Tuesday, June 30, 2015

Lost and found at Lake Vadnais

It appears to me that I have lost my way on the whole concept of riding towards the south.  We have had a very persistent pattern of northerly winds, some northwest and some northeast but really all from the north.

This time of year that is OK because in mid-summer, which is where we are, even north winds are mostly warmish.  The issue is velocity at this time of year and unpleasant velocity is possible from any point of the compass.

The big redo at Lake Vadnais a couple of years ago included removal of several majestic old cottonwoods to make room for that bicycle path there and an alignment of flat stones to separate the path from the street.  I mostly ride on the road although there are several places out there where particularly on week days I find it completely acceptable to ride the MUT.  When there are only a few other people about it is possible to get around out there on some really scenic paths.

But today I noticed a little lost and found action of one of the flat stones.
I stopped and examined them, they appear to be drug store readers, cheap frame mounted magnifiers of the sort usually referred to by persons of my vintage as "cheaters".

I noticed some wildlife.  The wildlife he be very shy.  I tried the old sneak behind the tree and wait to see if they come out the other side trick.
This wildlife, he be much too smart to fall for that trick.

Mallards, a nice family grouping.

It is pretty out there.  Today was mostly cloudy and only about 70, a bit on the cool side, but when the sun came out as I traversed the Grass Lake MUT I went ahead and stopped for a photo.
Incidentally, the Grass Lake MUT has received the GRider's Seal of Approval.

It is always a little guilty bit of pleasure to find something like that right here in the big, big city.

Most miles in June since 2011.

Friday, June 26, 2015

MUT musings

The GRider and I headed out shortly past noonish to try to get in a ride.  The GRider's preferred weather website predicted 0 percent chance of precipitation on each and every hour of the afternoon.

I use two sites mainly, one showed an iffy radar profile and the other proclaimed 41 percent chance of precipitation on each and every hour of the afternoon.

Today my websites had better accuracy than GRider's.

We got to Acorn Park on the reverse Vadnais route.  The route through the park is on a multiple use trail and we ride that trail with full awareness that there might be other users.  For instance the very first time I rode through there I was confronted with frisbee golfers flinging their discs in my general direction.

Even so we were not prepared for this other user.
There were some workmen doing what appeared to me to be additional disc golf course prep down in the wetland to the right.  They certainly were authorized to drive into the park on the MUT but there does seem to be parking available to them, like immediately to their right, that would have allowed for multiple uses of that particular piece of tarmac.

The GRider confronted one of the workers and I must say her approach was less bombastic than some might have used.  She just suggested to him that if they moved over even a foot that the rest of us could continue to use the trail.  Myself?  I just rode out onto the grass there and kept on going.

Less than a mile later the GRider reported raindrops.  Within a dozen or so pedalstrokes of hearing her report I felt them as well.  By that time we had already adopted the absolute must protocol for feeling rain drops when more than 7 miles from home.  We had turned and were on our way back to being closer to home, rather than farther, if actual heavy rain occurred.

When we rode through the park, only 10 or so minutes after GRider had rebuked the construction crew, we discovered that the truck had been moved to a 20 or so yard more distant from their work site parking available position.

Sometimes honey does work better than whatever that other alternative is.

On the way home we got pretty close to home, it wasn't actually raining, I tried to divert the route towards Lake Como.  We got about half a mile along the diversion and sprinkles returned, this time bigger drops.  Once again we turned toward home.

By now we were JRA but we got enough miles to satisfy each of our exercise goals.

As I have noted numerous times, rain is a powerful motivator.  We spent most of the ride trying to ride fast instead of just riding.  We done good, we got our collective highest average speed for any of her rides yet this season.

Thursday, June 25, 2015

Nine days out from the start of le Tour

And Froomey reveals that he has missed a drug test.

Well, tickle my ass with a feather I never ever would have expected this.

I had a GRider the other day and we made it all the way out to Highway 96.  This means that pretty early in her season she has now worked herself all the way up to where she is going to be taking the full ride.

In addition she seems pretty chipper about the whole thing while actually riding.  Here she is earlier this week out at the last lake before the Highway 96 turn back.
In defense of my own personal fitness level I wish to note that she does act a bit knackered after arriving at home.

