Yes, Fall is definitely in the air (along with some rain)! Julie and I decided to put the bikes in her truck and go someplace besides the roads we have ridden a million times. Julie wanted 40 to 50 miles so we headed south to Rochester High School where we parked the truck and unloaded the bikes. It had been raining on my ride over to Julie's, but by the time we got to Rochester the rain had pretty much stopped. Still, I kept my rain pants on for the moment. We headed south from Rochester toward Centralia. Along the way we met up with a couple of guys from, I think, Minnesota. They were doing a sag supported tour from Vancouver, BC to Bandon, Oregon. We pointed them in the right direction to Centralia.
When Julie and I got to Centralia, we decided we should probably eat lunch because there was not going to be any other food opportunities until we returned to Rochester. Shockingly, we did NOT eat at Subway! We ate at the Country Cousin, an icon of sorts, in Centralia close to the outlets. We both had delicious hot turkey sandwiches.
After lunch I took off my rain pants and switched to my fingerless gloves as well. Still had the rain jacket and helmet cover on. We took a back road loop to Galvin Rd. and Galvin (the blink-and-miss-it town). From there it was onto Lincoln Creek Rd. for the flat to rolling ride along Independence Valley. Along the way I stopped to remove my helmet cover (it does a great job repelling water, but also trapping heat and sweat). We made it to Manners Rd. where we had to climb the longest hill of the day. However, we were rewarded with an even longer downhill on the other side.
Then it was on to Independence Rd. for the ride back into Rochester. By then I had removed my rain jacket as the sun was even shining! I noticed a lot of what Julie thought were Wolf Spiders on the road. They were probably looking for some warm house to hole up in for the winter. Besides the lots of cows and horses, we didn't see much in the way of other animals. We did pass a field of nice looking pumpkins!
We made it back to Rochester and loaded up the bikes. It was a nice Fall ride!
Total miles for me: 41
(Sorry no photos. I forgot to take my camera.)
