Roll Fall

Autumn is one of my two favorite times of year to ride (Spring being the other), but unfortunately both of those seasons seem to have been truncated this year. This has made opportunities to enjoy pleasant temperatures and gorgeous foliage on a ride at an extreme premium. Thankfully, a rather nasty rain system moved out just in time for one such opportunity on Friday afternoon, which just so happened to be the date of the last Roll: Bicycles Pub Ride of 2018.

I usually take "My Therapist" on any rides that will be longer than 10 miles, but I decided to take my trusty old "The Bike With No Name" out to enjoy the beauty of the season for a few hours. I also knew I'd be kicking up plenty of leaves and mud, and I don't mind if the older bike gets a little dirty:

Beautiful, right? That was taken up near the house, nearly 11 miles from the start point. It took me about an hour to ride there, and I was running late, so unfortunately I didn't stop for any other pictures, but the ride featured much more of the same. My reward for hauling ass was that the ride organizers gave early arrivals some nifty spoke cards to decorate our bikes:

Probably owing to the cooler temperatures and earlier darkness, the crowd was noticeably smaller this time around, but still of good size. I think we ended up with about 30 by the time we got ready to roll out:

In addition to the actual ride and meeting up with new and old friends, my favorite part of these rides is experiencing new (to me) neighborhoods and businesses. Our first stop was The Olde Oak in Olde Town East, a place I'd never been, in a neighborhood I've barely seen:

As you'd expect, it features an extensive selection of craft beer on draft, many of which are local. I opted for Batch 300 from Land Grant, one of my favorite Columbus breweries:

They also have a decently-sized food menu, and a shoe shine if that's your thing:

No shoes were harmed in the writing of this blog post. After a short break, we headed northward to a brewery I have previously visited (but not since I moved here), Wolf's Ridge Brewing in Downtown:

I would put them among my top 5 Columbus breweries for beer, but I've never been here without almost having a panic attack because of how crowded it tends to get:

I guess this should be expected. They've won a shit ton of beer awards, and for good reason:

Because of the crowd, our group got a little split up on the inside, but we did get back together and headed back towards the Olentangy Trail together toward our next stop. As you probably noticed, it was long past dark by this time. We had a tube casualty due to reduced vision (even with adequate lighting, it's still impossible to see every obstacle), so we all pulled over to help out with the fix, even if it was just for moral support:

That's another cool thing about these rides (and most every ride I've been on). They hold ardently to a "no rider left behind" policy. After a brief 10-15 minute delay, she was patched up and ready to roll on. We eventually arrived at our third stop, Endeavor Brewing in Grandview Heights, safe and sound:

Most of the riders continued on with the ride to its completion, but I decided to turn my pedals towards home at this point for a few reasons. The last stop was in the opposite direction by about 2 miles, and unlike the last ride, I didn't have my car parked near the end point, so I'd have to ride all the way home regardless. A light rain was also moving into the area, and even though I'd packed rain gear, avoiding having to wear it is always preferable. I arrived home before the worst of it, but I still picked up a good bit of moisture along the way:

The old boy did well in his return to "distance" riding, and with 25 more miles under his belt, he's now well over 6,000 in his short but eventful life. I dried him off a bit before turning in for the evening:

And here's what it looked like on a map:

With that, Roll's Pub Rides have wrapped up for the year. I'm glad I got to sneak in two before the dead of Winter. I'm told there will be some smaller rides in the cold months, so we'll see where this goes...