The Sun is Out on a Sunday

That's a pretty good match, in my estimation.

Although I felt well and suffered from no physical ailments, I decided to not go for a Saturday Pachaug rock pile ride yesterday.
The reason was that the weather was a bit cold and windy - it was about 10 degrees below average, which in itself ain't automatically a deal-breaker, but when the windy wind that was blowing was added, I felt a bit too cold for true comfort.
So, I passed.
On another day the weather might not have bothered me, but, it did yesterday.
Listening to your conscience is a good thing to do.
I'm all set to go this afternoon, though, and I'll report back later with an edit.

Wednesday is December 1st, and, frankly, we can't get through winter fast enough.
I really start looking up when the calendar hits March, and that's something to look forward to.
I'm at the stage of the off-road-riding game this season that I feel the days left before the ground starts to freeze solid and the weather starts to get bitterly cold are numbered.
So, I want to ride the decent weather while it hangs on.
If we'd all be pleasantly surprised with a relatively mild winter with no snow and few bitter-cold days and nights, I wouldn't complain.

It's edit time.

Today's rock pile ride was a good one.
The weather wasn't warm enough to feel balmy, but, once I actually hit the trail, it wasn't too much of a problem.
My fingers were a bit nippy after some of the road sections, but, it was decent.

I did the longer version of my loop and did 51.9 miles in total.
I felt pretty good on the bike, pulled some decent-feeling maneuvers, and my engine stopped only one time when I shut the engine off so I could take a piss on a nearby tree.
Oh, did my language offend you?
I'm sorry.
I should have said that I relieved myself. :)

While riding down one of my favorite pine-needed forest sections, a big (big for around here, anyway) bird of prey swooped down right in front of me and escorted me down that section of trail.
I kept pace with this feathered flier as it flew exactly down the trail, it's tail feathers about 20 feet in front of me the whole way, which was about a quarter-mile.
You don't see that happening every day.
I'm not sure what species of bird it was, but I'm guessing some kind of hawk.

I ran into (not literally) a couple groups of friggin' horses, too, but luckily they got the frig out of my way without taking too much time.
I'm not a fan of running into people on horseback because I always get the feeling that they feel they've got a lot more right to be out there than I do since they're on a horse and I'm not, and it's like there is some unwritten rule that says horses are OK to ride where and when you want and dirt bikes are evil.
Well, I've met some nice people on horseback, as well as some real douchebags, too.
The nice ones appreciate that I stop whenever I see one of these goddam fleabags out there (the horses, not the dykes riding them), while the douchebags give me the ol' you-lousy-dirt-bike-rider-scum-you-shouldn't-be-allowed-to-ride-those-things-out-here-and-don't-you-know-this-is-my-forest look.
Those are the ones that can kiss my ass.
Hard.

No crashes, no panic moments, a bit of standing water I had to go through (thanks to Friday's rain), and the last few miles heading toward the start/finish was very good, indeed.
All-in-all, it was a good ride.
The WR-250FY is washed all squeaky clean, I stuffed my face with a good supper, and life is good right now. :)

-John