But then, so do I.

Today's actual bicycle news is 1,020 miles this bicycle this year.

Thursday, June 18, 2015

1,000 miles

The GRider proclaimed it a perfect day for a bicycle ride.  There is still some controversy about whether and to whom she has proclamation power.  Indisputably, she was correct, OOTNDITHOD.

I keep editing the northern reverse route.  Today we got the correct route through Acorn Park and arrived at Lake Vadnais at approximately 9 miles.  This meant that the usual stop at Vadnais had to be delayed until we got past the 10 mile mark.

Today's stop was at Sucker Lake, the top of the 10 lake ride, adjacent to Highway 96.
It was her longest ride of the year and also probably her fastest.  I have reached 1,000 miles earlier in the season this year than when I reached it last year.

By three days.

But I am ahead of last year and at long last starting to feel a little bit strong.

Tuesday, June 16, 2015

Jacket weather?

I waited and waited but by 1:15 it was still only 68 and still heavily overcast.  Forecasts for tomorrow say 80 percent chance of rain, finally the goal of salvaging a ride today became paramount and I just had to get on my bicycle and go.

I made it twice around the cul-de-sac before heading back into the driveway to retrieve my most light weight jacket.  68 and heavy overcast in April would be one of the last days of jacket weather.  Jacket weather in June seems wrong but today it seemed too cool for my summer costume.  I went with jacket, deciding that I could always take it off and stuff it into my jersey pocket.

So I rode out to Vadnais yet again.  The GRider and I rode out there yesterday on another heavily overcast day which produced zero photo opportunities.

We did have a quite extraordinary non-photo opportunity moment though.  We were riding the reverse route which means we were riding up the lake instead of the much more common down the lake.  Shortly after rounding the curve just after the parking area we startled a great blue heron from its lakeside resting/hiding spot.  The great blue, he be very, very shy.

The very largish by Minnesota standards bird got up from its roost and started to fly north along the shore of the lake.  We happened to be riding north along the bike path on the shore of the lake.  The bird was traveling at about the same speed that we were so we rode almost all of the rest of the way to the top of the lake parallel to and exactly in line with a great blue heron.

Pretty dang spectacular view, I kid you not.

It was clearly not a photo opportunity, who could have prepared for that?  But what it means that for the rest of the summer any time I am heading up lake I am likely to pre-prepare by putting my pocket camera on video mode.  If it ever happens again I could try to grope the camera out of my pocket and just point it in the direction of the wildlife.

Wouldn't that be spectacular?

Of course, what is likely to happen is that there will be several inadvertent videos this season, as I forget to adjust the settings on the camera before attempting a photograph.

*sigh*

Here is a photograph from today.  This is the exact same ground that produces the spectacular tulip display pictured here previously.  The tulips are gone, obviously, but the proprietor over there has overseeded the tulip bed with a variety of later blooming plants.  The tulips are gone but today it looked pretty nice.
And then there is this.  The sign isn't the "no parking" that I grew up with but it is the internationally recognized "no parking".  So why is that car parked there?  And for what reason is that a "no parking" area?
Here's a view from the other side.
Cars can park wherever they want because cars are way more important than bicycles.

I made it all the way home with my jacket still on.

Sunday, June 14, 2015

Flag Day

Here's a couple that I know:
The one on the right is the Minnesota State Flag.  The wind wasn't strong enough to open it up completely to show the details.  I waited a bit but after a while decided that I was on a bicycle ride, not a photograph the state flag mission.  That's our library in the background.

I do not know this one.
But artfully photographed, don't you think?

Two red quarters, two blue, white cross and some sort of emblem in the center.

Bueller?

But these are the most important flags I saw today.
Because, as noted above it was a bicycle ride.

I heeded the advice of my favorite weather website and headed out towards the south.  Mikey J's weather site said wind from the southeast.

Well, here's the deal, I love that weather site but his weather station is set up on Grey Cloud Island.  Which is completely the other side of this largish metropolitan area from where I live.  The wind was fairly light so I didn't really notice until I rode past this at about the 5 mile mark.  I am facing towards the east for this photo.

