12/30/09
By: C. Kent, aka (Superman)

Hemet, Ca


There was a time when weather men used bear grease and crickets in a match box to predict the weather. Today we have college educated weather men with satellites and computer tracking so when the weather man announced on TV that there was a slight chance of rain today but more than likely it would go north of us I believed him. I got up and looked out this morning and it was overcast but there was no rain. I bundled up and left to meet my friends for our weekly ride.

Duramax and Deacon were waiting at the Burger King just like I expected. Rocket pulled up a few minutes after me and we all talked and joked about how cool it seemed. Last to show was Raptor so we knew it was time to leave and that there were only four of us. It seemed like a good idea for us to stay close so we decided on the Marina and Cactus Valley before heading up towards the east end of town and stopping at Carl’s.

We rode down Sanderson and headed east on Domenigoni to the park entrance and got ready for the climb up to the Marina. Rocket made the turn and started to smoothly pull away and I just put my head down and hit the hill as well as I could. Rocket made it to the top and was coming back just after I made the last turn. The ride down the hill is always the best part. Still we all made it to the top and back down in pretty good time. Raptor had already started for Cactus valley so once we regrouped we started in that direction as well.


We stayed together pretty well until Rocket took off just before the first little climb. I stayed with Duramax and he pulled my up the first hill and part of the way to the golf course. As we got close to the golf course we could see Rocket passing two riders that were just cruising along and soon recognized Tool Man and another rider, Jeff. About that time I commented o Duramax that I thought I felt a drop of water and he confirmed my suspicion that a few drops had hit us just as we rode passed the golf course. We continued on and once we reached Tool Man and Jeff we rode together towards the little climb at Sage and Cactus Valley.

After we climbed the little hill the weather seemed to clear up just a bit as we steadily rode towards the end of the pavement passed a Church, a rather large house and a few horses. It seemed like a good day for a ride and we say Raptor heading back in our direction.

While three of us were climbing the road to the boat ramp Raptor had taken the opportunity to reach Cactus Valley ahead of us. We stopped and talked for a minute and then headed for the end of the pavement. There in the distance was Rocket waiting for us to join him.

After a brief stop to pass around introductions and to inspect each person’s ride we rehydrated and got ready to head back down the road and had a plan of heading east towards Lake street and Carl’s. Rocket and I led the way out of the valley and Tool Man, Duramax and Jeff followed.

We got a good run down the little hill and Rocket and I made it passed the horse ranch and Golf Course when the rain started. It was like a slap in the face and my legs started telling me that this ride had turned from fun to no fun in a matter of a few yards. Tool man and Jeff caught me as I lost the draft behind Rocket and I opted to wait for Duramax as the raced down the road in pursuit of Rocket. They were waiting for us as we approached Thornton and we managed to ride together the rest of the way to Carl’s. I told Duramax I must be getting hard core because normally I would have headed for home as wet as we were going down Stetson. Once at Carl’s we met up with Deacon and welcomed the warmth of the building and the hot coffee. As we rode home Tool Man informed me that his hands were numb and he had planned on going home and thawing out before he did anything for the rest of the day. Well except he might be forced to take a nap. It was only just over 30 miles for the day but it was more miles than I had ever been in the rain before.