Great reply - thanks for the detail abs the photo!! 
Around here there are three people that routinely ride outside pre-dawn. One guy retired last year, and this morning he started at 4:27am and I was going to ask “did you sleep in?” LOL.
Woke up to fog at 7am and was greeted to Strava pics from two 5:07am riders:
Hats off to all you early morning riders, I hate riding in the dark and would get on the trainer if that was the only time to ride.
I often run/ride pre-dawn here. I can do both on the riverside paths which is car free. The riverside paths go on forever. You can easily do over 100km on the riverside, but it’s all flat. If I take to the mountains, it’s usually daybreak before I start descending. But if it’s heavy fog, daylight or not, descending sucks even on nice roads. Everything is damp or outright wet and visibility can be next to nothing. Add in monkeys in the road and you have a recipe for disaster. On days like that, by the time I reach the bottom, I’m a bit worn out from the stress of say a 45min decent.
Way back near the turn of the century, I’d get up at 3:55a so I could put in a 50 miler on the road & bike path, and sometimes including circuits with the local bike club, and still get home, shower/shave/put on the suit and drive to the downtown office in Los Angeles traffic and park around 8:30. Why 3:55 precisely? 3xx was late night, 4xx was early morning, but I found that I needed those additional five minutes but I wasn’t willing to go more than 5min 
Later, living in the UK and then here near Zurich, I used to travel a lot for work and would get up at 3xx or 4xx to put in a run before my 6xx or 7a flight. I look back at that and think… what? I enjoy my morning trail rides, a LOT. I find it difficult to get on the rollers at 5a but easy to step outside for a ride (or run when I was running, presently I’m 100% focused on cycling) even if the temp is -10C. I have to say that a run gets me better mentally prepared for the day because the bike requires more concentration.
Also, back to the route options. My local / adjacent forest is great for hill intervals and I wrote. I can cross a little river valley and get up into another forest. There, I have a route that is great for a 20+min sustained effort. However, I have to admit that this other forest, which I ride frequently but not daily like “mine,” is quite spooky in the early pre-dawn hours, and I don’t think that’s because I spend less time there. It just has a different feel. Including that area means my ride time really has to be at least 90min to make it worthwhile and to be safe on time.
And, the old guy I mentioned above… I generally just see him in the late autumn through the winter. There are some other “regulars” I see irregularly, but in general, the forest is “mine” at that hour without anyone walking their dog or enjoying a mindless stroll in the woods and there aren’t animals there to eat me (though wolves are coming back to this part of Switzerland). It’s a great time to enjoy riding.
Genau et exactement!
???
Book of Revelation 
I have a long commute and listen to a lot of audio books, so I was wondering if he’s making a recording.
That was the first thing that came to mind when reading, just talking out loud!
Today was a long ride that wasn’t fast or too far (relatively), but it did have some climbing. The weather was not great: cold (3-8ºC) and damp for the first 2+ hours, then I was in clearer weather with less cold (up to 12º / 53F), and then high winds & gusts, like lean into the wind and warning lights on the lakes, and chillier than 12C. The original plan of action was to get to the (brutal) climb at Muotathal (see pics from last year), but snow on some mountains and the high winds plus the climb is fully exposed just made me think it was better to abandon the effort. So, instead of taking a trail to go ring the hill of what was to be the second of three major climbs, I just kept going to the top, making it the second of two major climbs. That put me at the top of a ski slope which, I realized after I descended, was the first place we skied our first winter here. There was no way to go but down, so… but like all the descending, there were no options for speed. The road up was a paved one-laner that served two directions. Anyway, I was happy to get a warm shower when I got home after a fraction under 60 miles but about 8,000’ of climbing.
I planned to depart close to 6a, nearly two hours before dawn, but the thick fog didn’t agree with that plan. Instead, I left after 8a but this meant no helmet light, so that was good. Here, I’m starting to get out of the fog (physically, I’m not making any mental claims). For those keeping track, this is the forest that feels a bit spooky in pitch darkness. In fact, someone named this Strava segment spooky forest!
Spotted this lawn mower. If you think you have a cool ridable, have I got something for you.
Getting up the first major climb, a route I used to do a couple times a month but this was only my second or third time this year due to weather and life, usually has some nice views.
Further up and into a forest, I see my first group of hunters. Three guys with a dog. There are times I’ll see hunters encircling some stand of trees or hilltop. Further along, I saw another group, and later another (whose dog clearly had a radio collar). All the dogs had their own orange markers like the hunters.
The trail before and after this is one where shocks would be nice. I can’t recall ever seeing another bike ascend, but I’ve seen plenty of full-suspension bikes come down. This is a smoother bit without too many roots and no roots that had challenging height and angles, nor fist to skull size rocks, nor ruts nor slick rock.
Real gravel is common, very common
Hungry? A food stop on the trail. Beer, cooked foods, etc. It’s busy in good weather, but there were people eating at tables in this weather (around the corner, I didn’t want to take their picture). The chapel is several hundred years old. (I came down from behind and to the right of these buildings and am headed downward.)
Self-explanatory
Down to a lakeside (the lower lake in the map) and flat and a fresh tree carving.
For your reference, I included a larger segment of the map to show Zurich and Luzern (Lucerne). At the bottom right is Muotathal. The objective followed the southern edge of the mountain directly to the left of Muotathal. The previous go at Muotathal, when I reached the lake, I turned south and went along the southern side of Lake Luzern. Today, I was going to head north through Schwyz. Alas, it didn’t happen.
On the outbound, I kept the power reserved to save it for Muotathal (the climb is 4.21 miles averaging 12.5% on gravel, sometimes loose gravel). On the way back, I just focused on LSD / base building / time in the saddle. There were some steep climbs near the very end, including the one with 27% bits ridden earlier this week, so there was that fun, too. Overall, it was a good day and now I’m tired.
I write things.
Pretty cool. Thanks for sharing!
I’m in Las Vegas this weekend. Original plan was to watch Ireland play the USA in rugby. The game was cancelled, but decided to come anyway to hang out with friends.
I can’t deal with just hanging out in Vegas with nothing to do, so decided to rent a bike and go for a ride.
I rode some trails on the west side of the city. The trails were generally so-so, despite pretty high ratings on Trailforks. One highlight was Brohemian Rhapsody however. That was a legit trail - challenging tech, engaging, and visually impressive.
And after riding I went back to the hotel and drank beer by the pool. Oh well, when in Vegas…
Ratings are often relative.
That last photo is fantastic
Do you mind sharing where you rented your bike from and what the service was like?
I’m planning a trip to Vegas in the next year (hopefully October 2022) mostly to visit friends but I also plan to ride a bunch of times (both road and hopefully off road too) so need to start planning out my trip and scoping out rental options.
Thanks 