Beautiful day.

But the flags are pointing to the right, indicating wind from the left.

If you are facing east and the wind is coming from your left?

So I swung around and found my way back over towards a northern route.  Half of a southern ride already gone under the tires means that I didn't really get very far along on the northern ride.  But it was a gorgeous day with only very light winds.  It is pretty much full summer, sunrise is about 5:30am, sunset about 9pm.

If you don't like this you don't like anything.

Friday, June 12, 2015

Ferrell

We had rain most of the day yesterday which was fine with me, I need rest days more often than I used to and yesterday was a fine rest day.  TOPWLH had other plans anyway, plans that involved her packing up the car and driving to Wisconsin.  I was left alone with nothing to do so I rested.

Today on the other hand was a fine, fine day.  TOPWLH had not returned so I worked off my solitude sadness (I just made that up, nice one, eh?) by riding my bicycle.  I explored an alternate route through Acorn Park but discovered that I prefer the direct route through the frisbee golf thing despite the occasional flying saucers.

I got home to discover that my package had arrived.

Today I am wearing my France 2010 FIFA World Cup t-shirt.  It is one of my favorites, it was a gift from the TCWUTH shortly before that futbol event began 5 years ago, probably a Fathers Day gift is my guess.  Or maybe she just thought I needed a new t-shirt.  One day recently I realized that it is one of my newer t-shirts despite the fact that as the date indicates it is at least five years old.  World Cup 2010 was the one held in South Africa.  Brasil hosted 2014.  I must add that I have several nice poly shirts, at least one purchased as recently as our trip to Flo-Rida earlier this annum, but in cotton my France FIFA shirt is among the newer.

My ancient cotton t-shirt reminded me of the comment made by Mike Ferrell of Mike's Pro Shop about shirts with dates on them.  Ferrell by the way is not the Mike of Mike's Pro Shop.  That would be Mike (Schmidt).  Ferrell is Ferrell.  Ferrell said he would see someone with a shirt with a date on it from a few years ago and want to ask that person, "Don't you ever shop?"

I considered that and I was chastened.  Apparently I never shop.  People who know me well already knew that.  But I have internet access and a credit card so I shopped.
As you can see, that's all better now. If I should happen to bump into Ferrell tomorrow there will be no worries about covering part of my t-shirt with my hands to avoid embarrassment.

TOPWLH arrived home later this afternoon.  I resumed my role as chief procurer and preparer of edibles.  I am chief but I am not sole, she does lots of the parts and one of the parts she does is mushrooms.  Mushrooms were required for this evening's repast so she was busy indoors when I noticed these in our backyard.
It probably goes without saying that there is lots and lots of shade in our back yard.  Anyone know if those are edible.  Because I am not going to find out any other way than someone else showing up and hauling them away to be eaten by those unknown third parties.

We will NOT be experimenting with backyard mushrooms.

How about these?
It sure looks like two different species to me.

Here in Minnesota these are what I refer to as Japanese lilacs.
I believe there is some exotic blooming schedule, like not every year.

There is a whole two block long row of those things over on County Road C, a block or so on each side of Snelling.

People as old as me will remember that County Road C and Snelling was the location of the Rose Drive-In Theatre.  My bank is currently located quite near to where the screen was in 1967 or so.

*sigh*

Wednesday, June 10, 2015

Acorn Park

Today returned to merely summer instead of yesterday's hottest day since last July.  It was plenty warm enough for a ride and for a change I was able to take one without it feeling like a near death experience.

I headed north again.  I am still unhappy with the little greasy bits on the road along the usual route.  I know about them because I have ridden that bit on the return trip a couple of times.  The return trip is acceptable because the heaviest concentration of road construction detritus is across the street on the side ridden on the outbound leg.  Still, even across the street it is apparent to me that it will be at least a couple more weeks.

So the outbound leg is the shortcut route.  I have ridden it enough times that now seemed like a good time to start refining things a bit.  I started looking for flatter bits.

The revelation is Acorn Park.

