In Which We See Nature from the Trails

The Linn County Trails Association asked for some trail images on their Facebooks page, and I posted a few images there, which I hope they enjoy.

Here are some of my favorite nature images of the past year, images I made during bicycle rides on trails in Cedar Rapids. These include the ones I posted for the trail association and a few others.

I don't know if any are what the associate wants--they don't really show the trials, but they do show the beauty you experience if you ride the trails:

In Which We Wait for Clear Pavement

One of my closest biking buddies, this 4-year-old grandson helps shovel this weekend. No biking for a while--I don't mind cold, and don't care if snow is in the yard, but I do need dry pavement.

It’s suddenly winter. We had a cold November, a warm December and a decent start to 2020—and how, on Jan. 22, I feel like I’m starting to lose it. Yesterday, I got home and seriously though of dragging the mountain bike out for a short ride.

I want to feel my body moving on two wheels again. Sadly, the streets do not. When the weather switch was suddenly set to “winter” recently, snow became way too common. We’ve not had a blizzard or major snowfall, but as I write this, another inch or so is accumulating outside as the snowpack become persistent.

The mean streets of Cedar Rapids are pretty but mean to a biker right now. Side streets in the city of Five Seasons aren’t cleared very well—the city seems satisfied to leave a thin layer of white, packed snow ice on residential streets.

Well, the city didn’t bring winter or snow.

Bike (not mine) seen at Mount Mercy University. When the pavement clears, I'm willing to park my mountain bike here, too.

But there are signs that 2020 will be an interesting biking year. My sister informs me that she can now reach Solon via the Hoover Trail. I have not tried—and can’t until a significant thaw—but that’s something. I noticed a new trail in Marion south of Wal-Mart, and am curious to see if it’s possible now to reach the Grant Wood Trail via that way. Blackhawk County is finally working on replacing a closed creek bridge on the Cedar River Trail way up in La Parte City (again, thank you biking sis who made me aware of that development)

The RAGBRAI route announcement is coming in a few days. As is usual in winter, I feel a bit up in the air about the ride. One of these years I would like to switch to doing partial RAGBRAI’s—it’s just getting harder to devote a whole week to the ride and I’ve been there, done that.

2020 logo from RAGBRAI.com

But I don’t want to stop entirely. Will RAGBRAI come near my neck of the woods?

We’ll see. Even if not, the other biking news makes it clear that 2020 and beyond may offer new biking adventures near my front door.

Cycle on, friends. And take heart with me. Spring is coming.

In Which an Old Bike Combines with a Lake Tour

Cedar Lake today.

Most of the images on this post are taken in late afternoon at Cedar Lake, one of the finest places in Cedar Rapids to view sunsets. I rode down there Monday and Thursday.

According to the forecast, our AWOL winter, which visited us in late fall but has been AWOL since, is returning at the end of this week with attitude. The snow blower got clogged and stuck last time I tried to use it—I may find out if it’s working again soon.

Well, we had this week. Yesterday, it was cold and I was in a hurry, so I drove, but I’ve been biking most of the week.

Three rides on four days of class in January is not bad.

On Monday, I rode the hybrid bike—my usual commuting bicycle—and took time to ride down to Cedar Lake in the afternoon on the way home.

Morning light Monday (above) Cedar Lake in the afternoon (below).

I repeated the lake ride again today, and it was even more gorgeous. We had rain at midday, but just briefly. I had ridden my oldest bike today (not counting the tandem which dates to the disco era), the mountain bike my oldest son got years ago during a Seattle summer internship.

Maybe it was because today was the final day of classes this week, maybe it was just the upbeat mood I was in, but I felt like the old mountain bike was flying this afternoon. I didn’t have the good camera with me, but images from the point-and-shoot still turned out pretty—the cold day yesterday meant that, in 50-degree weather, the lake was covered in thin ice. After the rain, the clouds had started to thin out, and at sundown, the lake was incredibly gorgeous.

Monday, there were just a few people at the lake. There was much more traffic there today—walkers and joggers enjoying a day that would have been at home in April.

Besides the lake looking so appealing, there were other pleasurable aspects of the ride. At the lake, as I completed my circuit and was about three-fourths of the way round the body of water, an eagle appeared from the east and quickly swooped to the west. It didn’t linger, and I regretted not having my good camera and long lens, but was fun to see.

It's a bird! It's a plane! No, actually a bird, eagle, having crossed the lake ahead of me, disappears in the western sky, probably headed to the Cedar River.

And later on, about halfway up the trail towards home, as the light was really starting to fade, just east of me on the rail line like that parallels the trail, a group of three deer were loitering, maybe 20 yards from me. I stopped, got out the camera, and snapped a few images, which seemed to bother them not at all.

Oh deer!

It was nearing dark as I rode down 42nd Street, headed to Noelridge Park to cross it and go behind the middle school. I paused briefly in the park to admire and shoot the wolf moon, later also snapping its reflection the C Avenue pond at Collins Aerospace.

Goodbye, faux spring. As a gardener who planted plenty of milkweed seeds and spring bulbs in the fall, I don’t mind having some winter this year, but I will miss the bike rides if the streets stay snowy and messy for a while. It will be nice when spring returns for a longer stay.

The moon in the park (top) and reflected in the pond (middle). Light fading in the night sky (below) as I wait to cross Blairs Ferry Road.

 

In Which Geese Break the Ice

Early in the ride today, sunshine in Hiawatha on Cedar River Trail.

Another warm winter ride today. I was going to campus to work on a winter term syllabus, and before heading over to work, I took some time to swing down to Cedar Lake, riding the Cedar River Trail.

The lake is partly frozen and geese and ducks where packed together in the open water at the lake’s north end. But other patches have opened, and the geese seemed to struggle to judge where to land or walk.

They would totter across the ice until it got so thin that it broke under a large bird’s weight. Since they are well-insulated water fowl who swim in ice water all the time, it wasn’t like a March sister breaking through the pond while skating.

Views of Cedar Lake on a relatively warm, sunny winter morning.

Still, they looked a little ridiculous.

I shot some images of the birds on the water, and then climbed the back way up the MMU hill by the library. I rode about 15 miles by the time I got home, and then took three granddaughters on three separate Tag-A-Long rides in the neighborhood late in the afternoon.

On two of the those rides, we checked out the pond on C Avenue at Collins Aerospace. The goldfish were inspected, especially swimming under thin ice by the bridge.

With the extra few miles, I get I probably rode a bit more than 18 on this day of ice and water rides.

C Avenue pond--late afternoonn sky reflection (above) fish below ice (below).