In Which Some Additional Bikes Appear

Damp and cool weather has returned, but it is now spring in Iowa. A magnolia bush located by the building where my office is started blooming this week.

Cooler weather is settling in—not winter cold (snow is still possible in Iowa in April, but doesn’t seem to be a thing this  year), but normal spring cool.

Along with the shift from an unusual taste of summer is the return of the Gulf of Mexico. Water vapor sweeping up the plains from the south makes for grey skies and rain in Iowa. Oh well, April showers and May flowers and all that.

Partly cloudy sky as I pass the C Avenue Pond during my morning commute early this week.

Which also means my biking has been a bit limited. I know that there are bikers who brave the wet by wearing the right clothes. I’m like that with winter cold—I’ll ride basically all year round in Iowa because I can wear layers and dress for cold.

But I want my bike and myself to be dry. I’ll gamble with quick passing storms or with light morning mist—but rain will take me off of two wheels.

Morning bike ride to work, Monday or Tuesday. Clouds and sprinkles on this ride, but dry enough for two wheels.

It rained Friday, and I was working from home for other reasons on Thursday. But I did get rides in earlier in the week, and early this week saw what is a bit of a rare sight—other bikes parked at campus bike racks.

At one time, the university where I teach had an active bike club and a fleet of bicycles that students could borrow. Unfortunately, the bicycles were mostly stolen one summer, the student who was the organizer of the club had graduated and the club fell apart.

A short side ride down the Lindale Trail on the afternoon commute home. Spring comes from the ground up--grass is green now, trees still have bare look. That will dramatically change soon, as a close look shows the tree leaf buds are swelling.

Yet here we were, spring of 2021, after a year of pandemic biking—one outdoor thing one can do in this weird year of moving through the planet masked and avoiding human contact is rolling through it on two wheels. Bicycle sales were way up and some other bicycles appeared on racks on campus.

Not as many as I would like. Too often, my bicycle is all alone in a long bike rack behind the oldest building on campus. But other bikes are nice to see.

Lots of room left in bike rack behind Warde Hall where the Fancy Beast is tethered.

Meanwhile, at a bike rack near the library--bikes! That others rode to campus!

In Which I Consider the Smell of Wood

Mid-morning commute on C Avenue, truck carting debris, utility truck at work.

 

Monday’s hot summer ride to work featured a hazy sky.

Not due to impending rain—hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico are setting up dry weather in Iowa. Much of the state is in a slowly worsening drought, and gardens, grass and the surviving remains of trees are drying out.

At least we’re not on fire—yet. California is. 2020, right? The haze high in the atmosphere is from those California fires. As dry as it is here, I worry about the piles of drying wood along our streets which sure seems like they could fuel some magnificent blazes, but hopefully all that fuel will be moved out before rapid oxidation causes more problems.

Anyway, the ride today was a lot like my weekend ride—except even hotter. I’m getting used to the odd scenery of the ride, but I will like it when the city is done carting away all the storm debris.

Central campus MMU--not open to visitors yet, but debris is gone.

As I thought, when I rode to work, the central campus looks better than the edges—all that debris on the edge came from the middle.

I am still getting used to minor changes in my route due to Prairie Drive being closed for a block, I assume by wires that are hanging low. And I had a bit of a near miss when a debris-carrying truck dropped some limbs on C Avenue during my ride home.

One impression I had of the ride is the odd smell in the air. A bit of burning smell is in the Iowa air from the California ash, and that has happened before, but the smell of this ride was more than that. Cut wood, drying leaves, an odd high-summer intense taste of autumn is in the air. That and the almost constant buzz of saws in the background. Rides are a bit different now.

But the fall bike commuting has begun. I worked from home Tuesday, but most days this week will be back in the saddle of the hybrid biking, riding to campus.

On F Avenue, American flags planted on top of the wall of storm debris.

The truck that almost did me in. Riding home on C Avenue, passed by fast-moving DOT truck carrying storm debris. Happy the government is taking the debris--not quite as happy that they don't cover their loads. You can see large branch about to tumble off truck, what you don't see is that just a second ago, a big branch barely missed CR biker as he cycled along the sidewalk. Cedar Rapids--use some tarps on your trucks!

