A very pleasant April day

Considering that yesterday was an ugly, ugly day for March, today was a huge improvement. Today was sunny and only about 10 degrees below average for this date. Yesterday failed to set a new record for lowest high temperature for that date by dint of a late afternoon break in the clouds which allowed the mercury to surge to 40, above the previous all time record of 38. An ugly day for March is indescribably ugly for May.

Last year I rode the same distance almost all of the time when I rode. By the end of the season I was extremely well trained for that particular distance but not very well trained at all for any other distance. This year I want to vary that pattern. My plan is a longer ride once a week, for now I am planning on Mondays.

The Monday of this week was unsuitable for bicycling so I tried for the long ride today. A complication of the failure of spring like weather to arrive is that street sweeping is, like the tulips blossoming, far behind schedule. My main portal to the northern lakes, Hamline Avenue, is still a sand and winter road debris covered mess. My work around for today led me to riding my normal route to Lake Vadnais in reverse. I arrived at the lake on the south shore instead of the much more usual descent from the north.That's the little knoll on the end of the southern peninsula which is the site of the parking lot and most human activities at the lake (most of the fishing). The western lobe of the lake is in the foreground.

I noticed today that the big white birds have mostly left Lake Owasso and indeed have returned to Lake Vadnais. They are shy birds though and the high water at Vadnais means that the shallow water available to these waders is all pretty close to the road. When a bicycle appears anywhere near them they leave right away. No pictures.

I did get this not very clear photo of the first parking lot vandalism of the year.I have been out there a few times this spring, enough to know that that glass is new. Oddly enough though, it looks like someone has tried to clean it up. Now THAT is something I have never seen before.

The long ride took me to the North Oaks loop. I correctly remembered the approximate mileage and remembered that there were some hills. I had forgotten just how many hills. The tour around Pleasant Lake is a very bumpy set of rollers. In the past I have ridden clockwise for the most part and that is the direction indicated by the route map. Today I rode counter-clockwise.

It was still bumpy. But I have had more than enough rest days of late and today I finished the ride still feeling pretty strong. I put the new largest number of the year into the log, today's milestone.