Rick and I were at the cabin alone this weekend after our guests had to cancel the day before we left. We arrived Friday evening and ate dinner at the pizza place on the ski resort. It was excellent, as always.
Saturday around lunch we took off from the cabin on another mountain bike adventure. We rode to the top of James Ridge and took some new trails back into the forest. The trails, scenery and weather were great, but we noticed the skies clouding up. It's monsoon season in the mountains and is generally not a big deal.
However, we realized that a fairly major storm was brewing and that we, unfortunately, were at the top of a mountain a long way from the cabin. We decided to take the most direct and safe route back and try to get back ASAP.
We hadn't made it very far when the lightning started, and the large bolt that hit the ground very close to us made it very obvious that we needed to not be sitting up on metal bicycles. We spent some time low on the ground in two different places. The first was somewhat pleasant with light rainfall and a few pics. (above pic). The second was in torrential rain with lots of hail and sleet. It didn't take terribly long to see that we needed to get off the top of that mountain, or we were going to get hypothermia. The temp had dropped into the 50s, and we were at almost 9,000'.
The trail turned into a river, and we slowly rode down the mountain at a fraction of the normal pace. When we finally got to the highway, we had another problem. It was still pouring down rain, and the visibility was very low with traffic and no shoulder on the road.
We spotted some storage buildings across the road and stood beside a building for a while, partially out of the rain and shaking uncontrollably from the rain and cold. Rick noticed one of the units didn't have a lock, so we raised the door and took shelter inside for about 30 minutes. It was still cold but a huge improvement. The rain finally slowed enough for us to ride the remaining ~2.75 miles back to the cabin. A hot shower never felt better.
When we headed to town later for some bakery food and cold beer, the guy below was walking around in Cloudcroft. He had on red platform shoes with foil across the toes and carried a black purse.
Moose Drools at the Western Bar.
On Sunday morning we drive down to High Rolls and picked apples and peaches at a local orchard. We then stopped by the Cloudcroft farmer's market, ate lunch, and did a little shopping at the bike store for new pedals before heading back to the cabin for another mountain bike adventure.
We rode to the same general area but did different trails and kept a closer eye on the sky. Showers developed, of course, but stayed west of us. The riding was great!
We left at 6 am Monday morning to get back for a funeral. The last pic was taken as the mountains change to hills just before sunrise.
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