In Which Some October Bears Are Saved

Didn't ride to work on the morning of Oct. 22 due to the first rain this month, but late in the afternoon took a ride along the Boyson Trail. Creek at the Hanna Park end of the trail.

 

Oct. 21--Morning light at C Avenue Pond seen on bike ride to work. October was a very pretty month in Iowa.

Happy Halloween! A grandson had an afternoon costume parade at his school, which meant I left work earlier than usual today—which was nice, because that way I didn’t run into any trick-or-treat traffic on the bike ride home.

It was blustery and cold, however. We had a decent rain yesterday, a rarity in this dry fall, but the weather pattern seems to finally be shifting. The summer season of October is ending and genuine, chilly, damp fall is suddenly upon us. It was cloudy this morning, in the 50s, so I wore a sweatshirt but stowed a jacket, knowing that this would be a windy day that would only grow colder as the day wore on.

Speaking of wore on, I wish the jacket had been worn on my back rather than stowed in my backpack. Before I event got the 40 yards or so to C Avenue, a cool sprinkle began, which turned into a rather unpleasant drizzle for the first third of my commute. Luckily, I didn’t get truly soaked, just slightly damp.

Well, I drove Wednesday due to the rain, and even if both rides were slightly challenging—damp in the morning, windy and cold in the afternoon—they were rides, which in general are always nicer than drives.
 

Oct. 22--Morning. Not my bike seat, some braver soul rode to campus that rare, wet morning.

October 2024 bike rides are history, and they were a pretty good history. I rolled for 275.65 miles, not a bad total for a full-time professor who doesn’t have time for any truly long bike journeys during the school year. So far this year, I’ve ridden 2,674.21 miles.

And witnessed a few bears being rescued. Woolly Bears, that is—the fall caterpillar. The moth that the caterpillar is the larvae of has an interesting lifestyle—why do we see these caterpillars in fall? Because their bodies are designed to survived the winter—they actually can stop their hearts and fully freeze, and yet thaw and get on with their brief lives as a adult moths next year.

And, no, despite folklore, the width of the bands has nothing to do with the harshness of winter—it’s both chance (caterpillars from eggs in the same brood will vary) and the age of the caterpillar (which molt it’s in—as it ages, the brown parts increase), not some magic weather forecast, that leads to narrow or wide caterpillar brown stripes.

Anyway, on Sunday, Oct. 27, a grandson and his mom brought over some doughnuts for a nice breakfast (with scrambled eggs and bacon), and then we loaded up my bike in the van, drove to his house, picked up his bike and parked at Hanna Park in Marion. That’s at the south end of the Boyson Trail, and the grandson, who is a big baseball fan, agreed to go for a bike ride before we played at baseball at the park.

The ride was good—the day was fine and sunny. The grandson is a relatively recent bike rider, and was a bit wobbly on this day—and at one point, he did lose control, rolled off the edge of the pavement and tumbled. Fortunately, the ouch wasn’t serious, but it startled him, so we cut the ride a little short. In the meantime, his mother and his grandmother were walking on the same trail, and we waited for them—counting Woolly Bears, the seasonable caterpillars who were appearing in some numbers on the warm pavement.

The grandson is the Woolly Bear rescuer. He picks them up, looks at them, and always places them on the grass. When his mom came into view, he had to grab one and run to her, showing her the caterpillar he had. Now, to be fair, not all spikey looking caterpillars are safe to handle—spikes on a caterpillar are defensive and can even contain poisons. Woolly Bears can irritate the skin a bit if you are a little rough and get scratched by their spikes, but they are not one of the iffy kinds of caterpillar—handled gently, they are safe for a child to pick up and examine. And the grandson, as the saver of Woolly Bears, is always gentle with them.

Bear on the trail! Woolly Bear caterpillar Oct. 27--Grandson is busy showing another one to his mom. I don't rescue them as he does, but I don't harm them, either.

A Woolly Bear, my bike and grandson's bike Oct. 27.

