Today was spectacularly gorgeous. Did twenty-one miles on the Blackstone Valley path, and took lots of pictures. One weird thing I noticed as I headed north on 295 was that some of the trees are changing colors already, two days into September. I even noticed a few down here on the way home. It's probably because we've had so little rain, but damn. It's too early.

Blackstone Valley is, I think, the prettiest of the four main RI bike paths. Much of the southern half of the trail runs on the little strip of land between the Blackstone River and the Blackstone Canal. The northern half runs alongside the Providence & Worcester RR, and even there it's pretty. Lots of dams to look at, and old mills.

I was back on the Absolute, and had some problems towards the end of the ride. The rear derailleur started slipping gears about the time I got to the north end of the path. It got progressively worse over the last quarter of the ride, especially on the long uphill climb to the parking area on 295. Not sure what was going on. If it's an alignment problem with the derailleur arm, it certainly got out of alignment in a big hurry, because there wasn't a hint of this last time out. There are some serious bumps on the southern half where tree roots have started lifting the trail, and I hit some of them hard, so that may be some of it. I'll see if I can get it straightened out on my own tomorrow, otherwise I'll need to take it to the shop.