Mad dogs

That Tour de France thing looks like it will be a fun watch again. It took only until about the 20th minute of coverage for Phil to say something completely inane followed immediately by Paul blurting out almost exactly the same thing. These guys do not appear to be even slightly aware of what the other is saying.

Wiggins lived up to the hype, Radio Shack looks to be in full collapse mode and that Australian guy who won last year looks prepared to resume his role as plucky not quite good enough.

Vinokourov? Still? Really?

I managed to live through another ride today by once again heading out shortly after 9am. I stayed on my own side of the river today and rode down into the big city to the confluence overlook.

The river is quite high but what caught my attention today was Fort Snelling. The Fort is a project of the state historical society and the last time I visited they were going on at great length about the historically accurate reconstruction that the current fort represents. I guess maybe you can't really tell from this photo but the barracks building inside the fort over there looks for all the world to me like it has vinyl siding on it.

I lived through another ride but as I returned home I felt a bit physically ill, almost as if I had achieved the status of one of those two classes of beings that willingly go out in a mid day sun of the sort we are experiencing here daily. And I don't mean I became an Englishman.

Good time had at 2pm

It was 72 when we headed out at about 9:30 this morning but the dew point was already into the 60s. It was already just a tiny bit unpleasant outside. Still we thought that we could suck it up and get home before it got completely horrible.

We made good time on the outward leg. Not much has changed at beaver central.

We were regaled by a geezerette who filled us in on the role taken by her resident geezer who for a time had been sneaking over there every evening and opening up the dam. Eventually he tired of competition with the beavers.

Too many beavers, too many hours in the day.

By the time we reached Lake Vadnais it was HOT. And steamy. The GRider likes a stop there and we took one but she needed no encouragement to cut it short so that we could try to make it home.

I posted a photo on June 21 of the GRider posed with her bicycle in the corn field. The bicycle was irrelevant today as it wouldn't have been visible even if she had hauled down the corn row with her. It looks to me like that corn has grown nearly two feet in the last 8 days.

And as we know the portion of the growing season when the corn usually grows the fastest is the month of July, the time that I have dubbed the part of the year when you can HEAR the corn grow. If the corn does well in July the GRider is going to totally and completely disappear into that field.

At about 3 miles to go we were stopped at a stop light when the GRider commented that it had become hot. I estimated that the temperature had risen about 15 degrees in the time we had been out without any decrease in relative humidity. When we reached home we found that my guess was remarkably accurate.

Neither one of us felt particularly well, it was too hot to be riding. But by about 2pm we both felt OK and a good time was had (I think).

Voeckler is on the copy of the VeloNews Tour de France preview issue with his name on the cover and an inside article describing him as a dark horse contender. Apparently Schleck has a girl friend and has not improved his time trial ability. Some people think Evans can win again, some of the trendy thinkers are on Bradley Wiggins (I haven't heard either of them on this subject yet but I am willing to bet both Phil and Paul fall into that camp). Bradley has had a good spring, winning among others Paris-Nice and the Critérium du Dauphiné (previously known as the Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré). The weasel Contador will not be riding this year. The race starts tomorrow in Belgium. The July 4 stage passes through Dieppe before finishing in Rouen. We will be in both of the those cities later on next month so I am looking forward to that stage from a strictly tourist perspective. By noon tomorrow someone will be in yellow. Cancellara?

City parks

Today was too hot for bicycling. At least during the time in the middle of the day when I usually ride it was too hot.

WAY too hot.

I rode at 9:30 this morning. It was already 82 when I started. By the time I finished just before noon it was 90 with a dew point in the mid-60s. After that it got hot with a heat index reading of over 100.

Way too hot.

It was hot enough when I started to make me proceed with caution. I wanted to stay in the shade as much as possible and maybe not get too far from home. I found my way over to the river. As I rode I recalled yesterday's discovery that Minnehaha Falls was a bit under 11 miles from home. The river road is shady and was as cool as anywhere.

