Western Loop
click on image to enlarge My last GT ride was in early July, the start of our Winter, and I had hoped for another ride in mid to late August, when the weather is still cool but there is only a few days of light rain. What you would describe as reasonable riding weather. Unfortunately, this year we seem to have entered a "wet Winter cycle" with warm sea-water temperatures in the Indian Ocean to the west of Oz, combined with warm sea-water temperatures in the Pacific Ocean to the east of Oz. The result was cold air temperatures combined with abnormally high rainfall. Over the three months of June / July / August, we had significantly more than our total annual rainfall, with only 20% of days being rain free. That's works out to be only 1 or 2 days of sunshine a week, for 3 consecutive months. And yes, I know that this is mild compared to the winter in Minnesota, but it is unusual / unexpected for us. This ongoing rain has resulted in...