In Which the City Shows New Trails

 

June 10--My bike parked at pool at Ellis Park, start of city ride. Another biker (below) arrives.

“New” is a bit of a theme to my June rides.

Although I got a flat tyre on it yesterday and need to fix it, I have a new wheel on my road bike. I had slightly dented the rim getting a flat a few weeks ago, and it had a bit of a wobble my sister noted on one of our training rides. So I took it to the shop and bought a new wheel.

It won’t take me long to fix the flat, I already have the tube. A job for tomorrow.

Ill health cost me biking one day during this hot, dry month—vertigo. I checked the videos and did the head movements, and it seems to have cleared up that problem.

June has been mixed. My goal was to go on a 60-plus-mile ride each week, and due to various other things cropping up, I have not met that goal. But I’ve ridden over 470 miles in June, more miles than most whole weeks of RAGBRAI, so while I need to do more long rides, enough medium rides are giving me many miles.

One of those rides, June 10, was a “Ride the Districts” 15-mile ride where the city of Cedar Rapids showed off some new bicycle infrastructure south of the Cedar River. The ride started at Ellis Park, which I’ve cycled to in the past but avoided this year because construction projects are between me and it and I have not found an alternative route. For this ride, I drove there along a busy street I would not bike on. Still, we, me and dozens of others on this ride, headed out of the park, turned south and then west and reached the Cherokee Trail.

Using that trail, which was new to me, and some streets and roundabouts, we reached Morgan Creek County Park, one of the nicest parks in the Cedar Rapids area. It was both exciting to learn one can cycle there, and a little sad.

On my own, with my poor navigation skills, I doubt I could repeat that route. Maybe after Ellis Park finally becomes a viable destination I can experiment and figure it out—I hope so. Morgan Creek Park would be a nice new bike ride destination.

June 10--I signed up online and got one of these shirts, route on the back, not great to check during ride.

Above and below, speaker at first stop in the ride covers new developments along Cherokee Trail.

In June, summer is for sure here. Iowa this year feels like “high summer” in June. In a normal year, the state dries out and heats up in late July and August—but this year the heat and dry time has arrive early.

Well, at least that means more sunny days for biking, but careful biking, an old man like me needs to stay well hydrated in this heat.

Anyway, back to the ride. We received some updates from city staff, and I sadly didn’t take any notes, so I don’t recall a lot, except that work continues to expand the Grant Wood Trail, which is good news in my neighborhood.

Third stop, near the end of the ride.

Riders.

 

Ride organizer speaking at first stop.

Shelter at Morgan Creek Park was snack stop, which was nice. Whole ride was about 15 miles.

County speaker at Morgan Creek Park.

And, as the equinox came on later in the month, summer flowers, lilies and coneflowers and milkweed, are suddenly everywhere. The grass is dry, although mature trees still look OK. If it continues to be extremely hot and dry, eventually they’ll start to look sad and drop leaves early, but fortunately we’re not at that point.

Anyway, on June 23 I had a meeting at the University of Northern Iowa. It gave me a chance, in the afternoon, to ride 10 miles along some trails that were new to me. If I had more time, more water and less heat, I would have ridden farther, but at least I was able to ride some new routes in Wateloo. I’ve been using familiar trails a lot this month, so some tastes of new have been good.

Longest ride so far in June: 60.7 miles on the 9th. Year-to-date, 1.591.42 miles. Not quite halfway to the 3,300-mile goal, but there is still a week left in June, and I should get even more miles in July, what with RAGBRAI and all.

Many images from this summer month:

June 1-9:

Sunny, hot day June 9, riding trail south to Solon.

June 9--Ride to north end of Sac and Fox Trail. Nice to see bike lines added on Cottage Grove Road.

June 9--Stormy looking clouds on C Avenue.

Hybrid bike at Lowe Park, going for short morning rides while granddaughters have music lessons.

June 10--Sunset on Lindale Trail, hazy sky thanks to forest fires in Canada.

June 4--Blue Jay on commercial building next to Lindale Trail.

Sky colors June 1 on Grant Wood Trail.

June 11-17

June 11--Blackbird at Lowe Park.