Today I ended up at the traditional viewing platform for the Falls.

I realized that there is a considerable difference in the morning crowd and the afternoon crowd. The afternoon crowd is dominated by tourists and adults. The morning crowd is quite heavily populated by groups who arrive on school buses.

Minnehaha Park is, quite obviously, a jewel of a city park, one of the quintessential public spaces of the Twin Cities.

That photo includes (or at least I intended to include) a public water source, picnic tables, a band shell, a protected public water (a creek) and lots of shade.

Nice park.

I realized that even though I have been to both of these parks dozens of times I do not recall any ride when I visited both of them on the same day.

The other jewel of the system, the Saint Paul answer to Minnehaha, Como Park.

This one includes a band shell and a protected public water (a lake). The pavilion over there (where the band shell is located) also features picnic facilities and a public water source.

Nice park.

I got home just barely in time. It was starting to feel hot but not nearly as hot as it felt later on when I had to visit the mail box. In fact, not nearly as hot as it still felt when I checked outdoors shortly before composing this post.

Way too hot.

Today's video is taken from the traditional viewing platform.

Very soothing, no?

New pavement

With all the rain and high water lately I decided today to see what the state of the local water falls is. It was a cloudy morning but it turned nice when I headed out into another southeast wind. I felt strong.

I selected a slightly different route to approach the Falls than the one I have followed most often of late. This brought me up to the Falls at the end of the gorge instead of at the park pavilion area. This is extremely high water for this time of the year.

In line with my new competencies, I decided to also shoot a video.

Soothing, no?

A lady with her friend from Texas in tow asked me if I lived nearby. I checked my bicycle odometer and informed her that I lived about 11 miles away.

I knew I was close to some pavement that I had never ridden on before and it seemed like with only 11 miles ridden to that point that I could go ahead and see how close this new pavement was. Even if I stretched a couple of miles I felt strong enough, it seemed like a good adventure.

I am fairly sure that the Crown Jewel was at the time this photo was taken one of the four or five nicest bicycles on the premises, certainly one of the top two or three steel bicycles.

There are never enough pictures of orange flowers. I believe we have identified the orange as tiger lilies, I am unsure of the yellow.

Closed circuit to TCWUTH, it turned out that it was not a stretch, the ride was accomplished within the parameters of the "usual" ride. This means that TOPWLH is going to want to attempt this ride soon.

Forewarned is forearmed.

Petition

You can't really stretch when foremost on the agenda seems to be just trying to get back to a fitness level that allows the "usual" two hour ride.

No stretch today.

Instead I had a Guest Rider. We pretty much skipped the lakes today although even she would admit that we did see two. It's pretty hard to go anywhere in this town without riding past a lake or two.

Instead we took the opportunity to check on light rail construction and to peaceably assemble to petition our government.

That's one of our first amendment rights. It appears that today we weren't the only ones exercising that right although if the truth is told that gaggle of other citizens higher up on the stairs looked to be more likely a tour group.

We paused before leaving that part of town to get a photo from below the hill of the Cathedral which today was standing against an outstanding blue sky.

The wind today was almost dead out of the southeast. You can see it whipping the flag behind the GRider in this photo.

She had mentioned a couple of times in the 8 and a half miles ridden up to this point that there was more wind then she expected. We had been riding east mostly, with some southeast and a dash or two of south.

At the point where that photo was taken (across from the University Club at the top of Ramsey Hill) we turned to travel west on Summit.

At the end of Summit we turned and off through the neighborhood along the River Road, traveling north towards the place where we live.

Southeast wind, last 14 miles ridden almost entirely west and north.

It was a beautiful day for a bicycle ride.

Old cars in town

The old cars are in town this weekend.

Maybe its just me but it sure feels like there is less hullabaloo this time around.

