I hoped to be gone an hour for lunch, but I think I hit every stoplight red, which added a lot of time to my ride. I tried to avoid lights by taking Carmel Creek Road instead of El Camino Real on my way down to the 56 bike trail. That turned out to be a mistake. I really hate that road; it’s so rough. I hit a massive bump right in the bike lane on my way down the hill. My hands slipped off my handlebars and I was lucky I didn’t crash. My front water bottle popped out and went spinning across both lanes of traffic and into the island. Luckily the cars and vans on the road were paying attention and didn’t squish it. As soon as there was a break I rode back up the bike lane and across to the median to grab my bottle before heading the rest of the way down to the trail.

I seemed to hit every traffic light red today. It was frustrating and I knew it would cause me to take longer than an hour if I didn’t cut my ride short, but there was no way I was cutting it short. I was having too much fun out there.

I wasn’t fast and I was going through my water like crazy, but I was having a great time. It’s been a long time since I’ve ridden up that trail and I took it fairly easy and really enjoyed it. I’m going to miss the 56 bike trail in particular when we move away in the next little while.