Couldn't sleep so I strapped some lights to the bike and headed for the woods for the first 'night' ride of the winter.
It's a totally different experience riding a familiar trail in just a pool of light. Many of the normal cues were gone (well invisible) so the normal method of slow down just past the tree stump for the right hand didn't work and I had to rely on what I could see in my lights. Some turns were overshot and others taken faster than I'd thought possible. I once read a piece where the author advocated skiing blindfolded (on an easy slope!) and relying on the feel of the snow rather than looking at the terrain and this was a similar approach as I found I was getting more feedback from my tyres than looking at the ground to stay in control.
I'd originally planned to ride the loop the 'slow' way going up the steeper hill rather than down it and then come home along a flat path but as all I saw were some startled rabbits and nonchalant foxes and I was having so much fun that, when I got to the top of the hill I decided to come back down. That was a blast! Not quite flat out, but certainly on the 'edge'!
And yes, those weird sounds that I couldn't identify certainly helped to keep the speed up in the darkest parts of the woods....
