Racing the squall line

Current Seasonal Total: 619.6

Coming off the fun and adventure of the Trek 100, it was a little difficult to return to the normalcy of my local routes. . . but I did so anyway. On Wednesday, June 16th, I left work four hours early to take advantage of the best weather of the week. On this day, I rode to Busse Woods, but took a longer route back that I had planned out the day before. Under partly sunny skies with temperatures near-perfect in the upper 70s, I rode a total of 32.9 miles.

Two days later, on a "Summer Hours Friday," I left the house at about 2:45, southbound to follow my familiar "Kuhn to Lies to the West Branch Trail" route. The weather started off partly cloudy, and I knew that thunderstorms were predicted to arrive later in the afternoon, but I did not anticipate their very rapid advance. . . at nearly 50 mph! After crossing Army Trail Road to follow Kuhn Road, I began to notice how dark the sky looked near the western horizon. I didn't really think anything of it, knowing that my planned route was not very far. I continued south . . . and then west along the paved path beside Lies Road. However, as I crossed Bartlett Road to head eastward on what I call the Wilcox Trail, I began to worry about the rapidly changing skies behind me. In some places, the clouds had a mammatus-like quality to their appearance. In other places, there were features resembling wall clouds. I pedaled faster. A few slow traffic lights delayed my efforts, and I almost made it home before the heavy rains began. But not quite! I started hearing thunder around Greenbrook and County Farm Roads and by the time I had turned onto Arlington, winds had become gusty. The skies became quite dark, and I could have used some lights for my bike. Rain started falling as I crossed from the Indigo path onto Indigo Court. As I raced down my final stretch to home along Cloverdale Road, moderate to heavy rain began to fall and leaf clusters were torn from trees all around me. In the end, I rode 14.5 miles, and my average speed was my fastest so far in 2010 -- 14.11 mph. A fast-approaching squall line is a good incentive to ride faster!