Thursday, September 27, 2012

Just another beautiful day

Very, very nice day.

The wind that has been a bit troublesome of late disappeared overnight and we were treated to another cloudless sky, this time with calm or very light breezes.

Pretty darn nice for a bicycle ride.

Whatever wind there was going to be was predicted to rise later in the day and be from the southeast. I rode proactively windwise and headed down into the big city.

I warned that there would be lots of these. Here is another contrast, the two trees probably not of the same species but very similar in branch structure and leaf shape, and quite obviously displaying different phases of the color change.
Those two are down on the River Road in front of the Ford Plant.

I rode all the way down to the confluence and for a change carried my bicycle down the steps, rode across the bridge, carried my bicycle back up the steps and descended the path into the State Park.

I haven't photographed the historic fort very much over the years. Most times I have been there I had a bad sun angle. Today's angle was good, here is the historic round tower and the top of the bluff side of the reconstructed fort.
The path down into the park took me past the corner tower and the wall along the Minnesota River side of the fort.
Anyone who has followed my travel blogs knows that I like old stuff. This fort isn't old by European standards but it is pretty old for around here.

I like it.

I rode along the path beneath the bluff leading back towards Minneapolis. There is something major going on down there, I came upon an area featuring extensive de-brushing.
That's still within the boundaries of the State Park, I know that there is a historic spring along there somewhere of cultural significance to native people and of historic significance to the arrival of Europeans in Minnesota. I wonder if that is what is going on over there. If I still had a job I would just ask the Parks real estate specialist who made regular frequent stops in front of my desk what was going on. Instead I am probably going to have to find out from the internet.

The ride back from where I was leads past the Falls. The last time I was there the Creek had completely stopped flowing, not a single drop over the edge. Today there was a trickle. You have to look carefully but if you do you can probably make out the very thin stream.
I am starting to think that there is a possibility I could get in a short ride, perhaps an hour or so, before the Saturday hockey early start. Then on Sunday I could extend and try to ride one of my longer (but not longest) rides of the month and maybe, just maybe get somewhere interesting.

3 comments:

Retired Professor said...

Love the photos of the old fort.

You may be in danger of chasing numbers for the sake of chasing numbers, here. Though I suspect you know that, and I've done far stranger things than taking a short ride when a long one isn't possible, in pursuit of a goal. The numbers help to keep it interesting.

Good luck. And keep us informed.

TOPWLH said...

That's a really pretty picture of the falls, trickle or no trickle. I hope to get a ride in this weekend also. Going to work has been hard during this beautiful weather period.

Jimi said...

All that work north of Fort Snelling is Coldwater Springs, where the Native American sacred areas are. It was where those protests over highway 55 highway work took place a few years ago.

I like those old buildings, too. I'm happy that the state has seen fit to preserve them and in some cases restore them to their original state. Dred Scott spent quite a bit of his life living at Fort Snelling before the famous slavery case that bears his name.