In Which Some Rides Turn Wild and Pretty

It was a cool, damp week in Iowa. Friday in particular was a gray day, and I spent most of the day working. After a Zoom class meeting, I finally decided it was time to get outside.

But, what route to take? These days, I’m trying to minimize time on crowded trails, yet there are a limited number of street rides that work at that time of night (around 6 p.m.).

I had taken a longer ride not long ago to the Grant Wood Trail. The route that I used to get there involved leaving the Boyson Trail at the Marion High School football complex (not at the actual school) and heading east on streets from there.

Waldo's Rock at Waldo's Rock Park. Spoiler alert, I found a new route.

It’s an OK route, but I don’t like crossing the gravel lot at the complex, and the streets, while rideable, are not ideal.

Today, I decided to see if I could find an alternative route by going to the end of the Boyson Trail, and, from Hanna Park, heading to Grand Avenue. That street is marked for bike travel, and is a bit wider than the streets I used on an earlier ride.

The good news? The route works. Cate, sometime we’ll have to try your trike on the Grant Wood Trail, if you have not been there yet, and this second route is probably more trike friendly.

Do not leap off the rock. Do not drink bleach. Do not stare at the sun. Do not ride in front of  semi trucks. Do not die.

Dry selfie. Left my water bottle at home. Yes, I wore the bandana over my nose and mouth (and also wore my helmet) when riding. And yes, I used hand sanitizer before adjusting the bandana. This was socially distant break time in an empty park, but for me and several ducks.

Turning on all light for ride home.

The exploration wasn’t completely direct. I ended up on a street called A Avenue (an odd name, which maybe was a hint, most streets and avenues in Marion are numbered) which eventually left me circling in one of those edge-of-town suburban neighborhoods with deliberately confusing tangles of Drives and Courts intended to keep masked, slow bikers at bay.

Still, if I head down Grand Avenue and turn on the street where Marion High School is (the school, not the football complex), it’s clear that I can get, if I avoid the siren song of A Avenue, far enough east to catch the end of the trail that leads to the Grant Wood Trail. (Is the city trail actually just also called the Grant Wood Trail? I don’t know, but “the Trail that Leads to the Grant Wood Trail” would be whimsically accurate.)

The Boyson Trial had a few bikers/walkers on it, but on this cool, gray afternoon was fairly quiet. There was far less traffic on The Grant Wood Trail and TTTLTTGWT (city trail’s suggested name even better abbreviated), so keeping distant was fairly easy.

On my way out of town, a herd of deer were mostly on the south side of the trail, with one straggler that ran across the trail maybe 15 to 20 yards in front of me. The ride was turning wild. Later, on the way home, I would encountered a bunny. So wild.

Deer bounding across trail in front of me. Camera is fairly wide angle--object may be closer than it appears.

This, on the other hand, is on the way home. Took the Lindale Trail and bunny bounded across trail and then tried to look invisible in grass. Grass is getting too green for your brown coat, bunny.

Anyway, I made it to Waldo’s Rock Park. I parked there for a brief break, and discovered that I had left my water bottle at home. It’s sitting on the mantle in my family room now as I type this, and I may liberate the bottle and take it for a Saturday spin soon.

All in all, Friday’s ride was a success. Thursday was also a bit gray, although sunnier in the afternoon. That day featured two rides, a short one with a grandson, and a longer, later ride in which I shot many images of flowers at Mount Mercy University. Because I never grow tired to seeing those pretty gardens, and just wish that students and faculty and staff were all there to see them, too.

Bike Thursday late afternoon at garden on MMU campus.

Almost home Thursday, sun setting at Collins Road.

End of the longer, second ride Thursday.

Low sun at Cedar Lake April 23.

Gosh, students can be aggravating. But I do miss them.

So, the week ended with some satisfying rides. And I did find a new route to The Grant Wood Trail.

