Along The Lake

The Volunteer Repair Party at Bike Works was bigger than anyone could remember. Lots of people. A group of us, 4 or 5, often ride back to Capitol Hill together. Tonight there were 13 of us! It was a a great bike gang.

There are a variety of routes, most often we ride a route which takes us up the ridge to a wonderful view of above Lake Washington on 30th Ave S. But today we turned right and went down along Lake Washington. I was a little nervous about this dark route because i'm still riding with LED lights while i make change in generators; i haven't re-installed my halogen light yet.

We rode along Genesee park and into the darkness of Lake Washington boulevard. It was fine. It was in fact, amazing to be there in the night along the lake. Cruising fast in a group of friends. I felt lucky.

We swept uphill on the Olmsted Curves far faster than seemed possible, and then doubled back through the bicycle/pedestrian tunnel to Judkins park on the other side of which we picked up our normal zig zag up the spine of the hill towards home.

I love these group rides after events, because it's fun to ride together and it's really cool the way people slowly peal off along the route, the core of the group getting smaller and smaller. I'd love to have a graphic of that, i'm told that's really geeky. Anyone surprised? Didn't think so.

A gorgeous ride along the lake and good company really take the stress out of a day. I felt so much better afterwards.

There were none of the aggressive drivers i had to navigate around on the way south at 5pm. Riding at night makes you feel that the city belongs to you, it's quiet and spreads out under your wheels. The sliver of moon was beautiful, with earthshine on the dark section. I love earthshine!

The night was cold and clear and when the group had whittled down to just two of us and we got near our respective homes, we both wanted to ride some more, so we added a loop around Volunteer park.