Today California is being hit by the first storm of the season. After five months without rain, the wet season has finally begun. The powerful storm impacting the state today has the potential to drop up to eight inches of rain in spots. Here in San Luis Obispo, the rain is falling in drenching, wind-blown sheets.
The unplanted bulbs and falling leaves will keep for another day!
Walk through Eden's Garden and then
Wonder as you go....
-- Midnight Oil.
I awoke this morning to the sound of rain and buffeting wind. I decided to ride anyway, and just wear a spray jacket for some reason. The strength of the wind at dawn (when it's normally at it's weakest) surprised me, but this is where it becomes liberating. When the wind is so strong that attaining a decent average speed is just about impossible, one tends not to focus on such things, and instead concentrates on just enjoying the ride. It was in the vicinity of 50-60km/h on that early stretch down the coast, so I just accepted what it was doing to my speed, and enjoyed the scenery.
With the showers still falling lightly, it was over Bilambil and onto Urliup road, in the mud! This actually wasn't so bad, again, once covered in the mud to the point of no longer caring about it. The scenery was already warming up.
Winding through the rainforest on the dirt, almost totally encased in mud, over the "summit", down into the Tweed Valley briefly, before the climb of Tomewin, where I would follow "the track" along the NSW/Qld border. This promised to be interesting, with the rocky sections wet, and probably slippery. First, however, there was the small matter of a detour that I hadn't taken in three years, Garden of Eden road, a western detour along the southern side of the ridge. This was one of those "why did I wait so long?" rides. The scenery here is stunning. It's a short detour, and a dead end, meaning a return on the same route, but it's definitely worth it.
After the return, and more covering in mud, it was over to Glengarrie "road", the track I'd come here to follow. It really is an entrancing ride, through the dense forest, the occasional mountain views, the old shacks on the mountain that have been here for years and somehow survived the wild weather these parts get occasionally. Today I'm focused on the wildflowers that are blooming up right now, and the shapes being thrown around by the clouds.
The slippery rocks provide some interesting moments early, but I soon find my rhythm here. It's a matter of timing one's bursts, putting in a huge effort on the uphill slippery parts, then relaxing on the in between parts in order to recover for the next huge effort. The top is reached soon, and it's a muddy descent toward Bilambil punctuated by a couple of climbs and some really nastily positioned intersections, before the final screaming descent into Bilambil and back into suburbia. At least I'll have a tailwind for the ride home.
There is a final tale to tell here. After an extremely invigorating ride, I'm pedalling through suburbia pondering the task of somehow cleaning the mud and dirt off the bike, figuring that the occasional light rain that's falling is having no effect on this whatsoever. Then at Burleigh Heads, some 7km from home, the heavens open up and a huge downpour makes it's presence felt. Now most of the mud and dirt has been washed away, and the rain was just beautiful. A fitting end to a memorable morning!
