Take Back the Night

Back in the day I used to mountain bike a lot more often than I currently do. Therefore I thought it was justified to spend close to $300 bucks on a sick Nite Rider High Intensity Discharge helmet mounted light. I put it to good use, riding after sunset most weeks in the trails all over Southeastern CT.

Between being sick and training for Ironman, my Nite Rider made its way to the back of the closet. So after months of prodding, my co-worker Nick got me to dig it out, and come out on a night ride last night, and I must say I forgot how much fun it is! He’s a semi-pro downhiller, and I had a tough time keeping up as we rode from my house up onto the backside of Mt. Tamalpais. (no I didn’t take this pic).

You may wonder what could be fun about exercising in the middle of the night, but I highly recommend it:

- No sun = much cooler temp’s. and no need for sunblock!

- There is no need to rush home from work since you've got the entire night to ride.

- It’s very peaceful and quiet at night. There are no distracting noises so there is plenty of time think about things and bring your day some closure.

- It makes you recruit all your senses. You can't see that you're riding on the edge of a rock wall that drops 60ft. off to your left, but because of the echo, you can hear there is nothing beneath you. This is a wild feeling.

- It lets you work on skills like keeping your head up the trail. If you don’t, you end up rolling up to something like this at 35mph.


- No one can see you fall on that tough technical section.

-Trail access! No hikers or equestrians mean no one to stop you from riding on sick single-track trails that are normally off-limits. Be wary of rangers depending on where you ride.

-If you're a meat eater and like venison, you could sneak up on a unassuming deer rather easily. I was within 3 yards of at least 4 large bucks. I’ll pass on that one…