Licky Hills/Alvechurch Wed 22nd Feb
Distance: 31.86 miles
Elevation Gain: 1,594 ft
I have been getting into night riding by myself of late as I’m looking to ramp up my weekly miles/climbing and my normal ride buddy is not always able to get out in the evenings every week. Something about dog training lessons… Meh! This week was no exception and I headed out straight from work on my own. The weather was miserable to be fair. Very grey, raining and seemingly a head wind no matter what direction I was going. As I got out a bit early I was able to make it up to the top of the Lickys before really needing to get the lights on. As I was grinding up the main climb through the mud the visibility dropped considerably and at an alarming rate. The cloud was really low and took me by surprise. Above is the view out over Birmingham that I was treated with at the top. I never remember it ever being like that up there even during some far worse storms that I have been caught in. It made the descent tricky as I needed the lights on at this point but had to run them all on low otherwise the refection was worse than the dark. It was super wet every where else on the route which made it easier going than the boggy mud it could have been. The wind had dropped a lot to, so the ride home was a good deal easier than the ride out. I did get totally covered in dirty water, which could certainly have been worse and is a lot easier to clean off me and the bike when I got back. The mrs wasn’t to pleased to have me in the house though.
I have done the majority of this route at least 30 times over the last year or so and many of those in the dark. The strange thing tonight though was that I did it in reverse for the first time and I think coupled with the dark it was surprisingly disorientating. I’m not complaining as it felt like a new route and with the weather the way it is my choices of routes are limited at the moment. Think I will be doing this a lot more over the next month or 2 just to try to spice it up a bit.
