Walk in fishing only

OOTNDITHOD. Extraordinary.

I really didn't get much of a look at what was happening at the lake at Lake Vadnais yesterday. The park was closed at the top end of the park. I mean, the road construction is interesting in and of itself I suppose but what I was able to get to yesterday is about a quarter mile from the actual lake.

In order to actually see the lake today my plan was to ride the usual ride in reverse and thereby arrive at the south end of the lake.

You don't really see things if you only look at them as you pass in one direction.  This is a view I would usually never really consider for a photo.  It is at the top of the hill (you know, usually slightly knackered) on the usual departure from the lake.

I think the photo shows nicely that it is a double lake.  Well actually it is a single lake with two lobes and road that was CONSTRUCTED a long time ago for the usual reason, human convenience, by filling a short gap between the peninsula extending down from the north and the separated by only a small gap south shore of the lake.  I know this, I used to work at a place where I had very easy access to the original government surveys.  I have seen the survey of what a government crew saw out there when they took that survey way before anyone thought it convenient to just go ahead and pour some dirt into the lake to make a road.  Boy, you couldn't do that now.

Anyway, long digression there, the photo also shows, if you look closely the presence of some construction equipment out there on the narrow (now) isthmus where the road used to exist.

The road exists no more.  It is totally gone.

And that's about an eighth of a mile or so from what used to be the parking lot where the most in number and in frequency users of the lake used to congregate to fish.  There is, at present, at it appears to me, in the future, walk in fishing only at Lake Vadnais.

Have I mentioned, actually I know I haven't, that the GRider and I were present out there a couple of weekends ago when one of those anglers reeled in an in excess of 5 pound bass?

A 5 pound bass is a REALLY large bass, especially for Minnesota.  People will still be walking in, probably just not as many.  I believe we can  count on the 5 pound bass guy and his fishing buddies to be walking in fairly regularly.

I obviously couldn't get through the park from the south any more than I could get through from the north so today I circumnavigated by heading out and riding around the east side of the lake.  It extends the ride by a couple of miles but I quickly discovered, probably actually re-discovered, why I don't do that more often.

It is HILLY out there.

Tres hilly.

But I have ridden there before and I am quite pleased to report that even though it has been a couple of years at least since the last time that I missed not a single turn, always recognizing the correct street and never having to ride somewhere I didn't plan to ride.

I am also pleased to report new or at least relatively new pavement on Koehler Road, one of the key elements of the Vadnais circumnavigation.  That old cracked pavement was always a problem in the past.

The reverse route also meant that I rode through Grass Lake in the opposite direction from what is almost always the case.

Did I mention it was a nice day?  Grass Lake looked, I thought, quite grassy and pretty from a viewpoint at what today was the exit from the lake instead of the usual entrance.

So on the way home I was hailed by a nice middle aged lady who rode me down from behind on a comfort bike.

*sigh*

Who knows how far she was riding, I was nearing 25 miles, further I had crossed into the center turn lane on Hamline to negotiate a left turn so I was going slowly when she came salmoning up the left shoulder and pulled alongside at Saint Rose of Lima.

*sigh*

She wanted to ask about my Rabobank jersey.  Her husband is Dutch and they bank at Rabobank when they are in Holland (the country).

She was a lady on a comfort bike and nice enough if slightly out of breath, she was also not wearing a helmet so I didn't point out that I was not only wearing a Rabobank jersey, I have the matching Rabobank helmet.

Who knows, she might not have been impressed but TOPWLH (aka Ms Matchamatic) is like, WAY impressed by my wardrobe selection.

Two things there, most will notice that there is about to be construction not only at Lake Vadnais but also quite near to where I live.

Almost no one will notice that I have had to go back to my old gloves.  They are yellow Specialized, I have like 4 pairs of them and for many years wore them exclusively.  I have been wearing red Castelli gloves for last couple of years.

I originally adopted the Specialized gloves because they promised to remedy the "bicycle palsy" hand numbness that I was experiencing way back then by providing an appropriate pad on the heel of the glove to protect the ulnar nerve.  I had not had any recurrence of the numbness for a long time but a couple of times recently I have had to shake my hand to restore feeling.

Today I decided that it would be much easier to find the old gloves.  I have like 4 pairs of them.