In Which the Hawk Soars and I Fall

Looking east on Blair's Ferry. I did not ride that way, but much of the C Avenue sidewalk I rode on looked like this. Hooray for a mountain bike! My front tyre (below) on a city street near the MMU campus.

For once this week, on an icy Saturday morning, I decided to ride to work. Feb. 2 was Scholarship Day at Mount Mercy University, and I had volunteered to help with interviews.

I was to be in the U Center by 10 a.m. and left home at 9:10. Because the ride is half an hour, usually, I thought I had plenty of time. I was wrong.

It was grey and cool—but warm to an Iowan who has survived the Polar Vortex. A melt was expected today, and the snow was slushy in spots, but in the morning, the melt was just starting.

There was still lots of snow and ice—and CR Biker was riding carefully and slowly. I arrived on campus without incident, about 5 minutes before 10. There, I put the Fancy Beast mountain bike to the side in the entrance of the U Center—I doubted I would find a shoveled bike rack.

And I don’t blame anybody for that. The best road of the ride was the drive up the hill at MMU—the university’s facilities crew has been heroic in their snow removal efforts this week.

I conducted interviews with an alumna, and I enjoyed them very much. It seemed like a good group of incoming students. Then, I enjoyed lunch. It was about 1 by the time I got ready to leave campus.

First robin of spring? Dinosaur seen on my way to Cedar Lake--it was one of a group of male robins hanging out there.

Some of the streets had been covered in snow on my morning ride in, so I decided to take the longer trail route home. Just for fun, I headed towards Cedar Lake. Near the lake, a hawk was hanging out on the trail and soared into the air as I approached. I was lucky to get its image.

Three views of the hawk on the trail just north of Cedar Lake--as I first saw it (above), taking to the air (below) and zooming away (bottom),

The trail route strategy worked, the trail was in better shape than the streets, even if the route did lead to a non-consequential fall.

Trail on south side of Cedar Lake--have to watch it, but passible on a mountain bike, and most of the trail was wet, but not icy or snowy.

McCloud Run north of J Avenue on Cedar River Trail--pretty creek even in winter.

After the fall. The view from the tundra near Harding.

As my long-time bike riding pals know, some years ago CR Biker seriously messed up a knee via a fall on the ice. But I was riding a tall hybrid bike then—a much poorer choice for winter biking than the mountain bicycle I rode today. Today, I got plenty slushed, but was fine on the ride. No slips, no falls.

Until I got to Harding Middle School. If I take the trail home, one possible route is behind the school building. I rode that way—and when I got behind the building, I encountered maybe 100 yards of unplowed sidewalk buried under the snow.

Well, I was only carrying shoes in my backpack, so I was not weighed down, and the Fancy Beast, despite being a mountain bike, is fairly light. And I had on snow boots. So, I decided to hike across the tundra.

And promptly awkwardly tumbled into the wet, cold snow. There were maybe two feet on the ground there beyond the shoveled walk. The bad news was how wet and cold I suddenly was. The good news was that it was a slow speed tumble into soft snow—no old bikers were hurt in the making of this blog post.

Looking back at my tracks in deep snow behind Harding Middle School. It was quite a bit of work to carry a bike through deep snow. But as I reached the bridge and saw cleared sidewalk ahead of me (below), the sun appeared, another reason that your fallen bike correspondent did not get too cold.

The hardest part was getting purchase so I could stand up. The unplowed walk was from the building to a small bridge—beyond the bridge, for some reason, the sidewalk was cleared again (why clear the walk to the bridge and not to the school?). After crossing the bridge, I remounted and, slowly and carefully, was once more on my way.

Despite the fact that I was slightly damp, the temperature was so warm that I didn’t really chill in the remaining couple of miles to get home. Mostly, I was just glad I was able to ride just once this week. The forecast over the next 10 day is not promising—after a warm Sunday, winter is due to return late on Monday, bringing cold and chances of snow on many days.

The cold won’t be so severe that I couldn’t bundle up and bike in it—but today was stretching my limits for pavement quality. I can dress for cold, but that doesn’t eliminate snow and ice on the road.

I was happy with the Fancy Beast today--my winter mountain bike made this ride possible. Above, the bike in my driveway before I start the morning ride. Below, parked by the trail on the way home.