My Version of the Inversion Excursion, Part 1

Attended the fourth annual Inversion Excursion alleycross race last night. The weather was decent (maybe mid 30s at the start?) but visibility was horrible. Not only did we get rolling in total darkness but the fog enveloped the valley shortly after. I had so much fun navigating the course (which included a really sandy mountain trail, a canal, a drainage culvert, a river crossing, city traffic and some fence hopping) that I failed to take advantage of the bike light visuals I encountered at every stop. I had both a digital and video camera with me but used neither much at all. At the top of the mountain stop, looking back down the trail you could see the foothill silhouettes blanketed in fog and then some scattered, bobbing little red and white lights snaking their way upward. It looked like Close Encounters of the Third Kind. 

The river crossing was awesome. Warren and I rolled up to where we thought the stop was and a beat cop was snooping in the weeds and rocks of the riverbank. We could hear the splashy sounds of water travel coming from somewhere in the darkness but we couldn't see anyone. We finally spied some ta-do further down stream where they had strung a rope with glow sticks on it to the other side. Seeing this long string of light and numerous bike lights bouncing across the blackness of the river was something else. Green, red, purple, white and yellow all glowing in the fog, so rad. What great way to spend a Saturday night in late January.