June 12--Pretty summer sky on Grant Wood Trail.

June 12--Clouds at Lowe Park Trail.

June 15--Trumpet Vine blooming along Cedar River Trail in Hiawatha.

June 16--Butterfly Flower in bloom at Noelridge Park.

June 16--Common Milkweed in bloom, Noelridge Park.

June 16--Milkweed in bloom Noelridge Park.

June 16--Parked at Lafayette along Cedar Valley Nature Trail.

June 16--Watching bird at Lafayette.

June 16--CVNT north, pretty blue sky.

June 17--Sunset on Lindale Trail.

 June 21-23:

June 21--Deer on creek trail off of Boyson Trail.

June 21--View of bridge on creek trail.

June 21--Sunset at Lowe Park.

June 22-Saw lots of deer on late ride this day.

June 22--It looked like this one winked at me. I rode on quickly.

June 22--Elephant in park along trail in Waterloo.

June 23--George Wyth State Park in Waterloo, shady trail.

June 23--Trail along top of levee along Cedar River.

In Which May Features Many Miles, Creatures

May 30--Morning bike ride to campus leads me to encounter this bird. It's a substantial bird, but a very young hawk at the end of one its first flights. Resting on a bare bush behind Warde Hall.

May 31--This time, the young hawk is on the loading dock, which is a problem because I'm trying to get inside the building with my bicycle. The loading dock door is the only external access. I was a bit worried, since I had to get close to junior, that I might meet mom or dad under adverse circumstances, especially since junior was making plaintive cries. Luckily, I got peacefully inside the building.

I had some bike struggles in May—a persistent problem with flats on my hybrid bike, mainly. The good folks at Goldfinch bike shop kept at it, eventually replacing the back tyre, which was fairly new, for free, which I appreciated.

My other issues were personal—mostly the first half of the month was crazy busy until Mount Mercy University, where I teach, had its graduation. The final two weeks of the months featured my first longer summer-style rides.

I rode 50 miles on May 18, although I discovered I was not feeling all that well afterwards. My sister and I rode 40 miles together on May 23, but it pretty much knocked me out afterwards. The next day, I wanted to do another long ride, but only managed 28 miles before exhaustion took its toll. At least, I did manage 35 miles on May 25, but my wife observed, “we have to build you up.” Indeed, those aren’t very impressive RAGBRAI ride distances.

May 4--Morning sun at C Avenue Pond.

May 6--On a cloudy day, sun peeks out on side trail off of Boyson Trail.

May 16--Interesting morning sky on bike ride to work.

On May 31, the weather forecast was for a nice morning, followed by a hot summer-like afternoon with the high around 90 Fahrenheit. I had a plan—I would get on the road by 8 a.m., ride 50 miles before it got hot, and then do 10 miles later after it had cooled down.

The best laid plans and all that—it didn’t exactly work out. I slept later than I expected and took a while to get ready, so I left after 9. That was still earlier than I’ve usually started rolling, so there was still hope. I rode north to Lafayette, doing the loop around the Robins Park both coming and going. Then I rode down to Cedar Lake. I had to turn in my letter of appointment at the university where I teach, and planned that as a break in my ride. By the time I got there, I had about 25 miles and the day was getting hot.

May 17--Weather in warming up, bugs are getting common and sunscreen is now part of each ride.

May 17--Bike parked on Lindale Trail as I pause to photograph flowers.

May 17--Sweet smelling flowers of spring along Lindale Trail.

The afternoon was quite warm, but on the way home I rode partway down the Lindale Trail, going to the west end and back to the bridge area on the east. By riding a slightly indirect route home and by messing around on the Lindale Trail, I managed to get to 42 miles. It was about 2 p.m., and I decided it was time to hide inside for a while.

I fixed and ate lunch and took a nap. By the time I was up again and ready to ride, it was past 5 p.m. I decided that if I rode 8 mile and reached 50 for the day, I would still call it a success. I rode out to Waldo’s Rock, and then returned to the Lindale Trail, turning to take the Boyson Trail and the new Creek Trail that leads behind Linn-Mar High School.

May 18--Rode bike to Urbana, parked for break at Lafayette.

