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I wouldn’t recommend it unless you’re prepared with a headlight and a tail light, a reflector vest and a taste for bugs.  I got a late start tonight but I had to get my big loop in.  It was light when I started but before I got done I had to turn my headlight on.  It has four settings; low, medium, high and strobe.  It has 750 lumens when it’s on the highest setting.  When it starts getting dusk I turn the headlight on the strobe setting.  I can see fine but I want to make sure that others see me.  When I can see my shadow from the streetlights I turn the headlight on to high so that I can see everything else.

Most of the roads I travel have street lights but there are a few that it’s very dark even on the brightest moonlit night.  The tree cover is so thick that not even the moon beams can penetrate.  These roads I make sure I slow down and really pay attention. Rabbits and stray cats often jump out in front of me and threaten to cause an early dismount which I’m sure would not be a pretty site and may cause bodily damage.

There are some advantages to riding at night.  One is that there is hardly any traffic.  Most of the roads I travel are located in subdivisions.  Once I make these subdivisions I can probably count the amount on cars I see on the road on one hand.  Getting there is the problem. Later in the evening even the traffic on the busy roads are diminished.

Another advantage is it’s a lot cooler riding at night.  The sun has gone down and the temperature drops.  I’m not having to wipe the sweat away from my forehead near as often when I ride at night.  There is nothing I hate worse than sweat getting on my glasses.  I can’t stand that.

There are a couple more disadvantages but one that sticks out more is that it seems that the bugs come out at night.  I bet I spit out 15 bugs that managed to get inside my mouth.

Tonight was a good ride.  I got over 25 miles in.  The only thing that I didn’t like about tonight’s ride is the amount of dogs that were out unleashed.  On one road I counted six dogs that came out and chased me.  The bad part about this was that this was a dead end road and that meant that once I got to the end I had to turn around and go through them again.  I’m not sure who got more exercise, me trying to outrun the dogs or the dogs trying to catch me.

“Life Goes On!”