It is probably related to the fact that owning and celebrating an old car is a celebration of disposable income. And I guess we all know what the recent trends in disposable income are for most of the population.

I saw far fewer cars and many of the cars featured signs advertising that they were for sale.

So it goes.

Meanwhile at least one car is leaving town with less window glass than it arrived with.

It has been a long time coming, it seems to me, but the first instance of car break in has occurred at the lower Sucker Lake parking lot.

It was a pretty nice day.

This is HARD

Anyone who may have followed yesterday's link to the photos of Duluth flooding would probably be interested in another set of photos at the same site. TOPWLH alerted me to the other photos. Anyone who has ever been to Gooseberry Falls is going to get a slightly different viewpoint of the falls.

Today was my first back to back in 10 days and only my fifth full ride in the last two weeks. The prevailing wisdom is that fitness is fleeting, that in a break in training I can expect to lose one half of my fitness in about two weeks.

Verdict?

I am absolutely SHOT. I am clearly not trained for riding hard two days in a row.

Oh, well, I suppose I will just have to try to build it again.

I am very, very pleased to report that the actual paving portion of the repavement project on Hamline Avenue is completed. This is excellent news, I ride there a lot. In fact yesterday the Guest Rider and I had a harrowing path through the very end of the paving. We passed through as the last bit of the work was being done. The project had people in bright chartreuse vests directing traffic at the three intersections we had to clear before being out of danger. All three of these apparently not trained even the slightest bit individuals acted as though we did not even exist. One looked at us not at all, one looked right at me but declined to give any sort of signal about what my actions should be (I was traffic, right? I was expecting to be directed, OK?) The third was the worst, she looked at us and signaled for a line of cars to go ahead and turn into our path.

My usual practice when riding in traffic is to take the steps which in my opinion make me the safest that I can be. That sometimes means particularly when as in this case where exactly the lanes are is ambiguous that I take the lane. I ride out there in the middle. So yesterday the people in the cars saw us and yielded right of way appropriately despite the inattention of PEOPLE BEING PAID TO DIRECT TRAFFIC.

Speaking of road construction there is a lot of that going on and some of the other work means that I am constantly having to rearrange the usual routes. Today I rode a route past Island Lake that I used to ride but haven't really been on for at least a couple of years. I discovered that the bike path/multi-use trail through that park is under construction. I am pretty sure that you can go to the city website and find that pavement listed as a bike path. I am amused that when it goes under construction is when what they really think is revealed.

And, yup, that's OK with me, I think of them as sidewalks anyway.

Does anyone know what a beaver sounds like? It sure sounded to me like there was a lot of talking going on while I was out there today.

The beavers regain the lead yet again.

Good day to be not in Duluth

Very unusual happenings up there next to the big lake.

There's enough water up there right now to probably even overwhelm a beaver dam. Down here it appears that other means are succeeding. The beavers just are not getting any repair work done.

The likely reason for this is, obviously, there has been a reduction in the beaver population.

It was a very pretty day here, a nice day for a bicycle ride. The atmosphere wasn't very soulful at Lake Vadnais (more other users than usual) but it was still nice enough for a stop.

We also got a photo of the corn. For the first time ever, bicycle for scale.

The mileage total for June is going to be disappointing. There has been just too many days when bicycling didn't seem like a good idea. Today was not one of those days.

Dodging the rain drops

Even though it is relentlessly summer the run of weather we have experienced recently has been tough on this bicycle enthusiast.  Too much rain at completely the wrong time of day a couple of times, just too hot and steamy a couple of times, relentlessly summer but not good bicycling weather.

Yesterday TOPWLH was enthusiastically promoting the idea of an outing.  The local newspapers and TV outlets (and the generally same sources when viewed on the inter tubes) promised warm and mostly sunny for the day time hours followed by the likelihood of developing thunder boomers as night approached.  We don't generally ride as night approaches so an outing seemed completely reasonable.

