Itching To Pedal

I’ve been itching to get out on Double Shot (my bike – named for my favorite Starbucks beverage – decaf double shot on ice no classic) for the past couple of weeks. It just seemed like time. On Sunday, the temps made it into the 50’s with nice sunshine so I freed Double Shot from the trainer in the dark basement, brought him to the garage, aired-up the tires and set out for the bike trail with grandson, Gus. We headed out Storrs Lake Road to that gem, The Glacial River Trail. Things were going great as we headed north until went encountered a shady protected spot still covered with considerable snow. This was just as we headed up hill before the descent to the Klug Road cul-de-sac. This spot gets little sun and is protected by woods. We wisely choose to turn around. The head wind as we returned south was brutal, especially for our first-time-out-conditioning (or the lack thereof). We toured the boat launch area before heading home. Our computers were not seated properly or had not yet waked up from their winter naps so were not registering properly. I estimated about a 4-mile ride. I declare that pretty good for the first ride of spring with a body that looked and felt a bit like a beached whale.

So today (Tuesday), I was meeting a friend at Café 26 (great food) for lunch. We hadn’t chatted for a while and I was looking forward to reconnecting. I decided to walk – not really very far for me. I was considering a bike ride later in the afternoon but, even though sunny, it seemed a bit too cool for that. You should know that I have never been a cold weather biker. This friend is a person whom I take advantage of by sucking energy from him. He almost always provides me with a good infusion. We all need someone like this in our lives. Today was classic and his words during lunch led me over the psychological edge of not biking. So, out I went again heading north on the bike trail. I was a tad cool at first but warmed up very quickly.

Quite frankly, I stopped thinking about the temp as the rhythm of the bike and the appreciation of the trail occupied my thought. On the bike, my mind frees-up and flows much more creatively. I saw work that needs to be done on days when I don’t bike. There’s a lot of litter to pick up – stuff that blows in over the winter. There are a few places where tree branches dropped over the winter. They have been moved off the trail but there are twigs and bark and stuff of that sort, which is not fun to bike through, so needs to be swept off. The snow I ran into on Sunday was still there, but the patch was not very long, so I decide to continue. I started to ride through this icy mess and soon realized how foolish that was, especially while clipped in. I was able to walk through it with no issues. Just north of County N is a long stretch (100 yards maybe) covered with pea gravel, that probably was pushed onto the trail by snowplows, just like last year. It’s no one’s fault – just one of those things. If you bike, you know that pea gravel is no fun to encounter so, I will take blower and broom out there sometime soon and clear it off. There are also collections of gravel where the trail crosses roads (especially County N) which will need to be swept. There’s lots of litter around the County N area. The section between Bowers Lake Road and Klug Road has lots of animal excrement. This is near houses of dog owners but that is probably coincidental rather than causative. This scat could be from wild animals but I am not enough of an outdoorsman to identify it. It would be good to have this removed from the trail as well. As you can see, there are opportunities for being outside, getting exercise, and making the trail a better place for all of us. If you ever want to join me in some of these maintenance projects, just give me a holler.

I saw a wooly bear crawling quite quickly across the trail. Just one. I think he may have had his seasons confused. As I crossed Otter Creek I had to stop and listen to the cacophony from the flocks of red-winged blackbirds congregated there. I thought about taking a short video to share here so my readers could hear it, but the highway noise is too loud at that location. I did take a couple of snaps which capture some of the beauty of the day. You'll find them at the end of this post.

Long story short, I had a great 10.5 - mile ride today. It was not too cold. I just had on biking shorts and a long-sleeved biking jersey over a long-sleeved base layer. I was quite warm by the time I returned home feeling righteous and right with the world and I’m happy the season has begun.

Now it's Wednesday, Too cool to bike so I decided to work on some of the projects mentioned above. I was able to collect the litter and remove scat from Storrs Lake Road to Klug Road as well as clear gravel from the Bowers Lake Road crossing. While working around the kiosk on Storrs Lake Road, a pickup truck pull over next to me. It was my MUHS Class of 68 friend, Kerry Hull. He had been picking up litter around the boat launch area. Thank you, Kerry. We had a nice chat and commiserated about the slovenliness of the American public. So, I clocked more than 15, 000 steps on my phone, earned a nice feeling of accomplishment by making a good chunk of our bike trail more attractive, and am pleasantly fatigued tonight.

Life is good in my world. I hope it is in yours as well.

#cruzan4milton#WAM