Full moon

Night rides. I love them. Since my first night ride many moons ago I ride when it is a full moon. I ride other nights also, but this is mostly about full moon rides.    

My first night ride; I did not know I was going to go on a night ride. I was going to drive 4 hours to a place I lived in the past to ride with a friend for the weekend. I call before I leave and he says, ”I have a date tonight, but you know my place, I will not be there when you arrive but settle in and I will see you in the morning’. No problem. I arrive, do not even take my bike off my rack, settle into the guest room and off to la La Land.  

I am awakened by my friend about midnight. He is telling me to get up and get dressed. What? “Get up and put on your bike clothes. I will meet you outside”

“What about your date?”  

“I already took her home.”

I walk outside, and he has the lights set up on my bike and off we go. I have never ridden at night at this point – at least not like this. We go to the trails that I rode and helped care for when I lived in that town. I know those trails really well…I know every tree, bump, curve, stick and turn on this short three-mile loop.  Tonight, it is like another world. I can tell where I am, but sometimes I need to slow down and look close. 

Then, we turned and went backwards. I might as well have been on the moon. I was on a trail I knew every inch of, but reversing direction at night made it completely new. It was a blast. I was hooked. He sent me home with loaner lights. Those were the days of big lead acid batteries that took up your water bottle cages. Whew – thank you progress in light technology.  

That set me on a path. A path to ride at night often. Definitely every full moon. I set up a monthly full moon ride. It has had many changes over the decades, but it still occurs.  

Before mobile phones and when people actually kept track of their schedules and did not need a text reminder to do everything in life, I hosted a night ride. Every full moon. I did not call you to remind you.  There was no Facebook and no posting. It was simple. Full moon night, if you want to ride, show up at my place at 11pm. How do you know it is a full moon night? You are an adult; you know the same way I know.  We would then drive to ‘our’ trail. Ride at midnight, hang out on the dirt road eating cookies and telling stories. Arrive back at my place about 4 or 5am. I would be at work at 6am the next morning.  Ouch. Just thinking of that now seems crazy. I was young.  

I have continued that tradition, but that tradition has changed. But before I go there, please indulge me for another moment.   

A few years after the previous story I moved to another town, but I worked for the same company. I would often return to my former town for business trips. So, my friends and I would always do a night ride the last night of my trip. I usually arrived on a Monday and then we rode Thursday night. Same scenario, except…my buddy that ran the bike shop would get me a bike, helmet and lights, and pick me up at the hotel. I would simply bring shoes, and shorts. Fun.

This particular night  we had finished a good meal, and I was in the hotel bar with my boss. I looked at the clock and said, “I need to go.”  He looked at me funny, because it was 11pm. He said, “What is her name?” I laughed and said, “It is not a she. I just need to go.”   

He was intrigued and saw in my eyes that it was not anything he would guess so he said “no, sit down and tell me.” I proceeded to tell him about our night rides. He was surprised and says to me, “we have a 7am meeting in the morning, and you need to be there and be ready because you are the key in this initiative.” I laughed and told him that I did this every trip and that it was fine. He was stunned; so much so that he repeated it. He said, “Every trip here you do a midnight ride the last night, stay out there until 3-4am, then drive a half hour back to the hotel, clean up and are ready for the 7am meeting with little to no sleep?” To which I confirmed simply, “Yes.” Big smile, a look of astonishment, a look of respect and then a verbal encouragement to have fun. He did treat me different after that; especially at the Friday morning 7am meetings.

Yes, I did that over and over. Four days of work, last night of riding the night away, early morning meeting on day 5, lunch and on a plane back to my town. Yes, I did sleep well on the plane. So well that one time I was on a tiny plane and did my normal routine of getting settled followed by sleep. I woke as we were about to land. I was in the front seat of this tiny plane, so the flight attendant was sitting nearby, and I heard her speaking to a man across the row from me.  She was confirming that was the roughest flight she had ever been on. I had to stifle my laughter. I had slept through the roughest plane ride a veteran flight attendant had ever been on. Yes, I did sleep well on those plan rides home.  

Ok, enough for the aside.  

Yes, I still do full moon rides. The name has changed. In the past it was called the midnight ride because we rode at midnight. Now it is the Full Moon Ride. You know my desire for accurate communication. The name is important. Now, with an increase in age, the start time has moved from midnight to ‘a half hour past sunset.’  Now I am in bed by midnight rather than starting to ride. I choose to believe that age brought wisdom…but I would never change those early days of midnight rides. In fact, the last one before I moved from that town is a top 5 ride of my life.  

Same local route. Good friends. The conditions made the ride. Bright full moon. Snow on the ground making it even brighter. Early spring with a late snow, so no leaves on the trees; just warm enough that we had light jackets and not full winter gear. Youth. The bright moon, clear sky and reflection from snow allowed us to turn off our lights and ride. Of course, it was our regular trail, so we knew it well and could ride at full ‘daytime’ speed. It was a spectacular ride. Like I said it was a top 5 ride of my life. In my ‘backyard’ on an average trail. When everything comes together – magic.  

As I said, our club has continued the tradition although it is much earlier in the evening now. Usually, it is a mellow ride with a focus on getting new people on the bike. That rarely occurs but we enjoy it just the same. It depends on the individuals in attendance. We ride as fast as the slowest person wants to ride.  We have mothers that have not been on bikes since they were kids and kids on bikes. But sometimes it is just us…and it is faster.

 Of course we ride each Full Moon, and we now have the internet to track it and to post the ride on social media. It does not help get more people to show up though. In fact, a friend once called me and said, ”You never schedule the full moon ride when it is convenient.” Hah. I replied that the full moon occurs every 29 days, her only choice was to embrace it or not. Jolt. She got it. She laughed.

Full Moons. Night rides. Do you embrace it and partake? With current light technology it is easy and inexpensive to join the night riding fun. Shorter days, crazy work/life schedule – there is always the night.  It is quiet. It is beautiful. Tell me about your experiences.