40.21km / 1:54:15 / 238m / 9.0°C
Morning chores prevented a morning ride so there was nothing for it except to go out after lunch as a light rain started to fall. Optimistically I thought that heading north might let me skirt around it. I made it most of the way up the Glen Waverley line path towards Mount Waverley before there was thunder and the rain proper hit me, then sheltered under the station canopy to check the weather radar…. it was not looking good
Thought about turning back, or at least cutting south to the Scotchmans Creek trail, especially as the rain was now accompanied by a small amount of hail, but after stopping under another bridge to shelter and talk with some other trolls, err, cyclists on their way home, I kept on going out towards Glen Waverley. The rain gradually eased off, although the drivers got worse, Saturday afternoon around the shops here is mayhem, the one-way streets, no-left turn signs and red traffic lights are purely suggestions. Not helped by pedestrians running across the road with umbrellas pulled down over their heads and their eyes glued on the phones, relying on their ears to listen for cars not bikes
Then down the hill to Jells Park and a wet trip down to Yarraman, in many places the path completely flooded for its entire width and anything from three to twenty metres. The paths simply are not built with any camber or drainage
Still dry skies on the way back up the Djerring trail, but again many flooded patches of path, my fingers were too cold and numb to try and operate my phone to take photos. As usual in the wet, the Garmin decided that every time I stopped for a corner or at lights the “collision alarm” would go off
Dry all the way back to Clayton, then just as I was thinking I’d beat the next lot of rain home it rained on me all the way back to Oakleigh before a last few hundred metres of glary sunlight off the wet paths
Arrived home dripping wet and to see over 10mm of rain in the rain gauge!
Moderate rain, 12°C, Feels like 11°C, Humidity 73%, Wind 4m/s from NNW - by Klimat.app
My 997th day in a row riding a bike, including my and following up with all of 2021.
Garmin / Strava / ridewithgps
