Thursday, March 27, 2008

I'm out, no wait I'm in

for last night's OTCR Sherman Branch training ride but I'm gonna be late. The SB trail is less than 10 minutes by car and last night I drove in to the lot at 1820 hrs with shoes and helmet on ready to go. I figured that I was starting some 20 minutes later than my friends had so I took off against the grain backwards knowing I would run in to them somewhere between the Lake loop and the Roller Coaster section. Riding in the wrong normal direction on this multidirectional trail I caught myself paying close attention way out ahead in an effort not to make anyone angry or run their mouths. When I saw the first on coming rider a minute before he saw me I pulled to the right side of the trail, balanced a pastoral track stand and firmly said, "Come on by". As soon as he got even with me looking splendid but sweaty in his own Mayo Jaune this man came up with the smart ass comment I needed to make my day complete. "What, going for a backwards ride?", he spat out over his shoulder. All I could do is step forward on the drive side pedal and think to his back and myself, yea something like that you lippy moron. I passed 8 riders before I found TD and OTCR. Only the first rider I passed had anything cynical to say, the others just rolled on by with me yielding to the left or right of the trail. Now with the pack in the normal direction I found my place in the woodsy pace line. The rest of the mid week trail ride was fun, not alone and the low light from the sun trickled these crazy orange/red light beams across the trees and onto the pine needle covered floor.
I shot the above image of the setting sun last night after the ride from the side of the road near the end of the county. It is weird looking, appearing almost as if the trees here on this earth are craddling the distant star so far away.

2 comments:

Jordy said...

it looks like the egg of a dinosaur prophet on the banks of the tigris.

The Big Bad Banker said...

Pretty neat. If you look really closely at the enlarged image, it looks like some of the branches are just very thin. Such is more apparent in the upper left hand edge of the sun. I learned in art and physics classes that light bends around objects. Thus, it is possible if the branches are thin enough and the sun bright enough, they can disappear from sight. Such is why during a solar eclipse, even though the sun is technically blacked out, light still manages to show around the edges of the moon.