Lake Mead

Two days of rain and a dreary morning had us as late as 12:15 thinking that no ride was the order of the day.  But I had lunch, checked the radar one last time, went out the front door and stood on the driveway for a bit . . .

Pretty soon we were on our bicycles heading north.

Today was my first ride this year on this bicycle.  I have over 20,000 miles on FirstLOOK, I know that it fits.  I also have over 14,000 miles on the bicycle that I have ridden the most over the past five years.

So . . .

The fit is slightly different.  I felt slightly more upright today but I also noticed that I have a KOP (knee over pedal) position that is more in line with what is recommended.  I don't know for sure (and won't for at least a few hundred miles) exactly what this means but I do know that today we were (for us) fast.

We repeated the hybrid 8 lakes tour route that I rode for my last ride.  Three days later something has happened out there.  We have been riding to Lake Vadnais for several years and this is the first time we have seen this bit of lake bed.

The lake is very significantly down from ordinary water levels.  Usually the water beings right beyond the bushes.  A fairly important side effect is that it smells pretty bad.

Just a bicycle note here, an orange colorway in the tires that I am palping.

 I love this bicycle.  I cannot imagine from my current perspective any good reason for not having ridden it very much recently.

We were trying to leave the area when this very Lake Mead-like photo opportunity presented itself.

Checking the water marks on the side of that structure it looks to me to be fairly evident that Lake Vadnais is down about three feet from its ordinary high water mark.  It may not be quite time for the Lake Mead panic but on the other hand Lake Vadnais IS the source of water for the Saint Paul water works, the source of water for the water we drink.

I think Nevada and California have bigger problems than the problems we have.

In unrelated completely non-bicycle content, hockey returned to our lives today as the Gophers won an exhibition game against a non-NCAA team featuring 13 former Gophers.  A team with that many former Gophers should be expected to be a formidable opponent and they were.  Minnesota won by a score of 5-4.  And we had fun.