Ride The Lightning

As the work day wrapped up yesterday I looked East and the skies looked clear with a few thin clouds lurking.  Looking SouthWest however, the sky looked very menacing and the afternoon thunderstorms looked like they were bound for Butte, but would skirt the CDT trails and passes in the area.

I rushed up to Homestake Pass, pulled out the bike and noticed that the sky was turning dark (so much for my theory of the storms missing that part of the country).  Not to be deterred I quickly hopped on the bike and decided I would turn around should the skies start to impose themselves.  It had been a long week and the mental catharsis was sorely needed!

As I started to climb up to the scenic point I noticed that the sky had a few breaks and jusssssst maybe I would get lucky and the storm would miss what was on my riding agenda....rode to the first lookout and motored on by...made it to the 2nd lookout...kept on truckin'....made it to the hightpoint and 3rd lookout and could see that Butte was enveloped in a heavy rain/storm!  It was time to point the bike downhill and get back to the car!  About 30 seconds after making the decision to head back and right before hitting the first switchback (50 yards from the turn-around point), I saw the first strike and heard the first thunder clap!  DOH, time to high-tail it back.  The switchbacks went by quickly and the race to get back to the car was ON.  It was about 5 miles to get back to the car and in normal circumstances that downhill would only take about 15 minutes...but twas' not to be a normal day.

About 1/2 way back the sky got really angry and it really started to unload with lightning, thunder and hard rain.  The lightning was way too close for comfort.  There were a couple of times when I heard the thunder as I saw the lightning simultaneously.  That is definitely the closest I have ever been to lightning and there was some pucker factor going on.  It cooled off quickly and it was raining so hard that the trails became instant little rivers.  I had to take the riding glasses off because it was impossible to see with the downpour.   There was some extra caution on the way down as there are several sections where you ride through, around, over rock and I knew full well that touching my brakes while going through those wet rock sections would put me on my butt with a mouthful of mud.  It was an exciting ride back to the car and I have never been so wet on a ride...ever!  I got home and it took about 45 minutes for my hands to thaw out...they had gotten numb from the cold and it was good to feel the tingling sensation as they warmed back up.

It was a shortie 1 hour ride but it will definitely be etched in my memory for a while.