It’s New Year’s Day, which means it’s time for the first bike ride of 2012! If I’m being honest, I wasn’t really in the mood for it. I had a most lovely new year’s eve, and I was perfectly happy to stay in bed all day, lolling around and eating last night’s cheese plate, but you can’t miss a ride on the first day of the new year, right? By the time I was out of bed and ready to get on the bike, the rain had started to fall, but only in sprinkles; I was tired and the left side of my head felt like there was a party last night, so I decided to head to Druid Hill Park to do a couple of easy laps. As always, once I was on my ride I started feeling better. It was strangely warm, and the rain held off. The sky at the reservoir was a seven layer stack of clouds looking over the city and a saturated purple-blue looking back toward the park. I continued my ride around the zoo administration building and then over past the zoo parking lot and frisbee golf course to the Jones Falls Trail. The rain started falling at that point, so I snapped a picture of the first turn down the path. It’s just the first of the year, and I have many more days to ride this trail, and I’ll get to see it turn green with spring, hot with summer, and back to fall again, which was the most beautiful thing I’ve seen in a long time. The rain was coming down harder, so I turned around, zipped up my jacket, and pedaled as fast as I could home. I can’t wait to see where my bike takes me this year.