I checked the current radar, however, and could not help but notice a large mass of greens and dark greens just off to our west and moving in our direction.  Who knows?  Maybe it will divide along that center line and blow past on both sides of us.

I agreed to the idea of a ride but said to myself, "Self, we are okay as long as the sun stays out."  It did, in fact, seem like a pretty nice middle of the day.

Within about a half hour of starting out the sun had disappeared.  Wind conditions had indicated a Stone Arch Bridge ride but when we reached the point of no return I cut the whole thing off.  When she pretty quickly figured out that we were on the way BACK towards where we live she inquired if perhaps we were "just riding around", she even called it JRA.  Indeed we were, I asked her if she wanted to be 10 miles from home when it started to rain.  She gave the correct answer, "no" and I didn't want to be there either.

I still thought we might get some miles on a loop closer to home but a little over two miles from home she announced that she was feeling some bits of moisture.  Within about six pedal strokes I felt it too.

Wetness in the air is highly motivating and we made excellent time home from two miles out.  With about a mile to go (Snelling and Roselawn) the mostly misty droplets began to gather some heft.  Still, we made it into the driveway and under the overhang of the garage before what could properly be called rain began.  The driveway was dry as I punched in the code to open the garage door but when I turned away from the opening door to look the precipitation was beginning to form tiny wet spots as the droplets encountered concrete.

We in the bicycle community call that really good timing.  Really fortuitous timing.

So we did get in at least a little riding finishing with just under *cough* *cough* 14 miles.  She got her total rounded up, I got left with a little more work to do today.

Today was a tiny bit too warm and a tiny bit too steamy, we had to utilize the air conditioning. The ride was just fine as long as I was moving but when I got home and lost the bicyclist's advantage of evaporative cooling I burst, positively burst, into profuse perspiration.

Lots of sweat is fun once in a while but it does create various inconveniences.

Like you can't sit on any of your furniture, just for example.

But eventually I cooled off.

The ride itself featured a trip out to the beaver dam. I admit it, I am overly intrigued by the goings on out there.

Today the larger brained species has turned the corner and the battle will soon enough be over. We will win.

Yet another opening has been created in the beaver construction.

The devil is in the details, as usual. Look closely.

Sometimes the larger brained species just has to advance ourselves beyond the basic lizard in us all and actually use our brains.

Watch out beavers, it is a trap.

I have been avoiding riding on my favorite north south route, Hamline Avenue due to construction. Having to avoid Hamline just creates entirely too much disruption in my normal routine, I am vexed.

For example, today my ride to Lake Vadnais involved pretty much riding the route in reverse. I therefore ended up at the end of the ride on what is usually the beginning of my route, Hamline Avenue.

GOOD NEWS!!!!

I was able to determine that what the construction project is about is new pavement, might I add, badly need new pavement, between County Roads B and C. I approached the construction zone today riding up to County Road C from the north.

GOOD NEWS!!

Note, only two exclamation marks this time.

There is brand new pavement on Hamline from the corner of County Road C extending towards the south. The paint stripes have not yet been put back but the pavement is down.

Why only two, you ask?

Here is the view from just south of County Road B2.

Doesn't look done does it?

Perhaps you can see that over there across the intersection and halfway up the hill there is new pavement. Probably you can see that right it front of me it is still that ground down to old pavement mess that is the half way mark of new pavement projects.

I had to ride on the sidewalk.

I hasten to add that the sidewalk I had to ride on was not by even the most wild stretch of the imagination a sort of bike path multi-use trail.

It was a sidewalk.

Species with larger brain reverts to planning mode

While clearly the beavers are still in action mode.

I paused at the dam site long enough to discover that this bit of wildlife habitat is a veritable geezer magnet.  Bob bent my ear for over a half hour including discussions of the beavers, turkey hunting in southeastern Minnesota, a Ford tractor collector, new uniforms for the Rushford High School wrestling team, topography of the wetland (there is an island out there), mink in the area, turtles in the area, a black squirrel on a nearby tree branch (which we both agreed was a rarity), white tails in the area, white tails in the State generally, deer sheds and collectible cars.

