Fishing opener

The sequence of events, including weather, over the past 36 or so hours have again left me resenting the way I spend most of the daylight hours of my life. Yesterday was a nice enough day all day, plenty nice enough for bicycling. But at about 4:30pm it started to rain, wiping out any possibility of getting in a ride. Being stuck on the 4th floor of a building with windows that do not open is not good.

Today was about 2 dozen degrees cooler than the last time I rode. I had laundered all of that winter gear but had not actually packed it away for the season. So about noon I put it all on and headed out.

I have looked at a map recently and have been considering the possibility of riding through North Oaks. North Oaks has a sign at the only entrance to the community saying "No Tresspassing, Private Roads and Lands". I had always assumed that all of the roads are private. I have recently been enlightened that the main road is publicly maintained and that therefore its status as private is certainly open to question. There is a soccer field a short distance inside the entrance and I have been to that field once. Other than that I had never been in there. It looked in a cursory map examination like I could ride the main road around the main lake and add a couple of miles to the 8 lakes tour. So today I crossed Highway 96 and entered into the former private estate of James J. Hill, the Empire Builder.

I headed north along the west side of the lake intending to circle in a clockwise direction. Along the way I saw some things I had never seen before and learned some things I did not know. When I passed that soccer field there was a youth rugby game going on. You don't see much rugby, certainly not much youth rugby.

They have a street in there named Hill Farm Circle. Today I stayed on the main road but some day I may have to see what is on that circle. They have another named Red Barn Lane which when I looked down the road while passing I saw what looked to me like a red barn. There is even a street named Skillman Lane.

Lots of the houses, especially the newer houses are quite clearly the residences of the economically well off. But I was surprised to find a fairly significant sprinkling of ramblers and bungalows.

There were two turtle crossing signs and only one deer crossing sign despite the enclave having a reputation for being overrun by deer. Both turtle crossings are at places where channels flow into the main lake, Pleasant. This is looking towards Pleasant from approximately the location of the second turtle crossing I encountered.I also learned that a circumnavigation of North Oaks is not just a mile or two. I checked my odometer going in and passed seven miles before coming back out.

And the east and south sides of the lake are HILLY. There is scarcely ever more than a few yards of flat pavement, always up and then down, up and down. At one point I got caught in the big ring on an upslope that proved to be longer than I anticipated, and therefore quite a bit harder.

Just before finishing the route I came across the North Oaks Country Club. I have no idea what hole this is but that is Pleasant Lake in the background.It was a pretty nice ride. It is a satisfyingly middle distance between the standard 8 lake tour and the other ride route out that way that I repeat with some regularity. The longer ride is to Bald Eagle and is over 40 miles. I am sure I will be trying the North Oaks loop again.

After getting back on course I made the ride down through Lake Vadnais. As mentioned above, this is the opening weekend of the Minnesota fishing season and anglers were out in profusion, probably the most people I have ever seen at Vadnais. Perhaps the economic situation has caused more people to fish closer to home rather than making the trek to the northern lakes.

The sun made a brief appearance while I was next to the lake so I stopped and got a picture of what looks for all the world like a sand beach on the far side of the lake, something that despite my numerous rides to Lake Vadnais, I have never noticed before.This morning's highlight was, of course, the beginning of the Giro d'Italia. I discovered a website that is streaming the race live. It was a joy to be watching professional bicycle racing again.

It was a really interesting webstream in that it came on the air about an hour before the race actually began. I watched Lance Armstrong signing autographs at the team bus, an interview with Viatcheslav Ekimov, the former oldest rider in the peloton, conducted in English, another interview which I understood very little of other than Milano-San Remo, conducted in French, and introductions of all of the teams and riders, obviously in Italian. And then I watched the stage which today was the seldom contested team time trial. The video is from RAI, Italian television, but the commentator is American. No Phil, no Paul, no Bobke, but also no Craig Hummer. The race is on.