually smelled clean. I wasn’t sure how my legs would feel, but once I started climbing, they responded ok. As I made the right turn onto Greer (to head up Kings through the park), I spotted a rider heading up Kings the “normal” way, quickly with an orange bike. Had to be JeffZ. Well, bye-bye, no way was I catching him (he’s in the far-left photo above).

Midway through the park I came across Lauren (middle picture), who was riding very strongly, making me wonder why I bothered to pass? I waited a short time at the top of the Park (actually a very short time) and spoke with her; she was out doing a ride on her birthday, claiming to be 48. I said her riding age was 38. She turned to head back down while I rode up, not cranking out the normal wattage but not doing too badly either. Passed another guy about 2/3rds of the way up.

Heading south on Skyline, saw JeffZ in the opposite direction; he’d done a u-turn at 84. Glad I wasn’t trying to hang with him today!

Overall nice ride, although it would have been nice to be back on West Old LaHonda too. Super nice views in the clean air. I’ll take more of this.

Last night I wasn’t sure how things would go this morning. Would it be so smoky I couldn’t ride? Maybe just smoky enough that I ought to ride Kevin’s e-bike and make it a bit easier on my lungs? What I wasn’t really prepared for was a beautiful blue sky and very pleasant temperature. Instead of the low-80s it’s been pretty early in the morning, the ride varied from 60-66 degrees. Pretty nice!

Surprisingly just Karen out there with me. Not a big surprise that yesterday’s heavy smoke and high temps took a toll on my breathing; heading up through the steep part of the park, I heard just a bit of a wheeziness at the end of each breath, something I haven’t heard for a while. Thankfully it went away, almost as if I was able to burn off the crap that had accumulated. Maybe I did.

Every once in a while you’d pick up a scent of the fire, but never bothersome and no smoke at all. As you can see in the photo, it was there, but off to the side. During the rest of the day it stayed the same, sparing the shop (but I’m told the air in nearby San Mateo was pretty bad).

The only bad omen this morning was the dead rattlesnake in the middle of the road on West Old LaHonda, Definitely a rattler; the tail was rather striking, despite it being not that large a snake. I stopped long enough to make sure it was dead, but for some reason, didn’t take a picture. First rattlesnake I’ve seen in over a year and I didn’t take a picture? That may have been the missing sign of the Apocalypse on this-morning’s ride!