Hey, it was plenty OK with me.  If I hadn't been having fun I had a perfectly good bicycle with which I could easily have escaped if I had felt burdened.  Bob had a bunch of interesting stories to tell and as is true with me, he had no where to go and all day to get there.

It was a geezer magnet as during the course of Bob's discourse 2 other gentlemen geezers and a geezer couple paused at least briefly to partake of part of the lecture.

Hey, I had a bicycle, I wasn't going anywhere except home to watch Russia 1:1 Poland on tape.

I had to wear a jacket today!

In addition to wetland wildlife I am pleased to report the return of both the blue and the white herons to Lake Vadnais.  I was lucky enough to get a photo of the great blue perched near to the shore.

Oh, oops.  I guess I didn't get that thing snapped in time to catch the big graceful bird before he tired of my photography attempts.

Even so, it was a pretty day out there and there were ducks.

About a mile earlier in the ride I listened to Bob and one of the short term geezers discussing whether or not there were any hen mallards and mallards chicks in the area.  Bob said that he hadn't seen any yet this year.

Both hens and a brood of chicks are visible in beautiful Lake Vadnais.

No stretch today

The extreme heat blew past . . . literally. It blew past. Today was seasonably cool but the wind howled. It was not a good day for a stretch.

Still we got in a pretty nice ride. West was a problem but once again creative use of downhills provided us with a route that had only a couple of really ugly bits. We also had a couple of uphills where speaking here only for myself, I felt quite strong.

The other problem today was that despite lots and lots of visible blue we seemed to be riding always under one of the clouds. Here is one of the moments when a bit of sun appeared.

Guest Rider for scale. The corn looks good.

France 1:1 England.

The English seemed a bit tame. They played without Rooney (suspended), Lampard (injured) and Ferdinand (don't know). The English were mostly passive and allowed France to have most of the ball possession, playing for all the world like Italy looking for a draw. France featured three exciting attackers (Ribéry, Benzema and Nasri). It remains to be seen how well the side will hold up when the opposition applies pressure.

One interesting aspect of the game was that no one who plays his club football for Manchester City had ever previously scored in the European Championship. Both goals today were scored by Man City footballers, Joleon Lescott for England and Samir Nasri for France. Nasri's game tying goal was double Man City as he scored against England and Man City keeper Joe Hart.

The first round is complete and except for missing most of Croatia v. Ireland yesterday because of a power outage I have seen almost all of the action.

Group A: I expect Russia and Poland to advance.

Group B: Netherlands is still a contender but must next play Germany, a failure to win will be doom for the Orange. I still expect to see Germany and Netherlands advance but Germany and the winner of Denmark v. Portugal is the most likely if Netherlands cannot get the victory against Deutschland. My favorite TV line so far is the game announcer saying that the Netherlands is so flat that you can watch your dog run away . . . for five miles.

Group C: Spain and Italy

Group D: England seems suspect. The most compelling result so far is the 2 goal effort by 35 year old Ukrainian striker Andriy Shevchenko to propel the second host team past Sweden. France next plays Ukraine and I suspect that Ukraine needs to repeat today's result to be in position to advance. The final group round game for the Ukrainians will be against an English side welcoming Rooney back from suspension. This group is still completely up for grabs with probably only Sweden facing impossible odds. Ukraine and France.

The network of the Olympics today dealt another blow of disrespect to tennis, choosing to air the continuation of the men's finals on an obscure cable outlet making it unavailable live to many of the people who probably wanted to watch. I have seen tennis the past two weeks on The Tennis Channel (the most and the best coverage), ESPN2 and NBC. Today at the appointed hour I checked all three of those outlets and could not find the tennis. It was on NBC Sports (the former Versus and OLN). They took the very historic final and put it someplace where most of us couldn't find it.

