After a few weeks of being out on the road, I finally had a chance to hang out at the cottage and enjoy the beautiful weather and some good friends company. I spent the morning catching up with my immediate family up in Granite Bay and then made it back down to Los Gatos to go for a ride in the “Fake Spring” South Bay heat.
It was only the second or third bike ride that I had been on since I had left for my ski trip so I didn’t have any desire to push it too hard, nor did I have the power to. I thought to myself on the ride that any sort of speed or power that I once had is definitely gone after having not ridden for so long. From all the time touring and hiking, I had developed more of a sense of patience that I took full advantage of to be out and enjoy the weather. The only thing that I wanted to do was get back to the cottage so I could hang out with a beer in the back yard. I probably told Molly a hundred times that it was all I wanted to do that weekend. So with the few photos I took while I was out on my ride, I cracked open a beer while I worked on them at the picnic table. It was everything I was looking for.
The next day, Molly and I planned to go for another gravel ride from the house. We took a route that she had ridden that pretty much went up to just below the elevation of Mount Umunhum, but it was all on gravel and the climbing was done within the first 6 miles of the route. We had a few spots that we had to get off the bikes because we didn’t have the gearing, or the proper tires (aka excuses for not being strong enough to ride), to ride up. It was a great base to start building back before real spring and summer come along and we’ll be wanting to spend tons of time on our bikes. It’s gonna be a rude awakening when we really start to ride a ton, but can’t wait for those days to come.
I recently received a new kit from Eliel Cycling that I didn’t think I was going to be able to wear until summer, but the weather was perfect this weekend that very shortly into the ride, I was already too hot for my vest needed to remove it. I will definitely be picking up another kit before the summer starts so I can be well prepped for the hot days to come.
The best way to end the ride was a coffee date at Cafe Dio and grabbing a cocktail at Zona Rosa downtown. With more travels coming up this year, I hope to spend a lot more of the weekends at home, just like this.
