Fall is my favorite season, and is good for many things. The heat of summer begins to subside, and as much as I like the heat, this summer was miserable for riding on many days. The obvious if you live in the northern half of the US is the splendor of the foliage change. This change, however is fleeting and gives way first to a beautiful palette of earth tones, and then to those earth tones falling to….well…earth. Millions of leaves on the ground. While for most this means weekends of endless raking, I believe there is a good reason to celebrate this part of fall. Speed. I would submit that the sensation of speed is greatest when experienced relative to some other object or objects. Flying along the road as you part the layer of leaves and expel them into a vortex behind you is one of those childlike pleasures not experienced since you were a kid on a bike, or since last fall 😉
The last few days had been windy, and had dispatched a torrent of leaves to the ground. When I turned the BCR off the B road and onto one of my favorite stretches of country road, there was a canopy of leaves undisturbed at this early hour of the morning. I twisted the throttle and the leaves parted. In my mirror I could see a swirling corkscrew of leaves obscuring all else. This happened over and over for 3 glorious miles. I was laughing out loud in my helmet, and I was six years old. Next fall I am going to find a video setup that can capture this……
freelance writer