Ford overlook

I rode over to the river tonight. There is something about that ride that always produces a higher average speed than I usually achieve. It is almost always a pretty tough work out. Today was no different.

I was coming down the hill from Saint Thomas to the monument at the end of Summit. There was a young woman on a road bike ahead of me and a fit looking young couple ahead of her, also on road bikes. They were all strong riders and they easily got a gap on the downhill. Still I was up to speed retaining the momentum of the downhill and I hung around only about a half a block behind. It is only a couple of blocks along the road from the bottom of that first big hill until the road does a couple of quick little uphills. I am not fast but I am strong and, sure enough, on the hills I reeled them in.

The young woman directly in front of me seemed content to hang behind the couple as they were moving at a quite reasonable clip. I did not want to be like racer boy and have to pass everything that I see in front of me so I fell in fourth in line. And we hammered together down to the Ford Parkway bridge where all three of them turned to cross the bridge back into Minneapolis. We were fast, we were strong.

After parting company with the rabbits, I continued on along on the Saint Paul side and achieved a new furthest distance south milestone for this season. This is the across the street from the Ford plant at the overlook above Hidden Falls.I think that limestone wall might have been a WPA project. I know the walls farther down into the gorge along the creek up to the actual falls were constructed by WPA. I am not certain about the wall at the top of the bluff though.