I’m amused by the maps of the rides, for some reason. They look like very crude stick figures, don’t you think? The ride summaries, first from Thursday and then Friday:

In Which Cool Fall Rides Are the Norm

Mount Mercy bikes in the bike rack as students put away bicycles from a recent Friday ride.

I did not see the snow Sunday—relatives living in central Iowa posted images on social media, so the fact that flakes were in the air later in the day here is not a surprise, but I was hunkered down, feverishly grading papers.

So I missed it, not that I miss it much. Cool fall rides are the norm here now. Today, the temperature is in the mid 30s, and in addition to the jacket I have already started wearing, I have to dig out some cold-weather gloves.

A very big creature (woodchuck? muscrat?) watches me Sunday as I circle Cedar Lake on my ride home. View of  Cedar Lake on a cold, grey day (below).

But the hybrid bike is back from the shop, and the monsoon season is temporarily suspended.

On Friday, the Mount Mercy University Bike Club held a ride. Five students showed up, not a bad size for a ride on a very cool afternoon. One first-year student is a woman from California, who I am proud of because she is not used to this Iowa weather, but came on the ride nonetheless.

At the end, she was “dancing” a bit, moving her legs to loosen them because biking 10 miles had left her sore—but what she said was “that was fun.”

Club selfie (above) before ride. Crossing grass at Noelridge Park on the way back to campus (below). Crossing a bridge on the Cedar River Trail (bottom).

It was. We headed north to Noelridge Park and circled the park on its limestone trail. Recent rains had washed some ruts in the trail, and I was a little worried we might have a spill, but luckily we did not.

So that ride was quite pleasant. On Saturday, I did a bit of yard work—raking, picking up fallen branches, planting some fall bulbs. And my wife and I headed out on a late afternoon bike ride, down the Lindale Trail to the Boyson Trail, heading to a big box store to get some more bulbs.

There were more slips on that ride, especially on the low-traffic stub of a trail before the sidewalk to the store. Despite that, again it was a pleasant ride.

Sunday, I went to campus to print more papers that had been turned in recently. That ride was less pleasant—rawer, windier, grey with a chilling dampness in the air.

And yet, it was still a bike ride, and that’s nice.

This week, we have a biking adventure planned. More to come later!

Some pretty sky views from Saturday ride to store.

 

In Which Bike Club Tours the Lake District

First Bike Club Ussie before first ride of the year Friday, Aug. 25.

Cedar Rapids has a thing about “districts.” It has a medical district, it plans a college district—and Friday, Bike Club checked out the water district.

For its first ride of the school year, the Mount Mercy University Bike Club ended up riding to Cedar Lake, along the Cedar River and around Prairie Park Fishery.

The ride got off to a bit of a late start. A young woman was pumping up tires when I got to Lundy, the building where the bikes are stored. Cali—the aforementioned woman—didn’t know where Marlon, club president, was. We checked bikes and used the one air pump to recharge a few tires, and about 4:20, Marlon showed up.

He had not been planning to attend this ride due to leg injury, but he changed his mind and brought along a new student.

We hit the road about 4:30. There was no clear destination in mind, but we sort of headed out to Cedar Lake by habit .The three students chatted, and I suggested we aim for the Prairie Park Fishery, which none of them had been to before.

Sure, they said, so we were off. The afternoon was partly cloudy, warm but not hot, and the biking weather was about ideal. They were going at old man pace, since they had me lead, but nobody complained. We rode to the turnoff to go by the Kick Stand and headed up towards St. Ludmilla, when we hit a snag in the form of street construction.

Two shots along Otis Road headed to Fishery. Cedar River looks very pretty on this fine late summer late afternoon.

We sneaked across. Don’t tell anybody.

The students seemed to be doing fine. We were actually flying along pretty well. I don’t have a computer on my commuting bike, but Map My Ride was recording speeds of around 11 or 12 miles an hour for most miles.

We circled Prairie Park Fishery, chatting about nothing as you do on a pleasant bike ride, and then headed back. We returned by a slightly different route—not cutting across the construction zone this time—and arrived back at MMU just a few minutes before 6. I checked my phone. We had pedaled just over 15 miles in 90 minutes, a distance that seemed to surprise our club president.

