Solo WNGR: Smashing Through

I was early, though didn't know it at the time. I should have been tipped off when the same light that turned red on the WNGR bunch turned green for me and, after a little nonchalant, oh-look-its-the-group, wave, I continued to slog my way up Mills. Circling the loop through the spreading grounds I was only a little surprised to notice that all the tumbleweeds that had been clogging up the path the previous week, were mostly broken up this time around. The one that remained I smashed through, scratching up my legs and sending bits of dried up flotsam flying into the air, in my eyes, catching in my wheels and derailleur, but at least clearing the way when the bunch should roll along the same route in another few minutes.

Reaching the top and making a hard right, wheels clawing for hold against the loose rock, is when I first began to really believe I might run into the group further down the line. When I startled him from his perch I told hawk as much, "if we cross paths I think I'll turn around and join in." I didn't know at the time, but I was still early. And then there they were, just beyond where the downward side of the loop merged into the upward side of the loop, but the sun was gone, only a melted orange residue spread across the horizon remained. The rest of the sky, growing darker by the wheel turn, told me it was time to wrap things up.

Officially, the WNGR does not draw to a close until the time change, still a month away. It is late now, but time still remains to join in.