I thought I had the Hoo-E pretty much ready to go, but when I got home from work today and started getting ready to ride, I realized that on Sunday I had put off several mechanical issues that I was now forced to deal with before I could start riding. This included pumping up the tires, and replacing the battery on the cyclometer, which had failed on the last ride. Luckily, I had an extra battery laying around, but it was out the original packaging and its provenance is unknown, so the jury is still out on how long it will last. I also had to adjust the throws on the front derallier. Previously, it was hard to upshift from the small ring to the middle, and in heavy turbulence, the chain would slip off the middle ring to the grannie. What used to be a Rubik's cube of mechanical pain is now just a five-minute fix (although I do admit consulting one of my bicycle repair manuals). Whatever, the result is much improved shifting, especially after I fine-tuned the rear derallier as well.

Feeling pretty unoriginal as far as routes, and pretty lazy as far as anything, I decided to do a Verde loop on the Hoo-E. The Verde loop route starts down the coastal bikepath, then jumps out to the Cabrillo and stays on that down to lower Verde Road. From there, you take Verde back north to Higgins-Purissima, up the valley to the Grapevine, then down into Half Moon Bay and back up the bikepath to the EG.

I REALLY didn't feel like doing a ride tonight, but I managed to get myself out the door. I've been pretty disciplined the last week or so -- not Krusty disciplined, but pretty good for the ole C-ROLLAH! I've been able to get back down to the low 170s and I've also been able to work out several days in the last week. This despite the fact that my motivation has been harder to find lately than Billy Tauzin's integrity.

As I lumbered down the coastal highway, the thinnest sliver of a moon was hanging out over the clear, dark seascape like a Mike Hampton curveball. After I got south of town a mile or so, the traffic dropped off and it was mostly just me, the Hoo-E, the land, and the ocean. Cars would occasionally pass by, brief paraploxyms of anxiety, any one of which could have shut down the whole enterprise. Just to remind me of my place in the natural order, as I was readying myself to turn onto Lower Verde, a huge semi blasted past me, rattling me pretty good.

Verde and H-P are good places to recover from the frights of the Cabrillo. Out in the darkness, I was treated to a beautiful cordillera silhouette, backlit by the glow of the metropolitan Bay Area and framed nicely by a bed of stars nestled in deep blue. Being out here on a beautiful night like this is definitely a stress balm.

Just past the parking lot for Purissima Redwoods park, I stopped to jot down some notes. While jotting, I noticed a flash of light back up the trail going into the park. A hiker? Nope. As I watched, it became like a freaking parade of lights in there. Definitely cyclists, looked like maybe six or seven. Way back in February of this year, I had the exact same experience (See February 11, 2004: Bad mojo like a woodscrew muthah). I met some guys coming out of the park after dark, and I tried to strike up a conversation with them. They were very stand-offish and after a few awkward moments, I left them at the top of the Grapevine. Clearly they weren't interested in whatever I was selling. Based on that experience, I decided not to wait around for these guys and rabbited for the Grapevine.

Didn't see hide nor hair of them for most of the climb, but in the last stretch near the top, a couple of lights popped into my peripheral vision. They were about half-way down the hill and were making up some ground on me, but I never let them get closer than a hundred yards. I crested the summit like Virenque and went flying down the north side of the Grapevine. My descent of the Grapevine was so technically perfect that I hit 35.5 MPH in the dark and never even chirped my shriek-prone brakes until the very bottom. From there, I put the hammer down all the way into town. I'd be damned if I was gonna get overtaken on my turf (although it's probably their turf too). I never saw the poachers again, but that's because the leaders probably stopped to regroup the pack at the top the Grapevine.

Right after I decided to bolt from the night riders, I came across two foxes mating in the road. Because I had caught them inflagrante delicto, they were momentarily stunned and I was able to get a really good, close-up look at them in the Xenon blaze of my headlight.