Ambition

 It happened again here today.  After 82 unexpectedly appeared on Tuesday temperatures have plummeted to around 20 degrees cooler than average for this date.  As I neared home I rode past the insurance agency time and temperature display to find 57.  No one likes that big a variation between rides, it upsets your equilibrium.

But at this time of year once the cool weather gear comes out of storage it is standing by ready for use on every ride until the final ride of the season.  Looking at my bike log, last year the first time it snowed was October 12.  Snow came to stay on October 27.  Both of those dates are very early historically.  In any case we have reached a point where the end of the season is starting to come into view.  There should be at least six more weeks but probably not much beyond that.

I wanted to test my limits a bit today so I headed towards Island Lake and possibly points north.  This is an area where I used to go all the time but where I had not been this year.

Sometimes when you don't go somewhere for a while you discover that gremlins have been messing around in your absence.  There is a very ambitious park improvement project going on in Shoreview.

You turn off Lexington onto a path, ride through some woods with wetlands on either side of the path and then up a hill.  When last I was there all of this was just brush intermixed with some long grass, mostly brush.  The brush has been grubbed out and the county appears intent on planting one of those gardens of the types of grasses that were abundant here before widespread Euro settlement.

My opinion is that anything involving changing out what was there previously is likely to be an improvement and this particular project is quite likely to be a very significant upgrade.  I am going to have to ride out there again from time to time to check on the progress.

Here is where I took my sit down.

I sat on one of those landscape blocks.

That is a commercial orchard on Victoria Street.  Even when I ride that far north I don't make it to this orchard very often.  My usual route out there turns about a half mile before this and heads off to the east in search of Lake Vadnais.  That is starting to shape up as a goal for what remains of this season but not for today.

Visible on the ground next to NewLOOK is clear evidence of where we are in the season.  I wore full fingered (but very light weight) gloves over my biking gloves today.  It was plenty nice enough when the sun was out but at the half way point in my ride that had not happened yet.