Falling into the Equinox

It would seem that fall has officially arrived. My morning ride of 53 degrees was chilly only because my body is still adapted to the hot summer we've been having. Give me a few weeks and I'll be fully acclimated to wearing shorts down into the high 30s. To help that along, I'm going to ride the Pine Creek Trail this weekend. Mid-state above Rt 80 means a 10 degree drop in temperature. I'm not concerned about the cooler temperatures except that the forecast is for thundershowers and being wet can pull the heat right out of your body. My jacket is water resistant but I don't have anything that is water-proof. Normally, at the end of my daily commute I have a warm, dry place to be and a change of clothes. On the trail, I'm just going to have dry clothes and a tent (which may or may not be dry depending on how heavily it's raining when I try to pitch it).

Well, the adventure makes for good story telling. Hopefully, hypothermia isn't a part of the tale.

In other cycling news. . . Two weeks after the signs went up for the Hot Metal Bridge construction, it looks like they are actually doing some work. They have laid some drainage pipe along the front of the Parkway East retaining wall to redirect the water coming off the highway to make a solid bed for the trail around the ramps to be built at the end of the bridge. There is also a crane out by the bridge itself. It looks like they've built the bridge deck out to a retaining wall about 20 feet.