Always Trailing
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by John PeelBelieve me, doing a moonlight mountain bike ride on Dec. 1 was not on my day planner a few weeks ago.
But there's no snow around, the trails are dry except in the shadiest and coldest of spots, and we're always looking for adventure, right?
Four of us gathered on the outskirts of Durango at about 6:30 p.m., just as the moon was cresting the hillside, and headed up Horse Gulch. We used mounted lights for about a quarter-mile, then turned them off and went au naturel. Don't get any ideas ? I'm referring to natural lighting, of course. You'd have to be fully lubed and crazy to not layer on the clothing.
Moonlight plays tricks on the trail. Tree shadows make ruts appear where there are none, hide rocks, obscure turns in the trail. Only one of us crashed. Not bad.
The temperature was in the 30s, and only my toes got chilled.
With snow hopefully on its way any day now, it may be a few moons before I/we do this again. But I'm guessing there will be a next time. Say April 26 (two days before full moon). There, I just marked it on my day planner.
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