Excellent Saturday -Deal's Gap via Natl Forest

Left yesterday morning, thoughts and gear for 77 degrees, but by the time I made it through the mountains, I was frozen. Made a stop by a dealer for a new oil cap O ring, then on to the dragon. Not crowded, nothing crazy happening. Must be too early in the year for madness. Good lunch, rode the tail with brother and nephew. Then a long ride back. Never touched an interstate. And felt great when I got home. 400 miles of twisties and curves, and zero discomfort (except where I killed north America's largest bumble bee with my face). Good bike.

Uh...yeah.
Heading to the mountains this early pretty much guarantees cool to cold at elevation and all the chances of weather variability that happens in spring. Its quite possible and even likely to be riding in decent conditions and come aorund one of those mountains and run smack into a deluge this time of year.

While its always good to be at the Dragon when the out of town crazies aren't there in huge numbers (unless one is going specifically to watch them), the best riding window for that is still a few weeks away. But this year has such crazy early warm weather at lower altitudes that timing it is more difficult than usual.