The Minnetonka Soak

I needed some distraction this weekend, so I convinced my husband to go biking with me around Lake Minnetonka on Sunday. It was sunny and beautiful, so we stayed out for a while. At some point the lake became a little choppier and the wind picked up, and we thought it might be best to turn around and head back. A few minutes after we turned around, the sky started to rumble so we sped up. We cruised pretty fast for about fifteen minutes as it started to sprinkle on us and the sky turned black, and we stopped in a tunnel to assess our situation and look at a map. We were still a good 6 or more miles from our car (which wasn't too bad - we had really picked up some distance), and it had only been sprinkling lightly for a while so we thought we'd keep going. Another couple of bikers had stopped in the tunnel for the same cause and agreed, so we both set out in our different directions. We almost felt like we were staying ahead of the storm as we were biking back, which was kind of exhilerating and quite a workout. The highway we were on (Hwy 101) cut through a bay area of the lake, and as we passed through I looked out over the lake at the black sky and all the boats that were still out there and thought, now why are they all being crazy and staying out on the lake when it's going to rain? A few seconds later, the wind picked up some more and the sprinkles turned into hail pellets that were actually painful as they pelted down on me. We sped up even more, if that's possible, to try to get off the lake, but the wind was against us and we were starting to head uphill. Just as we rode off the lake and back into the woods, the rain came down like someone had just turned a bucket of water over on top of us. I was drenched down to my underwear in a matter of seconds, and my shoes filled up and turned into leaden bricks. Since we were long past the tunnel and hope for shelter, we had to keep going (after checking that the camera and cell phone were safe and dry in our backpack, which they were - but our wallets were soaked). Once you're wet, you may as well keep going, so we did, and it continued to pour for about ten more minutes. Then, as we finally reached civilization and found a gas station to seek shelter under, the sun started to come out again. When we reached our car, people were coming back out onto the trails, looking dry and happy, and we were soaked, covered with mud, our socks were black and our shoes were still wet. But, it was a thrill!