The bike ride up the Skalkaho was fun today. A favorite of mine, it’s 10 miles to the top from my starting point and gains about 1300 ft. Not too hard, but enough of a workout for me. It was kinda windy going up and mixed sun and shade. a few sprinkles. Thought I’d go to the top and then drop back down to a little lake for lunch. It took me the usual 90 minutes to reach the pass. The surface was good, but a little muddy in spots.

Right when I got to the pass, out of nowhere, a snow storm blew into my face from the other side. I mean, I got off my bike and it started snowing. And blowing hard enough it was difficult to look in the direction of the wind. I knew this wasn’t good.

Thinking to drop down and revisit the good weather below, I quickly changed into my warm gear, gulped some water and descended. The snow lasted for about 15 minutes and then turned to rain. You know, Rain. Like real Rain. Like during a thunderstorm down pour. I got soaked and continued to descend more slowly than usual, since the wind chill was, well chilling me. I passed the lake by, thinking only of getting down. I later found a place out of the wind to stop long enough to open some hand warmers in the rain and slip them in my gloves. Then back to it. The rain made the surface more muddy which was ok, since it slowed me down.