Last night was a beautiful night. After dinner, I took off on my bike, and rode up into the hills. How I love the long evenings in mid June! There is a loop you can take up there in the hills. The trail head is only about 3 or 4 miles from my front door, so there's no need to drive to it. Then, its roughly 6 or 7 miles of single track the climbs, dips, and flows among the hills, and along the narrow valleys and ridge tops. I loved the feeling of speed, and of exerting energy to climb to the next ridge top, and of flowing down the side hill paths snaking along the contours of the valleys. Then dropping back down to the canyon bottom, and back to the trailhead as the sun set and the light started rapidly fading. Just the feeling of motion and control, winding through the sunny grass lands. I was racing with the coming darkness, trying to get out of the hills before it got too dark to see the trail, and by the time I arrived home, it was just past dusk, and night had fallen.
But it was a perfect evening and a nice sunset. When you don't have anyone to sit and watch it with, maybe this is the next best way to enjoy it. It was a great ride and a fun time.
Maybe next time instead of racing along the trail alone, I will have someone to sit beside up in those hills, and we will quietly watch the sun go down together.