What a difference this Saturday's weather was. Though weather.com insisted we would see some sunshine today, I had no hope for it when the sky looked as dark this morning as it had all day yesterday.

Steve got Veteran's Day and Friday off so he was more than ready for a ride. Sean was interested too because he saw an oppotunity to extend our regular Lapwai Loop by climbing the Cottonwood Creek hill behind CuldeSac and descending Garden Gulch to put us back on track.

Steve and I started at the boat launch. Sean joined us at Barre Road. We were plenty warm climbing but the jackets came out for Web Ridge. Steve pulled on his balaclava. There was little or no wind and despite the chill and humidity, we stayed pretty comfortable. We stopped at the Thunderbird for a bite to eat and got pretty cold.

We kept the jackets off in anticipation of the climb to come. The ride down through a gentle draw has brush and farms including one bull on our side of the fence. He seemed more afraid of us than we of him.

We weren't hungry at Lapwai so continued on to Arrow Bridge. We must have had a mild tailwind back to the Casino since the riding was easy and warm. We stopped at the convenience store so Sean could put on dry clothes. Something about wanting two sets of sweaty clothes for the laundry--I didn't understand it myself.

Steve expects to join us for the Grade in the morning. Come celebrate Debbie's Birthday ride.