Today's sports talker

Can Denmark emerge from the Group of Death?

Netherlands 0:1 Denmark
Germany 1:0 Portugal

Tomorrow the always interesting Spain v. Italy followed by Ireland v. Croatia.

So when does France play?

I have watched lots of the doings from Roland Garros the past nearly two weeks. My favorite moments are always whenever the coverage pauses briefly at Court 2 (fellow travelers will know what I mean and why). I have greatly enjoyed the coverage on the Tennis Channel and have also found the ESPN2 coverage to be completely adequate. With the arrival of the semi-finals and an expected spike in viewership the matches have moved to NBC, the network of the Olympics. Well . . .

Here's what to expect from coverage from London this summer. I know about the, for me, 7 hour time difference. So I know that I have to watch in the morning. Today there was no coverage on either the Tennis Channel or ESPN. I checked on line and discovered that there was a rain delay. OK.

At 11am the event came on NBC. The NBC coverage featured a bug in the corner identifying that this was live coverage. By live, of course, the network of the Olympics means "plausibly" live. The NBC coverage picked up at 2-2 in the first set. I knew from the earlier on-line check that the rain delay had come at 4-3 of the SECOND SET. So it was live only if you were a big enough idiot to believe those bloodsuckers at NBC.

Shameful.

Disgusting.

I clicked over to ESPN again and tuned in the opening ceremonies and the first game of Euro 2012. Actually live from Warsaw.

See the deal is that football fans actually care about the game and would not under any circumstances tolerate a delayed broadcast masquerading as "live".

Shameful, disgusting, oh, never mind.

Poland 1:1 10 man Greece
Russia 4:1 Czech Republic

France is in Group D and will open the tournament against England in the early game on Monday.

Yikes!! The English!!

There was precipitation about in the radar view of the immediate area so I headed out thinking I might be just riding around. But actually the sun came out a few times and mostly it was pretty nice, if a trifle warm. I ended up, quite by accident, riding over to the Stone Arch Bridge. The video today involves NO rock and roll but it is quite musical, I think.

The Falls of Saint Anthony:

The falls provide additional evidence of the very wet spring as an enormous amount of water is still pouring over the concrete apron.

There are probably some lessons there somewhere for the beavers.

I placed the camera on the railing of the bridge to take the video. That's why the picture remains so steady throughout. I didn't notice until later that a secondary result was that I included part of the railing in the video.

I am not offended, particularly, this is pretty insignificant compared to my usual level of user error. But I also have the photograph and except for the charming roar of the water available in the video, the photo is probably a slightly better reflection of today on the Stone Arch Bridge.

Closed circuit to travelers: The Empire Builder crossed that span back when it was still a railroad bridge.

Beaver spotting

I am not enamored of the new blogger. It has betrayed me again.

These things are all really just my fault, both big booboos have been primarily user error.

But it does seem to me that the interface could be just a trifle more forgiving. Click the wrong button and YOUR ENTIRE POST DISAPPEARS? With no avenue whatsoever for recovery?

OK, so it's gone. But why can't I go back to some master list and recover it? Just because I am editing the text why does that mean that the previous version NO LONGER EXISTS? Are you kidding me? You can revert to previous versions in every word processing program even the lamentably bug ridden Microsoft Word. Why is the original just completely gone?

Nothing further on this for now.

OK, I can't leave it alone.

Regular users of blogger will know that in the new interface there are two different photo posting processes. If you upload a photo before you enter any text you get one process. This one aligns the photo "center" as specified in blogger preferences. It also uploads a photo size of 240x320 pixels. The standard size for photos that I have been posting for, what, FIVE YEARS? has been 300x400.

If you put in some text and then "insert" a photo it uploads 300x400 but aligns at the left margin.

