Night Riders

We are the night riders and we own the night:  We leave when the golden orb has closed its tired eye leaving a blood stained crimson horizon beneath the cold leaden sky that hangs heavy overhead.

As we enter the woods it is eerily quiet and dark.  There is no light only darkness and everything fades into the darkness.  The light from our helmets only illuminates the spindly trail as it weaves through the forest floor, directly in front of us, no light passes that point, it is all absorbed into the maelstrom of no return.

It is so dark that the shadows run from themselves.  Our lights cast eerie shadows and they run from themselves as we pass.  They fade in and out of reality only to return again down the serpentine trail.  They follow and haunt us and when you look, they disappear into the darkness.

At times these shadows or ghosts of emptiness seem to reach out and try to grab you and all the while it is so eerily quite. The sounds are muted and all is absorbed, nothing escapes.  It is way to Twilight zone here.  It is though everything has died or gone to sleep except for the innate and those that live in the darkness of the void, they come alive.

The eyes golden of the night creatures shine bright and follow us.  They are the denizens of the night and the keepers of the forest and they do not like us here.  Their are the jackals, their eyes shine into the emptiness of blackness, golden beams of destruction and evil.  They fade in and out of sight.  Are they alive or dead or in some purgatory station, wicked cool.

The mighty trees are going to sleep and have shed their colorful autumn leaves.  The leaves carpet the forest floor and hide the enemies of we riders, the rocks and off camber limbs making it somewhat hazardous now. The rocks and limbs lay in wait for us to pass, trying to throw us off our powerful steeds. They do succeed at times.  The arms and fingers from unknown and unseen forest demons will grab at you as you pass by from the emptiness.  They will rip at your clothing or jump up like a snake and try to hit your legs or bike, the unknown and dead come to life here and become real.

The hard land of winter is just around the corner and it is so very special.  The ground becomes cold and hard and it is so very fast.  Ice can hide beneath the surface and the result is so very painful, yet exhilarating.  Mountain biking is very cool in the fist snow.