Do you BELIEVE this weather???
 

I guess I got lucky taking vacation time this week. Why is it that a beautiful Fall day seems better than a beautiful Summer day? The air seems fresher, the sky seems bluer. Hope everyone's getting out there! :)

The weather's been great, if a bit cold before sunrise.

I envy your fresh air. Three years ago, the local municipal utility contracted with a timber baron here to buy all the electricity he could produce by burning logs at near-retail prices. We now have higher bills and foul air. As I rode over the hill to the south of my city today, I was dismayed at the perpetual brown haze that now envelopes us. It's so bad I am considering two extreme measures:
1. Move to somewhere with better air quality. Heck, the reason I left NorCal was the smog.
2. Run for the local utility board. This would make me a politician, which would certainly punish me for my sins.

I know, it's the same in Seattle. The bike cage at work is more crowded with all the fare-weather bike commuters! LOL

Glad you're out there on vacation enjoying the weather! (Okay, I'm jealous.) My wife and I plan on going out riding both Saturday and Sunday.

And while we're not as famous for it as other parts of the country, the fall colors are gorgeous. Yesterday I rode a long way home from the bus depot, through a fir forest with lots of vine and big leaf maples. I'll be sad when my commute is dark both directions.

Yes, well, I'm not sure that the emissions are quite as bad as that, but Aaron Jones can go to hell and take Dick Cheney with him.
The riding has been wonderful after morning fog burns off at mid-morning. I rode up Fall Creek this week and the fall colors are fantastice right now. That's a wonderful road if you want a ride in the mountains without car traffic.

Indeed, some great weather. It's like Mother Nature flip-flopped September and October this year. I've been trying to take advantage of this weather to get in some late-season bike camping (especially since I didn't do much in September due to the weather.) I rode out to Willamette Mission State Park this week.
http://urbanadventureleague.blogspot...e-mission.html

And some great color out there too!

Sorry for the thread drift, but since you brought fall color up, I've got to share. Here are some pics from a hike I did Sunday.

http://landscapephoto.us/Events/Nort...e/424B2664.jpg

http://landscapephoto.us/Events/Nort...e/424B2594.jpg

The yellow trees are alpine larches. They have cones and needles (eg they're conifers) but they drop their leaves in the fall (eg they're deciduous), and the needles turn a brilliant golden yellow before they go.

If you're a roadie, you can see larches along the Blewett Pass road, a good ride would be Leavenworth to/from Cle Elum, or a loop over the old and new Blewetts. If you're a CX/MTB kind of person, you'll see some larches along North Fork Teanaway River Road, a great ride would be from 29 Pines to the Esmeralda Basin trailhead and back.

Seems to me as the last time this happened was fall of '87! It is glorious here in the Gorge! its warming up nicely here by 11am

Great weekend forecast in Leavenworth ... which has some excellent rides.

on the way home from work, thursday. Santiam River, Lebanon Oregon[IMG]

We seem to be hitting the transition point. Wonderful ride today with 90% sunshine and warm (mid-fifties). The other 10%, which happened to be at the top of the small climbs just south of town, were mighty heavy downpours with thankfully small sized hail and temperature drops into the low forties. One minute I'm overdressed, the next I'm soaked to the bone and facing a three mile descent.

How can it get any better than that? Only by meeting and riding with a nice cyclist who happened to start up the first hill just as I did. We got so absorbed in our conversation (lots of mutual acquaintances) that the ride just flew by in a fit of fall color.