I have worked out how to deal with both of these problems (hint: edit HTML) but why do I have to be the one responsible for making new blogger do what old blogger did automatically.

New blogger is buggy, it sux.

I had a Guest Rider today as we rode out to check on the beavers.

The water level seems to have gone down just a tad but when we were at the dam the beaver work crew had been present for a considerable amount of work since the last appearance by the human work crew. There is very little water flowing through that dam.

Here is the Guest Rider at Lake Vadnais.

I have edited all of the HTML and the photos should be 300x400 and aligned center. I CAN do it, I AM doing it. I am tiring of having to go through the hassle.

Is anyone at blogger central listening?

Today's (actually yesterday's) milestone: 1,000 miles this bicycle, this year.

One last thing, I was recently reminded of George Harrison's comment upon being asked if he thought there would soon be a Beatles reunion. He said, "I do not believe there will be a Beatles reunion as long as John Lennon remains dead."

And of course George himself is now gone. I love this performance.

George leaves the stage at the 3:30 mark leaving the likes of Eric Clapton, Ringo Starr and Leon Russell to finish up.

Aack!!!

The street next to mine has been oiled and graveled.  This leads to oil and gravel on the tires.  I am not happy.

I ride lots on Hamline usually but probably not for the next several weeks.

The humans are gaining ground but the beavers are still not giving up.

A video of a day at the beaver dam.

Warning: Do not attempt to edit a published post by messing with the picture alignment.

Bad things can happen.

Humans show resolve

I ended last month 60 miles behind the pace set last year. I have ridden all four days so far this month probably hoping to get back to close to even with last years pace. The problem with trying to gain on last year's pace at this time of year is that EVERY year in June I ride lots. After yesterday, for example, I was STILL 60 miles behind the pace set last year.

But today is Monday and under the new plan Monday is stretch day. Today's stretch involved a ride out to and into North Oaks.

Considering wisdom offered elsewhere on the internet I intended to make today just a simple two rides of 18 miles each. I had pretty much the same result. It turns out that North Oaks is, like, really hilly. It is a scenic road but it goes around a lake in a manner probably preferred by the robber baron who was the first European descendant to claim ownership of that property out there (James J. Hill for those who don't want to have to look it up). He used the land as a retreat from the city, as an experimental farm and as a hunting lodge. Most likely if you were in his position you wouldn't want to do the enormous amount of engineering typical of modern road building to create a nice flat street circling the main lake. Instead you would have a nice country lane going mostly up and down. In fact, pretty much always up and down. North Oaks is hilly.

I completed the first 18 mile ride at about this point. That's a picnic shelter in the woods, a pretty nice spot.

The problem for me is that the person who rides out there regularly with me and probably others will recognize that the picnic shelter is at the top end of Sucker Lake, the usual turn around spot of the 8 lake tour.

Did I mention that North Oaks is hilly? I know I didn't mention that today for the first time on a bicycle this year it felt HOT.

I made it home without having to call for assistance but I did come up a few miles short of 18 miles on that second ride of the day. I got another 14 and that was PLENTY. I am now 54 miles behind the pace set last year.

*sigh*

I was out there on the north end and all rides to the north end pass through this area. The humans are not giving up any more easily than the beavers. Today the work crew had returned and this time was taking a much more aggressive bite out of the beaver dam.

I chatted with the work crew again. The truck driver recognized me from last week and we had a long strategy session about the task ahead of them. Again he and I both agreed that this is a really good task. He is getting paid to be out there in the woods on a beautiful day with heavy equipment doing the hard part of the job.

I gave him what information I had about beavers (they are nocturnal, there is most likely more than a single pair of beavers out there in the vast beaver pond created by this dam, and that they will be back tonight for another session of dam building).

The struggle continues. It is good to see human persevering but I really MUST get out there tomorrow and see what the beaver response is.

Looked like rain, felt like rain

Even the radar looked like rain but you can't ride lots unless you sometimes set out to ride into threatening conditions.