I noticed the Park last time out there.  It seemed unlikely though as from the outside it looked like a paved road leading into a parking lot and then a mostly undeveloped park behind the parking lot.  I did some research on the city Parks and Recreation website and some research on Google and Yahoo Maps.  All indications were that there is a paved path meandering around the edge of the park with a dirt path providing a connection from parking lot directly across the park to paved street pretty much back onto the route I wanted to ride.

I thought that I should check and if the dirt path was reasonably short and if the surface was reasonably hard packed that I could ride that bit and go ahead and use the Park.

Well, they have paved the path.

It IS in the middle of a disc golf course but I only had one close encounter with a flying disc.  So, improvements have been made.

There was a little chop on the water at Vadnais today but there were lots of interesting shades of blue.
I came across this evidence that the drought is a thing of the past here.  There is almost never any water visible in the Snail Lake wetland.  I sometimes ride the MUT through there.  Today I almost had to abandon.
So just to recount some important EuroNews that I am likely to start referring to here from time to time.  Contador wins the Giro d'Italia after suffering a double dislocation of the shoulder in a crash late in Stage 6.  He is now being dogged by accusations that he staged a fake puncture on Stage 16 to change bikes to prevent discovery of the fact that he had a motor in the bike.

*sigh*

FC Nantes survived the Ligue 1 season, finishing comfortably clear of relegation and will return next season for a third run with the elite of French futbol.

Meanwhile the FIFA Women's World Cup is underway in Canadia, being played apparently exclusively, at least every game I have seen so far, on artificial turf.

Tuesday, June 9, 2015

Birthday bike ride

Any questions whatsoever about whether it is summer yet were resoundingly answered today.  Still officially only 89 as I post but without doubt plenty hot.

The absolutely most direct shortest route from our house also gets you to this place in slightly less than 10 miles.
Aside from the fact that we were out at a time when only mad dogs and Englishmen should have been out we picked a good day to ride to the Falls.  It was reminiscent of Flo-Rida in that it was a day rare enough at this stage of our lives when we could feel quite a bit younger than the crowd.
They arrived on a bus and left shortly after I obtained this picture.

Very observant viewers might also note that after obtaining photo 1 the GRider and I ceded the main viewing and photo taking area in front of the Falls to that crowd of geezers and moved ourselves over into the shade.

Later on we also moved into the shade on the ride home to document the excessive heat at the Cattle Barn.
There is some sort of horse show going on over there this week.

Happy Birthday to TCWUTH.

Monday, June 8, 2015

The shorter way is hilly

Where we live is definitely glacial terrain, the dominant topography is what was left behind when the ice melted.  Ice melts, streams form, land forms are eroded but mostly what you discover is that the under side of the ice was not smooth.  The land is certainly not now mountainous but it rolls, it positively rolls, up and down, up and down.

The short way is not the preferred route to Lake Vadnais because the long route goes around some of the most annoying up and down.

I rode out there again today and the route that I took featured only probably one stretch requiring shifting down into a lower gear.  It was mostly flat.

I arrived at Lake Vadnais at 16 miles into the ride, a fairly major departure from yesterday's less than 10 miles.  Fortunately I knew I could get home from there in less than 10, by riding the shortest possible route.

I had the wind but the back half of today's ride featured some ugly moments on the way up mostly short but always uphill uphills.

Anyway I rode past these wild flowers along the road into Sucker Lake at the absolute top end of the ride.
It was warmer today by a little bit which I suppose is at least part of the reason why some haze formed leaving less than ideal blue sky.  Still it was pretty nice at Lake Vadnais.
That's Lake Vadnais on three straight rides.

I don't know, that's almost like old times.  I guess I should feel strong but I really don't yet.  The winds are still spring like for the most part and riding in the wind is always a test.

Sunday, June 7, 2015

Turns out to be a short cut

The morning newspaper reported that today's wind would be from the southeast.  I had a Guest Rider who expressed interest in riding a bit farther than she had on her first outing.  I left the garage thinking Minnehaha Falls, a destination ride off to the south.

We didn't even make it out of the driveway before it was apparent to me that the wind was much more north than south.  At the end of a street there is a family who fly the flag every day and when we passed that flag today it was standing firmly out from the pole towards the south, very clearly a north wind.

