Is it raining yet?

On Friday it was raining. Wait does that give justice enough to the rain. It was pouring. The sky was dropping absurd amounts of water. The streets were filled with that water. Perhaps it was not a good day to ride a bicycle. Or was it? The proper clothing was the only way to go. Sickness is not an option for cyclists. A cyclist can not even fake being sick to miss school because that would mean that one would not be able to ride their bike after school! Maybe the rain was needed. The creeks had been relatively low for this time of year. Even Lake Nicasio was at the lowest limits that I had seen in a while. It was looking more like a field than a lake. Why did it have to come today though? I guess it was just meant to be. Saturday I was planning on riding Skagg's with my Team Swift Elite teammates. It would have been awesome. Alas, six hours in this weather was not an option, even for a bunch of fools like us.

I got home from school around 1, but I pouted over the rain for a few hours before I became hardcore enough to put on my clothes and jump into it. As I got dressed it was only drizzling and that angered me. If i was going to ride in this junk I wanted a hurricane. This needed to be epic. Of course I was going to go ride the mountain bike, it was way to nasty for the road, what with the gray skies, fogged windows and crazy drivers. The trail was the place for me. Heck, is anyone else crazy enough to go ride on the trail today? No, can't be anyone that stupid. The trails would be all mine.

I headed out the door and jumped upon my MTB beast. Now it was storming. That is what I am talking about. I let out a scream for a joy (or insanity?) and wheelied that bad boy out the driveway. I was well equipped and ready to roll. I was even sweating I was so perfectly warm.

I stole my dads waterproof gloves. They are amazing. Seriously, they are absolutely unbelievabele. I think that they are for kayaking or something, but no water, well extremely few amounts seeped into my gloves during my two hours of riding through an absolute perfect storm.

I got to the neighborhoods near the trail entrance and the streets were flooded. I had to follows cars through the water. They would part the water for me and I would race through the streets before I got engulfed. I made it to the dirt, my kingdom. Not a soul for miles. I felt good today. I was cruising through the thick mud. The rain pounding. Drops pounding on my rain jacket. I was thundering through the forest. It was a good day to climb. Climb I did. Ten miles of climbing to the top of Mount Tam. The trail was a river. Then as I neared the top of the mountain another man descended past me. He looked exactly like me. All dressed up in an ugly bike rain jacket and massive amounts of lycra. We are like ugly ballerinas. Well as I saw this guy in the distance he was laughing, and he continued to toss out that laughter all the way down the trail as he passed me. Was he laughing for joy? (I think that he was hypothermic or something!) Oh well, I felt great as I cruised up the trail. I passed through multiple waterfalls crossing the river that I was riding through. It was getting windy. It was ridiculously foggy. Could I see that tree 10 feet away. Nope. I caromed my way to the top. Oops, not much time left to get back down this mountain. Oh, no worries, I can get down this mountain in probably five minutes.

Have you ever tried descending through a river? Wow, it is not easy. One may in fact say that it is difficult. Did I mention that every corner of Tam looks exactly the same when it is ridiculously foggy. I think that it was harder descending then climbing. One might even claim that it was scary.

I reached the bottom and had to follow some more cars through the flooding. I thought that the one that I was following was going to die as I heard the engine sputter in the water. Luckily, it made it through, and so did I.

The best part of the ride was while I was navigating my way through one of these flooded streets. There were two boys of five years in their full on yellow rain gear standing with their mother and dog. As they spotted me they yelled to their mom "That kid is riding a bike!"

I continued home and I ended up on a street that was closed with a banner blocking my side. Oh, this couldn't be much of a problem after what I have been through. I rode about 500 ft before I saw the biggest puddle of my life. The street could no longer be considered a road, it was river. The water was gushing across the hillside on one side and into the river on the other side. It was at least as deep as my wheels. I turned back and managed to pull into my home before it was too dark. Another adventure in the books.

I am that kid riding a bike.

tb

One of the many sweet waterfalls on Mount Tam