It's getting to be that time of year again......

..........biking and camping season!

Here in New England we have been teased with some nice weather on and off the last week or two.  Just enough to make me wish spring/summer were here to stay.  It also makes me want to go camping and biking :)

I have been thinking about the biking the last few days and started making a list of what I need to get done to be able to go riding.  I was looking at a sunrise/sunset time table yesterday and it appears as though it will be light enough in the morning to start riding before work again around the end of April.  That may be good or bad, lol.  To start with I'll only have about a half hour to ride before I have to shower and get to work.  That's probably good, since my plan of doing the elliptical all winter kind of fizzled after about a week or so.  It's just more fun to ride outside!

Today, during my lunch break, I wrote up a to-do list to get things ready:

• Get the bike tuned-up
• Check the condition of my Camelbak pack (it sat in the garage all winter - oops)
• Find and buy a flashing red light for my helmet
• Purchase a reflective vest at IKEA to wear over my pack and me
• Wash ALL the biking clothes, since I'm not sure what did and didn't get washed at the end of last year (again....oops!)
• Order a decent supply of Emergen-C Electro Mix
• Purchase a variety of Pro Bars and ThatsIt! Fruit bars

That might be everything, but I may have forgotten some stuff too.  I'm sure I'll find out when I start doing it all :)  If you're wondering about the red flashing light and the reflective vest.....my plans are to start out riding just before sunrise in order to maximize the amount of time I can ride before work.  I noticed last year that it was light enough to ride approximately 15min before the published sunrise time, so that's the time I am planning to head out in the morning.  The light and vest are so that cars can see me and not hit me, lol.

My goals for the riding season are to ride Tues-Friday mornings, and at least one longer ride on the weekend.  I have been staying at Wolf's on the weekends, so riding Monday morning just isn't practical.  He sometimes works on Saturdays, so I plan to go riding when he does.  If he's not working, we'll see what our plans look like.  There's a bike shop not far from where he lives, and I think they sponsor rides....so I'm going to go check that out too and see what they have for a map of bike paths/streets in the area, since I don't normally ride up there.  There's a great path that is fairly long, I'm just not sure how to get to it from Wolf's place, lol. 

See you on the road!