May 18--Hazy skies on Cedar River Trail north of Center Point. Sorry about the forests, Canada.

I’m normally a slow biker. My 42-mile ride was on my road bike, my fastest bike, but it had a slow motor that day. For the later ride, I rode my hybrid bike. For one thing, I had moved my bike bag there, so didn’t have to wear my camera bag, which I liked.

By the time I got to the north end of the new creek trail, at Tower Terrace Road, it was getting dim, and I didn’t want to ride a dark, wooded trail in twilight. So I turned west along Tower Terrace Road. I was well past my 8 mile goal, in fact, I had ridden more than 10 miles. Even though it was getting late and I had not had supper, I was too motivated. I rode to the Lowe Park Trail—not taking the trail as it was too dim, but just heading up the street and back to gain some distance.

May 24--Rode mountain bike to Sac and Fox Trail--took side mountain bike trail for a couple of miles.

May 24--Halfway down Sac and Fox, trail is closed for a road bridge construction.

May 24--Cedar River seen as I ride along Otis Road.

May 24--Cedar Lake.

May 24--Mountain bike parked where the trail ends, halfway.

May 28--Riding back to start of Sac and Fox, pretty late afternoon.

On the way home, I turned north into the Cedar Rapids neighborhood north of Boyson Road. I had about 15 miles on the ride—but looping around, I managed to eke out the missing 3 miles. It wasn’t so hot in the evening and I didn’t want to stop in the 50s if I could make it to 60 miles.

Which I did. It was the last day of May, and 60 miles is my longest ride so far this year. To get ready for RAGBRAI, I’ll have to try to ride that kind of distances several times a week in June, but it was good to get the first “long” ride in.

In May of 2022, I cycled about 210 miles. This year, May 2023, my milage total was 397 miles. Maybe I would have gone for 63 if I realized I was only 3 miles short of 400, but I don’t feel bad about 60 miles on May 31. For the year so far, I have 1,118 miles. The old rule of thumb is one should ride at least 1,000 miles before attempting RAGBRAI. With my old body, I need more prep than that—it just takes longer to try to get in shape.

May 26--Rode to Boyson Trail on mountain bike, parked along mountain bike trail there.

May 25--Where there was a detour at a sink hole site on Cedar River Trail south of the river. The regular trail is open now--rode down to Ely this day.

The rides in May came as the weather quickly transitions from a warm spring to a hot, dry summer pattern. I hope we get some rain soon, as it’s way too dry for this time of year.

The rides, while getting buggy as they do in Iowa, have also been nice. One feature of the May rides has been the increasing number of interesting critters I’ve seen—deer, of course. Also a groundhog and a snake. And several times, late in May, a young hawk. A pair of red-tailed hawks nest on top of the five-story building where I have my office, and this year they successfully produced at least two young hawks, that one of my faculty friends dubbed “front door” and “back door,” because the first tentative flights of one have been to the front stop of the building, while the other prefers the rear. On my bike rides, I’ve encountered “back door” several times.

May 31--Catalpa Tree flowers near Cedar Lake.

May 31--Very hot day, summer look of Cedar Lake.

May 31--Pond at Waldos Rock park late in the day as I aim for 60 miles.

May 31--Summer "snow" on Lindale Trail--Cottonwood seeds.

May 31--Sun going down on Lindale Trail.

One day, I even saw a fox family on the Lindale Trail. I'm aware that wild fox live in Iowa, but this was my first time seeing one, and it' wasn't one, but a mom and two kits.

May—miles are picking up as I plan longer training rides, and nature is getting more interesting to look at. I hope May rides have been pleasant wherever you are!

The creatures of May:

May 6--Fox family on Lindale Trail.

May 6--Young fox is watching me as I photograph it.

May 18--Snake on trail in Robins. I'm glad to say it quickly moved off the trail.

May 18--Snake makes a break for the grass (my bike in background).

May 25--Geese along Cedar River.

May 26--Groundhog crosses Lindale Trail.

May 26--Deer near Boyson Trail.

Groundhog near Lindale Trail (before crossing it).

May 31--Geese at Cedar Lake.