Not a crash, just testing the ice.
It was nearly 40 degrees when I left the house. The sun was quickly dropping in the sky and I had a feeling the temperature was about to follow. It's been below freezing the past couple days and when I got down to the swamps I found an icy landscape.
A setting sun.
There were several hunters parked down in the wildlife area. I passed by a father and son headed for the woods. "Have a good hunt!" I yelled. "We're gonna' try!" the father yelled back. Before dusk I left the swamps, climbing Clark Road to the east. As the sun began to set I heard end of day gunshots from the woods.
After climbing south on James Road I reached Harrison and turned west. A couple rollers kept me warm. The air temperature was dropping and the sun was about gone for the day. I stopped alongside the road for what I thought would be one last picture.
Sunset from the county line.
Coming around an uphill bend on County Line Road I looked up to see a flock of birds flying over in formation. "That would make a good picture" I thought as I ripped my glove off my hand with my teeth to retrieve the camera from my pocket. I got my picture and returned the camera to my pocket. The hill didn't allow me to put my glove back on as I needed to tend to stand up pedaling. My hand was frozen by the time I did get my glove back on and it took a mile to warm up again.
Formation flying.
About this time I realized it was smart to have put the blinky light on the back, but I was about to need a headlight up front. The shortest route home was back through the gravel in the swamps, no need to twist my arm for this option. I had to drop my lightly tinted glasses to my nose and look over top the lenses to see where I was going. A pothole caught me by surprise and I nearly lost the handlebars from my grip but kept hold. Then, a couple miles of road and I was home, ready to stand in front of the wood stove.
Dark came fast.
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