Dirt report

Stopping by the beaver dam has become an important part of my northern rides.  I realize that most have probably reached the boredom threshhold with the doings out there.  I am not bored yet and I like riding there because it is an excuse to stop at a really pretty spot, a spot that is also usually shady and cool.

Well, the road workings out there have me a little hesitant to ride on the usual main streets.  Today I settled on a different idea.  A couple of times a year I cyclo-cross my road bike through the dirt path and Grass Lake park.  It isn't a good idea to do this if it has rained recently because dirt paths can produce lots of unpleasantness for a skinny tired road bike, particularly if muddy.

I decided that yesterday's very brief shower wasn't a hindrance and, voila, a plan had formed.

I deviate from the usual path at the Shoreview water tower and head down toward the pedestrian/path bridge over the freeway.  Everything there seemed in good order so I plunged down off the bridge into the woods next to the lake.  I was riding the brakes, preparing for the necessary loss of speed and downshift that always accompany a ride in the dirt.

No dirt.

The path has been paved.

So today's ride is at least in part another new pavement report.

Some years Grass Lake is more grass than lake.  This year there is quite a bit of lake.

So I rode out to the full northern route.  There is nothing new to report at the beaver dam.  Even I couldn't summon motivation to take yet another picture that looks pretty much exactly like several others only with a slightly different water flow.

I did find Vadnais to be pretty interesting, that is a very unusual occurrence, particularly in the main fishing months.  There was not a single car in the main parking lot, nobody fishing at the usual fishing hot spot.

I think the picture does illustrate that it was a pretty day yet again.

By the time I got home it was getting hot.