Piling up frequent visitor points

I had not been there even a single time this year until just last week but favorable conditions moved me down into the really big city and over to this place.

Visible on the footbridge over the creek just above the Falls is what for that venue is quite typical social distancing.

Well, it is outdoors but it doesn't feel safe to me down at that end of the gorge.

I have one other place on my list that I still may try to make it to later this week when the weather is predicted to be gorgeous (possibly allowing another ride or two this year in shorts).  I considered that today but to get there I would have to ride through part of the main campus of the University and my thinking about that has evolved to the point that I think that I should limit as much as possible my exposure to students.  It just doesn't feel safe.

The sun was out today making it a really nice Sunday in October.  The temperature was about 50 at the start but I do have the gear.  It is interesting as the end of the season approaches and I start to have discussions with myself about what my floor temperature for starting a ride is.  Often and in fact, this year, I imagine to myself that 50 is about as cool as I will attempt.  Then a day like today comes around and it is clear that I have several more degrees below that point where comfort is very possible.

It is mostly still pretty green in Minneapolis.  Lots of the yellows have come and lots of those leaves are down but most of the bright oranges and reds are not here yet.  I think it is really pretty right now.  I leaned my bicycle against a sign providing hours and conditions of allowable parking and sat on a nearby retaining wall for a mid-ride sit down and got this picture.

I was riding roughly along the River Road.  The shared pavement which surprisingly manages with two painted lines, one solid and one dashed, to serve quite well as both a pedestrian and a bicycle path is over there on the other side of where the cars are passing.  Where I was was on Edmund Boulevard just about even with the south property line fence of the Dowling School.

In case anyone wants to know.

On the way home rather than ride up the Pelham hill, I rode around it.  Obviously you cannot really avoid the change in elevation, you can only flatten the curve.  I did that and it ended up taking more miles to do than what I had expected.

But I remembered this tree in Saint Paul from years past and wanted to check the colors in the other big city.  That's Dayton and Wheeler, a really striking maple in front of a stately old cottonwood, both standing out from the cerulean blue sky of one really excellent day for a bike ride.

The extra miles involved in flattening that hill stretched the ride out to the distance that I have been riding of late.  I am still feeling the effects of the Vadnais ride of only two days ago and intended that today would be easier.  It's okay though, it felt great.