Some ideas become a bit less convincing when you are halfway up a rocky mountain carrying a bike. This was one of those ideas, and Mitko and I had committed to it.
We rode about 3.5 kilometres to the trailhead. Then came roughly another 3.5 kilometres uphill, gaining around seven hundred metres. We carried the bikes, pushed them and dragged them when that was what the ground allowed.
Once we were up, we had about thirty-three kilometres of riding ahead, much of it downhill. After the effort of getting the bikes there, it felt very good to be using the wheels again.
Then the mist arrived. It was cold and thick, and it took away the valley and the road ahead until our world felt much smaller. Just the two of us, our bikes and all that grey around us.
The whole outing came to about forty kilometres and somewhere around four and a half to five hours. The camera caught some of it. I wish it could keep the feeling of riding through that mist quite as well.