Later on in the ride we also ran into several legs which convinced both of us that the strongest part of the wind was from the west.

Northwest then.

So we set off on the reverse ride.  I sorta knew this but today really, really reinforced the fact that the shortest possible route to Lake Vadnais is the direct route, the route that you follow if you just start out riding in that direction and keep always trying to keep riding towards Vadnais.

GRider rode almost 16 on her first time.  I stopped a couple of times today and gave her an opportunity to turn back but she demurred and in less than 10 miles we were sitting on a bench on the shores of Lake Vadnais.
The forecasters were pretty much 180 degrees off on wind direction but most of the rest of it they got right.  It was warm and sunny, a nice day for a bicycle ride.

Vadnais is actually mostly northeast from here meaning that we had several bits coming home requiring west, directly into a stiffening breeze.

We made it home, though, stopping just before the final turn for a corn report.  Corn reports are always better with GRider for scale so we can all see just where the corn is currently lined up on her anatomy.
Mid to upper calf.

She complained later of having slightly overdone.  That's OK though, I totally agreed with her.  I was completely knackered myself.  I had quite a struggle to summon energy for grocery shopping and meal preparation but I asked her if she expected to be fed.  When she replied that that would be really very much appreciated I pulled myself together and visited the local market.

Food is good, especially if you have worked up an appetite.

Friday, June 5, 2015

Vadnais in reverse order

I rode yesterday and even though the predictors said zero percent chance the sky often seemed pretty uncertain and the air had that maybe its going to rain feeling.  I had watched the Tennis Channel coverage of Serena throwing up so I got kind of a late start.  I guess I didn't feel quite 100 percent myself (can allergies develop later on in the life cycle?) so the combination of all of those factors led to a pretty determined nose to the grindstone ride, no time for frivolities like photography.

One thing I do need to report from that ride though is that there are several streets being repaved along Hamline Avenue North from about B2 all the way down to where Hamline ends at its conjunction with Snelling.  Mind you, Hamline itself is not under construction (it was completely redone only a couple of years ago).  It is the streets that butt into Hamline that are being paved.

What this means is that at nearly every intersection with a side street there is greasy stuff that has been carried out from the paving project onto Hamline.

Lots and lots of stuff sticking to my tires.  We ALL know that I hate that.

So today even though the predictors said about the same as yesterday this time I decided to believe the zero percent chance and take the long ride.  I rode out to Vadnais but had to do it in reverse order.  I ride to Vadnais a lot.  My usual route is out along Hamline and then up across the freeway on Victoria leading to Snail Lake and then Sucker Lake and then down the hill to Vadnais.

See above comment about Hamline.

So I angled away from Hamline almost immediately heading generally northeast towards Rice Street and the corner of the city.  I rode this route a few times last year but it is still not completely set in my mind.  I missed the correct turn only once though, resulting in having to back track for half a block.  Totally acceptable.

And the day was gradually emerging as totally acceptable.  Uphill through Vadnais.
I totally know what to do at this intersection.
Some of the bits coming back seemed quite a bit out of sequence, which of course, they were.  I was riding the route backwards.

The temperature finally made it into the 70s, one of the nicest days any time recently.

Tuesday, June 2, 2015

Greatest hits tour

I did indeed have a Guest Rider today which called for a tour of some of her favorite things.  That is, her favorite things which are off the beaten path of her automobile excursions and which are too far away to be reached on foot, even at E-speed.  Sort of her bicycle greatest hits.

So, here are some.  CB 72 at 2pm.

Boulevard of exotic flora.
It is also pretty exotic fauna considering that she hasn't been anywhere near those plants for about 8 months or so.

She identified the one thing I was wrong about as hostas.

There are stakes in the ground and signs of ground disturbance meaning that some planting has occurred.  Meaning that some of the plants ARE annuals.  We both express surprise at the large number that are perennial.  At the time we were there late last fall when that thing was at full growth it looked so extremely exotic that we guessed that very little of it could be over wintering.

We were only about half right.

We saw the artificial turf lawn.