Prairie Park Fishery (above) and we have just passed Cedar Lake as we near campus (below).

Three students on ride one—not bad, and I hope that more advance notice and more word-of-mouth will bring out more next time.

The pleasant ride Friday was bookended by slightly different rides. It was sprinkling Thursday morning, but not raining hard, and rather than delay my wife’s departure, I assured here I was OK biking. That morning, I rode the “new” mountain bike (technically it’s by far the oldest bike I have, but it’s “new” because it was just newly repaired). I also wore my RAGBRAI rain poncho—thank you, Paulette, for getting that back to me. I got a bit damp, but not really wet. And then the day slowly turned pleasant, with sunshine peaking out in the afternoon.

But, by early evening, as I was ready to go home, it began to sprinkle again. I felt it was too warm to wear the poncho, so I rode without it, but again the rain was honestly not even a drizzle—just a few drops, and I arrived home only slightly damp.

Saturday was a similar day. The radar and forecast looked good, so after my wife and daughter and female grandkids left on shopping excursions, my grandsons and I took off on a ride. However, it was already sprinkling as I attached the Tag-A-Long to Clarence, so I was worried we would only ride a little and then have to take shelter at home.

But we were lucky. We got cool and were hit by a few drops, but it never really rained, and we were able to ride the Boyson Trail all the way to Hanna Park, ride back to Thomas Park for more play, and then meet the others—including two more grandsons—at Hanna Park. After lunch, my oldest granddaughter got to ride back to my house with me.

All in all, the past three days have been very nice for biking despite some cool, clouds and sprinkles.

Thursday, due to light rain, road the mountain bike to work.

In Which We Think of Sunny Rides To Come

Sun on Rockwell-Collins pond this morning, clouds
are headed away.

Mike's logo for bookworm ride.

I’ll spare you the obvious Beatles song—but it was sure nice this morning to cycle in weather that, while cool, looked much more like spring.

As I write this, it’s a minor tragedy that I am indoors. A rainy Wednesday has given away to Sunshine Thursday, and a bicycle commuter says hooray!

Which puts me in mind of sunny, warm rides to come. The MMU Bike Club plans to ride this Friday, our first nice springtime ride. Join us, MMU! Meet at 4:30 at Lundy.

And the planned bookworm biker ride from Marion to Iowa City is still in the works. The Facebook group organized by Michael Miller for “Bookworms on Bikes” is now public! Check on it to get updates--the 50 miles or so ride should be late May or early June.

The news on RAGBRAI is good. I haven’t convinced Team Joe that this is a good “ride all the miles” year, but the band is back together and then some.

This year, Jon is coming out from San Francisco to ride—and he will be joined by his lovely wife Nalena Santiago in her first RAGBRAI.

And Last week, I put Clarence to good work, using toddler seat and Tag-A-Long to cart grandchildren to and around a playground. The weather is going to be nice this weekend, so we’ll see how much riding we do then—quite a lot, I hope!

Warm weather! Time to find the sunscreen and bug repellant and put them to good use!

Another pond view--ducks cross the reflected sun. And at the end of the ride, below, MMU daffodils.

In Which the Hills Are Alive With the Sound of Panting

About 7:45 p.m. Tuesday--late ride on Boyson Trail. I thought the light in the trees was pretty.

Puff-puff-puff—the loud sound of me, going uphill.

The rides so far this week have not been long. I rode to campus Monday and did a quick 12-mile ride late Tuesday after spending the day in Ames.

So, I emphasized hills. In the short Tuesday ride, I climbed the Bowman Woods Hill 5 times. I did the same number of climbs of the MMU hill late Monday morning when I arrived on campus—and had done earlier climbs in Bowman Woods.

I have to say, it was too bad I had the meeting in Ames today. Not that it was a bad meeting, but I noticed on Facebook that my sister had ridden more than 40 miles, and today seemed the day for it. At least I did get some hill practice in.

And as you can see, during this one gorgeous week during what promises to be a very hot summer, Iowa was indeed a pretty place to be.

