Yesterday I was talking with a good customer of ours, Lewis, about what it’s like getting a bit more experienced (ok, older) on a bike, and how maybe some days you don’t feel motivated to get out there, many days it seems to take a while to get warmed up, but every single day you ride, by the end of that ride, you’re always feeling good about having been out there. No matter what. Neither of us can remember a bike ride we later wish we hadn’t done.

This morning might have been one of those rides. Just me; Kevin had been up too late doing the Bethlehem AD stuff (taking care of the animals) and wasn’t interested in getting up. The other Kevin (Pilot) replied to my text that he was tired from a ride yesterday so he was going to do a later, slower ride. Extrapolate that out a few hundred times and you get roads all to yourself; no bikes, not even cars. Almost eerily quiet.

I wasn’t sure what my first time up Kings in over two weeks would be like, but what do you know, putting one foot down, then the other… nothing’s really changed. Except that it was pretty cool (37 degree average temp) and I was slow. Not horrifyingly slow, and I did feel stronger as I went.

No time for the West Old LaHonda section because the shop opened up an hour early than normal this morning, but 24 hilly miles felt nice. It’s good to be back.

We normally have a breakfast ride to Alice’s for Kevin’s birthday (the younger Kevin, not the older guy who likely doesn’t look forward to birthdays anymore), but last Thursday was both his birthday AND Thanksgiving, so we postponed it to today. We got the word out to the former regulars, but the fog and work commitments kept everyone away. Everyone except the older Kevin, who had started up the hill several minutes earlier than us and circled back down once he got to the top.

He really didn’t need to head up earlier. We are going SLOW these days when it’s cold, and it’s pretty much always cold. The sub-30-minute times we could routinely get during the summer (and Kevin could sometimes do much better than “just” sub-30) have turned into 34-37 minute casual cruises, slow enough that even I can carry on a conversation. Sometimes.

We did get passed at the bottom of Kings by someone who was really flying; I joked that we could cut him off by riding through the park. Like I said, it was a joke.

At Alice’s we met the owner and heard about the history of the place, and learned that the pond behind Alice’s was actually a mill pond from back in the day, making railroad ties for the long-abandoned line that ran, for a few years, from San Francisco to Santa Cruz. Older Kevin (pilot) didn’t actually join us for breakfast; he rode the West Old LaHonda loop while we ordered our food, and arrived back in time to keep us company while we scarfed down the healthy stuff you see in the photos.