That route leads to Como.
She did very well for a first time out this year (in Minnesota, we are not going to count, at least for now, the Flor-ida miles).  She got 15 round it off to 16, a very strong start.

The pace was not particularly punishing.

Our lilac bush is really pretty today. 
Today's bicycle maintenance content is the resetting of the clock function on GRider's bicycle computer.  As we neared home she inquired if it could really be 2:33?  Her clock function was showing 1:33 but she was pretty sure that it was past that time and assumed that her clock was on some sort of standard time daylight saving time mix up.  I also knew it was past 1:33 and briefly assumed 2:33.

But I did not believe the pace had been quite THAT leisurely.

I checked my computer for which I had recently recalibrated the clock function.

2:09.

So I fixed that after I got home.

Did I mention 72 at the Cattle Barn?

Monday, June 1, 2015

Random event

Most bicyclists have had the experience of running over a rock with the bicycle rear tire with the result being that the rock shoots off to the side.  This all occurs below and mostly behind you but every once in a while the rock hits something and you notice.  A mailbox post, a yard sale sign, something fairly close to the ground and fairly close to you.

Doesn't happen very often, but it does happen.

Today, for the second time that I can remember, I hit a car.

I feel kind of bad, I own a car myself and I am certain that I would think rocks shooting off the side of my car would be an unfortunate occurrence.

But it also feels kind of extraordinary.  I mean obviously completely by accident, I couldn't do that again if I tried (except that I just have).

A very random event.

I was riding past Merriam Park when I came upon this not for sale bicycle but fairly obviously like totally available for immediate acquisition by anyone interested.
Behind that guard rail is a no man's land of brush about 10 feet in width followed by the back side of a freeway noise barrier.  That bicycle may have been back there in the brush for a couple of winters at least.  You can see where the chain on the upper track is stiff with rust.

So is the lower track and the cogs are also completely rusted.

I ride past that spot sometimes in the fall when the leaves are gone and it doesn't strike me as unusual to find a stolen and abandoned bicycle over there.  I have seen frames near the noise barrier behind the brush before.

Two things about this one.  The tires are still holding some air.

And when we were in Vancouver in 2012 we rented bicycles probably not quite as nice as that one.  It is actually a fairly nice bike.

And on the whole bicycle for acquisition front I rode past the yard on Como Avenue where a fellow citizen more or less openly conducts a used bicycle lot.  He takes donations, he also does repairs, some of which never get picked up, he chains them to the tree in front of his house and sells them.

I wonder if he knows about that Giant at Merriam Park.

Anyway, today he has a Schwinn Traveler and a Trek 400 mountain bike for sale.
That Schwinn was actually a fairly nice bike in its day.  I am uncertain but I think that is Schwinn after the first bankruptcy but before the second that caused the brand to be diminished and totally shamed into its current status as one of the cheesiest of department store brands, available at Target.  At the moment that the Traveler was manufactured Schwinn was still a quite respected brand, the best or nearly the best American brand.  I should know, I owned a Schwinn at about that time.  Mine was a 2x5 ten speed, I think it cost less than $200.

This was all before bicycles got really light and before the sector of the American upper middle class willing to spend a king's ransom on a super light bicycle came into being.

At its moment that was a nice bike.

The Traveler is solidly built, so solidly built that I bet that bicycle weighs 30 pounds.  It looks to me like a 3x7 21 speed.

The Trek was also not a bad bike when it was new.  That's one of the very first suspension forks.

I don't want to quibble, that guy has been running that business there on the boulevard in front of his house for the last several years.  I presume he has priced those bicycles at somewhere near what his experience tells him the market will support.

As for me?

I think he has the relationship correct, the Trek is a nicer bike than the Schwinn.  But I think the prices are too high, too high by quite a bit.  I wouldn't pay more that $50 for the Trek and then only if I was going to use it to commute to work in the winter time with the intention to just throw the bike away in the spring.

I wouldn't have the Schwinn.

I became aware late in today's ride that there has not yet been any useful information posted here about this.
Corn, June 1.

Looks about ankle high, an absolute cinch for knee high by the 4th of July.