3/28/2011
By: C. Kent, aka (Superman)

The Attack of the Hemet Fog People

The legend has had it that after a moonless night and a predicted clear morning people in the neighboring villages would watch out for fog in the San Jacinto valley. What did they have to fear you might ask? If there was fog after a rain filled week the Hemet Fog people would arrive riding their bikes on the edge of a fog bank. The problem was they would ride up to unsuspecting casual bike riders and steal their energy and warmth. So people would run inside or jump in their 3000 pound steel cages and drive away. At 8:30 in the morning a group of Fog people came riding out of a fog bank on Gilmore and Florida heading south.


Like a pack of hunters they had Blood hound out front part of the way hoping to spot some unsuspecting people walking or riding down the road as the group moved south towards Cypress on Kirby just going with the fog. Once the turn was made it was clear everyone was trying to protect themselves from the attack of the fog people.
Looking back into the fog I could see Rocket, D’Artagnon, Attack cat, Double Time, Highlander, Dura-max, Ocelot, Sea Lion and Wolf surfing the front of the fog with Blood Hound and I taking point to see if we could sneak up on some unsuspecting cyclist but we were having no luck. It was almost as if we were the only ones out in the fog. None the less Double Time didn’t seem happy about not being able to find some warmth to make up for being underdressed.

The group took a chance and headed south on Sanderson to reach Domenigoni to make the run towards Winchester before the fog could burn off. The fog people would become just normal cyclists and lose all of their fearsome powers to scare anyone. The pursuit riders took off quickly heading first to Warren and then to Winchester with Highlander, Ocelot, Dura-max and me following in the distance. They didn’t see anyone on the road to overtake so they all regrouped at the top of the saddle.

After viewing the sky carefully the group continued on to the west even with the fog thinning. As they traveled west on Newport they could see the sky was clearing to the south but they knew that soon they would be turning north and away from the clearing sky.

Rocket pulled off to hunt in the fog by himself while the rest of the group headed for Laladera and the turn north. Attack cat took off on his own while the rest followed over to McCall and finally over the hill to Simpson were the fog started to lift. The group no longer looked as scary as it did when it started and Double Time was starting to feel justified for not wearing arm and leg warmers. They made a straight run to Winchester and turned north once again and stopped at Chris’s for coffee as a fog cutter. Highlander continued on to the north and Dura-max and Ocelot went to the south east heading back to Hemet. As the group sat under the umbrellas on Chris’s patio the sun started to burn more of the fog off and it felt a bit warmer. Still as soon as Double Time stood up and moved towards his bike the clouds filled in again and the temperature seemed to drop.

By the time they got to Stowe the sun had burned off most of the fog and the fog people turned back into regular cyclists. In fact they even started to smile and look friendly.


As it got warmer and the group got closer to their starting point the mood got lighter and the ride seemed better that it did when they started. All in all it had been a good ride at a pretty easy pace for 38 miles where the whole group stayed within sight of each other or regrouped to make sure everyone was together. Hopefully it will be quite a long time before the Hemet Fog People invade Winchester and Murrieta again.