During my ride home Monday, I passed a cluster of Milkweed plants behind the shopping complex at C Avenue and Boyson Road. Butterfly visits Milkweed.

Late Monday morning--I think I arrived on campus about 11 a.m. Two views of many flowering plants added to garden by Rohde Family Plaza at Mount Mercy University.

In Which Mother Nature Cooperates

Hawk atop Warde Hall watches MMU bikers.

Before today, events for the MMU Bike Club in April had not gone well. Two Friday bike rides were planned and then cancelled by cool days and brisk winds. A bike safety rodeo, set last weekend, was rescheduled to next weekend due to thunderstorms.

So it was nice today that the club finally could hit the road again in 2016.

As six students trickled in and checked out bikes at Lundy, I photographed a hawk watching the proceedings from a perch atop nearby Warde Hall. A bird pair has a nest on the Warde cupola, and it’s not unusual to see one keeping a hawk’s eye on campus this spring.

MMU Bike Club, first ride of 2016!

We took the obligatory club group shot before heading down city streets to the Cedar River Trail. It was a gorgeous afternoon—warm, but not hot, and although mostly sunny, just enough haze and clouds so that the light was not too bright.

Mark, our fearless leader, announced our destination.

Two views of Bike Club by Cedar Lake during ride into downtown Cedar Rapids.

Sweet dreams are made of these. A ride to the downtown candy shop! My wife was unable to join this first ride, due to off-campus events that ensured she would drive to MMU today—so despite that I had pumped her tires and gotten her bike ready to go, she had to sit this one out. By the tone of the text she sent CR Biker when she learned of our destination, she wished she would have been there.

Anyway, when we got to the shop, two of the six students on the ride decided to wait outside—they didn’t want any candy. The rest of us picked up various treats—even if my sweetie missed the ride, she did at least get some sweets out of the deal.

The ride back made the whole trek just over 7 miles, by my bike computer. It was probably a bit more than that, because the computer bonks out regularly these days and has to be slapped around to wake it up, so it probably missed a few tenths of a mile here and there.

Guaridans of the bikes.

Still, 7 miles on a warm spring day that felt like it was in the 70s—it was a nice first club ride.

And not the only good piece of news today for the bike club. CR Biker and MMU Communication Phil met this morning with our facilities crew at MMU to examine the U’s bikes and look at a trailer and pickup truck. The question was: Would they be able to take all of the bikes on a trip Saturday, April 23, to the High Trestle Trail?

After measuring a bike rack, determining that it indeed would fit on the trailer, and examining the bed of the pickup that would tow the trailer—the answer seemed clear, and good.

Returning to campus, crossing bridge that unites two parts of Cedar Lake.

We seem to be all systems go for the High Trestle Trail!

Central Iowans, friends and relative of CR Biker: The MMU Bike club plans to leave campus about noon next Saturday, arriving at the western end of the trail in Woodward around 3 p.m. If y’all by chance happen to want to ride the trail at the same time, it’s sure a free country!

The idea is to ride east, cross the bridge, and then pause in Madrid or Slater for a later afternoon repast. Again Central Iowans, what in the repast scene would you recommend? I see on the Interwebs that a bar in Madrid added a food wagon last year, but do you know if it’s open for the season yet? Or is there a place in Slater worth aiming for?

What are your suggestions, oh High Trestle Trail users?

Anyway, after the repast, we’ll ride some more, heading either east or west depending on the time. The idea is to spend enough hours on the trail so that the light of day is failing by the time we get back to the bridge—we are hoping to see it lit up in the early evening.

The meeting this morning made it seem like the plan is proceeding nicely. Of course, a major player in the whole thing is Mother Nature, who has a mixed relationship with the MMU BC so far in 2016.

Listen Mama N. We have the trail ride planned April 23, and the bike safety rodeo set the next day, April 24. Please, please, please, a nice weekend?

Sincerely, CR Biker.

Nice one, Mother Nature. CR Biker found, after his bike commute home, that this Rhododendron in front of his house just today started to bloom. May it be a good omen for the MMU Bike Club's upcoming adventures!