A few days ago, the calendar said 'twas the solstice, but we had no evidence of the days getting any longer. The weather gods, or whoever controls such matters, gave us three days of FDR (as they say in Atlantic Canada: fog-drizzle-rain) and we settled into a greyscale half-light, altogether gloomy and damp. The--lo!--the morning of Christmas Eve turned sunny and warm, with a fierce southwesterly reaching 70 km/h.
At midday it was 15 degrees, if you can imagine, so I took Osi for a canter along the Québec side of the river. The wind had backed off a little bit, but I was on the lee side of the bridge--I reckoned that a gust blowing me towards the railings was better than one pushing me towards the traffic. As it turned out, the wind wasn't bad, but the river, a kilometer wide at this point, was covered with whitecaps, the wind whipping a fine spray off their crests. The river was high as well, perhaps from rain or more likely releases from the reservoirs far upstream.
In the event, I managed a delightful warm two hours along the bikepath through the riverside forest, the trees stark and devoid of foliage. I stopped near some fierce rapids (photo#1 below), thoroughly glad I was on terra firma. A Québecoise d'un certain âge stopped, and asked if could please take a photo of her with the river as background, I obliged, and we chatted about the weather, agreeing that it was incroyable, bien sûr, mais également un peu bizarre. Indeed, never mind the temps, weird precip and pressure systems, el Niño is messin' with our heads.
I carried on to the Aylmer Marina, where the river makes a 90-degree bend to the NW, and enters a broad reach, some 30 kms long. There were waves on the lee shore, some of them a meter high, as the wind pushed the water up onto the lee shore (#2 below). There were 3 or 4 wind surfers in wet suits, having a grand time. Better them than me, I thought, and headed back along the path, rolling along in 11th and 12th with the wind at my back.
By the time I reached the bridge, the wind had dropped from near-gale to just a stiff breeze, and a wooden bridge over a wind-flooded but now calm inlet made a peaceful scene on a wonderful-but-wholly-weird Dec 24th afternoon.
Last ride of 2015? I was saying that a month ago...
Happy new year, all, and safe riding.
John
