More ride spam: 11/27 Montaud

[maxn]

Another shortish ride up Montaud and "Le Coing" today. I had a brief no-kid window and hemmed and hawed about which side of the valley to go to. Our town was still shrouded in fog, but I could see what looked like some blue skies over the Vercors. By the time I finally made a decision about which road to take, however, I was past my usual turn off so I tried a new route. Unfortunately it turned out to be a bike path that was not yet completed (but will be awesome when complete!) and I ended up scurrying down a muddy berm, across a creek, back up the other side, and eventually onto the bike path again. It was a little questionable in road cleats. Back on the path, it was still very foggy and visibility was ~100 feet and cold again, but I had a secret weapon this time: plastic bags over my socks
http://maxnanao.com/montaud11272011_2/Images/4.jpg
high f'in tech, I know. I hit the climb up to montaud from the St. Quentin side at the red line, which is a bit sad seeing as I was almost dead last on Strava, and soon emerged from the fog into a beautiful sunny day. People that live up there (and on velotel's plateau) must be enjoying a little schadenfreude on days like this. Anyway, I was happy to be out of the freezing cold, and savored the sun once I got to the church in Montaud.
http://maxnanao.com/montaud11272011/Images/1.jpg
http://maxnanao.com/montaud11272011/Images/2.jpg
From there, it was the mini-climb up to Le Coing, and then back down to the valley.
http://maxnanao.com/montaud11272011/Images/3.jpg
I'm not a big fan of the descent down to Veuray, and today was even worse than usual: a lot of frost on the road, usually right before a hard turn. After almost ending up in a ditch, I slowed waaay down and took my time.
http://maxnanao.com/montaud11272011_2/Images/3.jpg
The happy surprise was that the fog had burned off by the time I got back to the valley.

[DogpawSlim]

I wished I lived there...

[thinpin]

Excellent. Are those wide fisheye shots taken as stills with the gopro?

[rnhood]

Great pictures.

[BumbleBeeDave]

. . . was missing the great day. Looks deserted! But all the more for you! Thanks for posting . . .

BBD

[maxn]

thanks! Yeah, the only other riders I saw were on the foggy bike path.

fish eye shots were actually iPhone pics stitched together -- you can see the stitch marks on the pavement and sky on the second Montaud shot.

[Karin Kirk]

Very nice photos, looks like another nice ride for you! That church is beautiful - the day looks so quiet and pleasant, I love it.

Cool that the iphone can do that photo stitching! The photos look great. I enjoyed the ones you posted last time too.

Keep up the great rides and posts! :)

[flydhest]

Did I mention that jealousy and pettiness are causing me to hate you?

seriously, though, great pictures. Thanks. My wife has an idea of what I want out of the next vacation.

[velotel]

Ah, the joys of living in the valley in the winter - fog! Meanwhile those of wise enough to live above the fray have been enjoying what you see in the pics. I have to ride down to get into the fog then ride back up to my house and into the clearness. But sometimes the fog gets into a sort of egalitarian frame of mind and rises up so that those of on high can participate in the gray joys. And sometimes, like a few evenings ago, we're at the limit. I ride the plateau like a stone skipping on water, sometimes in the murk, then rising up out into the sun, then sinking again, then finally rising on wings of happiness into a world of heat and blue skies. Makes for some spectacular scenes.

The shots are in the valley on the opposite side of Grenoble from where our poster lives but usually if there's fog on this side, there's fog on his side. Shot these this morning and then again this evening. The mountain in the background in the evening shot that is still in the sun is the mountain on which the Alpe d'Huez ski area resides. You'll note that the fog is still there in the evening. No joy in the valley today.

[maxn]

Damn it's nice up there. Some day maybe we'll move to higher altitude, but until then, I'll be sucking fog with the plebs down here in the valley :)