Today is the first Sunday in June, the traditional date for Grand Old Days.  That crowd is most definitely not bicycle friendly so I intended to stay at least a couple of miles away at all times.  I did expect though, that most of the folks out for a little Sunday recreational stroll would be over on Grand Avenue.

So I was pretty surprised to discover an extremely large crowd at the Fairgrounds.  It seemed to me to rival even the really large horse show event crowds, certainly parking was crazier.  I thought it was the largest crowd I have ever seen over there other than the Fair itself and also excluding rent a fence events.

It turns out that it may have looked like rain and felt like rain but what it actually was was cheese. It was the Minnesota Cheese Festival.

I note from the website that they not only had cheese, they had wine and cheese AND beer and cheese. I have felt for several years now that one of the primary attractions of Grand Old Days is that it is an opportunity for public drunkenness. It appears that an opportunity to get a bit tipsy was also part of the attraction at the cheese deal.

But it was early when I was there, actually everyone seemed pretty orderly.

Tickets, you had to buy tickets to get into a cheese festival!

The sun came out in about the last mile or so of the ride. In conditions like that I ride nearby routes, trying to keep within a half hour sprint or so of home, just in case it does rain. Well withing a half hour sprint of home are these big pieces of metal.

That's a seldom photographed angle as I have to cyclocross a bit on a road bike to get into position for that. But that white flowering tree called out to be included in the picture so cyclocross I did.

I wonder what's up with the beavers.

Beavers reassert control

I really did suspect that this was a possibility but I didn't expect it quite this soon.

Yesterday I reported on the partial removal of a beaver dam out at Sucker Lake park. It appears that about as soon as the work crew departed the permanent residents out there noticed that something was amiss. Since then they have been busy as, well, busy as beavers.

We rode the shortest possible straight line out to Highway 96 and circled back through Lake Vadnais. This is only her third ride of the season but she tolerated 20 miles OK on her last outing. I have done the research and I was pretty sure I could get the full tour completed in around 20 miles.

She carried on a bit about "stretching" on the way home so we took the usual Snelling crossing loop. This adds a mile and a half or so but allows for the most relaxed crossing (when you hit traffic just right) of that major thoroughfare.

It was a very pleasant day for a ride, sunny and low 70s with a breeze that did not punish too severely.

Beavers lose

There was another bicycle fatality here last evening at about 10pm. Wireless alerted me to it when she saw it reported on the intertubes as she thought it might be in a spot where I frequently ride. Indeed the accident occurred just east of the intersection of Hodgson and Highway 96 in the east bound lane of 96. I ride through that intersection all the time, it is part of the Vadnais route although for me I am usually east bound on 96 but then turn south on Hodgson. Still I wanted to go out and take a look. I just feel that if I can look at where these things happen and understand how it happened it will make me more safe. So I rode out to Lake Vadnais again today.

This led me back through the Snail Lake regional swamp, er, park. I pictured this beaver dam once before.

Today I discovered that the beavers have lost. The water utility had heavy machinery, a couple of trucks and four men out there. I chatted with the fellow leaning on the shovel.  We agreed that beavers are pests and that at the stage in the process that they had reached he had a wonderful day on which to watch water flow.

There's still plenty of water to flow, by the way.  He pointed out that the water directly in front of where he is standing is still about four feet deep.  And we also both recognized that the beavers will not give up easily.  He thought that a trapper had been arranged for.

Even that process could be problematic as it seems likely that there is an entire colony of beavers out there.  This could take a while.

Today's daily photo blog monthly theme day is tranquility.  Here is a spot on the north end of Sucker Lake where the creek flows into the lake.

Park bench for added tranquility.

And because I was there and because I don't like any trip out there to go undocumented, here is Lake Vadnais on June 1.

Summer is making a comeback as temperatures were at or very close to 70 allowing me to remove a complete layer of gear including off my legs.