At night, you can ride the same trail you’ve been on a hundred times, and it still feels like the first. The soil sounds different, the trail seems to turn in a new direction, and the air is more crisp.
Three of us meet up at the trailhead with riding lights and climb onto our bikes. We’re the only ones here. Everything is quiet, and as we start off it’s hard to see exactly which way we are headed.
It takes a bit to get accustomed to the evening—to warm up and start moving fluidly with the trail. Our bodies adapt to the motion and start to buzz with a familiar warmth.
Settled in, we lean into the pedals a bit more and roll over rocks and dirt lit up by the powerful lumens strapped to our helmets. Night glow surrounds us as the trail weaves throughout pinion and sage.