4 July 2012

Solo ride

It was overcast and cool all morning, so I delayed until early afternoon, when it was still overcast and cool. I headed up Hwy 9 to Felton, where it was warm and sunny. I took Graham Hill and Zayante, and headed over Quail Hollow and down Glen Arbor to Ben Lomond, and started up Alba at 1:33. There were a bunch of cars parked around Alba School, and it looked like there was a picnic or something there. On the other side of the road, there was a sign on a steep driveway for brass band parking. I got to the top at 2:06, doing the climb in an estimated 33:15. I started down Empire Grade. At one point, a bug flew at my right eye, going over my glasses, then right down at my eye. I blinked a bunch of times and wiped at my eye, but kept seeing a dark blob at the bottom of my field of vision, so I thought the bug was sitting on the inside of my glasses lens. After shaking my head a bunch of times, I stopped and took off my glasses and there was nothing on it. I wiped my eye a couple of times, then got back on my bike. Finally, I wiped my eye again and the bug came off on my finger from under my eye. The light at Heller was red when I first saw it, but it turned green before I got there, which was the reverse of what usually happens. I faced a headwind for the lower part of Empire Grade.