Monthly report

The month ends with acceptable numbers in the log. I managed to ride on 16 days in April, anything more than half has to be considered a victory in this most unforgiving of Aprils.

The following weather facts for the month of April were compiled by a local TV weatherperson and published in the Pioneer Press:

Thirteen days with high temperatures in the 30 and 40s.
Eleven days with gusty prevailing northerly winds.
Thirteen mornings below freezing.
The normal high and low temperatures for this date are 64 and 42. This is an increase from 49 and 30 at the beginning of the month.

The mileage numbers are OK. April is the first complete month of what is a seven month season. Ideally one seventh of the annual mileage goal should be completed by the end of April. I am not quite there but I am close enough to not be alarmed. I am about 80 miles behind last year's pace but about 140 miles ahead of the '06 pace. '06 is the year I had to have the intervention of a Thanksgiving week warm spell to finally get to 4,000.

It was the nicest day in a while here, temperatures reaching nearly normal, low 60s, I think. It remained nice through the first half of my ride but clouded up and cooled rather dramatically on the ride back. I was also plagued by the TV weather site I used giving incorrect information about wind direction. I didn't pay much attention until it became apparent that I was riding home into a head wind. In retrospect, I guess I did feel awfully strong on the way out.

Today was the second sighting this year of the tall bike guy. I have only ever seen him on Como Avenue but today was the farthest east I have ever seen him, almost all the way to the park.This is the turn around point, the overlook at the Ford plant above Hidden Falls. I thought it was kind of interesting today because you can see things which are not visible after the foliage fills in.

There's the stone wall lining the path down from the overlook towards the actual falls. Then through the trees you can see part of the retaining wall on the far side of the gulch that the creek flows through below the falls. And if you look really, really carefully, there is a blue car down there in the parking lot of the picnic area down at river level.