Can’t say I picked them up, although I do try to avoid them on warm fall afternoons when I see them. Luckily they are small and the trails relatively wide compared to their body sizes. As far as I know—and I honestly don’t know for certain—no immature moths have been harmed this fall by my rolling across the planet.

Snakes, on the other hand, can be a bit harder to avoid, and this month I saw several of them—but, again, didn’t hit any.

Above and below--not the same snake, two snakes I saw on Lindale Trail ride Oct. 19.

Snakes, like caterpillars, can be dangerous, but almost all of the ones seen in Iowa are harmless creatures, hunters of bugs that do us no harm, so I tend to let them be.

Anyway, I appreciated this October. I hope next year’s October may be a bit more seasonal—as a gardener, I’m not all that fond of drought and heat—but it would be OK for it to have pretty days, as I will be retired then and I aspire to accumulate even more miles.

Tower decorative details added to bridge on Lindale Trail in Marion, seen Oct. 19.

We’ll see. On the Lindale Trail (or Grant Wood Trail—not sure what the current name is), some towers were added this month to the curved bridge over the busiest street in Marion, which are nice to see. There are clearly lights on the bridge, but I haven’t checked the bridge after dark to see if it’s lit at night. Never mind, I’m sure I will see this at night some time, and in the meantime, I’ve been lucky to enjoy many pleasant rides during this pretty month.

More images of some pretty sights October bicycle rides:

Rode out to Lowe Park Oct. 26--Turkeys seen in field beside a residential street in Marion along the way.

Pretty fall leaf seen on Oct. 27 ride with grandson.

C Avenue Pond Oct. 28.

Seen beside Lindale Trail Oct. 19.

This and the rest of the images: Flowers and insects seen on Oct. 26 bike ride at Lowe Park garden.

In Which The Sun Shines At Christmas

Me and my son, ready to ride. I have new Christmas vest on, son is borrowing the old one.

It’s been a bit of a dull, grey December in Iowa—not terribly cold, in fact warmer than November, but we have seen a lot of rain, drizzle, sleet—dull, grey weather.

So it may be a bit unromantic that this year we didn't have a full white Christmas, even if there was a light dusting of snow early in the day that the sun quickly burned away. But we did have sun, and warmth. It was a Christmas fit for bicycling and I had a new bike vest to wear anyway.

Around noon, my wife, youngest son and I set out of a walk after our morning brunch and gift opening. The stroll was terminated a bit early for the best of reasons—a daughter from England called and wanted to Skype, so home we went.

It's not often in Iowa on Christmas Day to encounter a caterpillar while you are out on a walk, but we did. Air temp is only in the 30s, but even the weak winter sun must warm the pavement up a bit more.

We had a nice time seeing her and another daughter who is visiting across the pond and the grandkids and son-in-law. By the time the Skyping was done, it was getting well into the afternoon—and the question was, what to do?

I suggested I might, instead of napping, go for a bike ride. My wife wisely suggested I invite my youngest son. It all worked out. My oldest son’s bike is being stored here for a few months while he is again out of the country, and needs to be ridden now and then, so I greased its chain (and mine) and pumped up the Fancy Bike’s tyres. I did not bother to swap pedals—the bike has those pedals meant for shoes with bike clips, but the youngest son has sturdy shoes and I figured he would be OK without “normal” pedals.

He was.

We headed over to the Cedar River Trail in Hiawatha, then turned south, going down the trail to Cedar Lake. By the time we rounded the lake, it was getting well past 3, and we didn't want to be out in the dark, so we cut through Noelridge Park, a slightly shorter route than the one we originally took to the trail.

What Cedar Lake looked like this afternoon. Sun sort of looks like Christmas star, no?

I used some WD-40 on my rear derailleur, and it seems to be functioning now, so I had fast gears on Francis.

Not that Francis can compete with Fancy Bike. For a time, on the way south, I let the young son go ahead, knowing that it was hard to ride at my pace on that fast bike. Still, even I was moving OK on the slow bike today—it was a gorgeous winter day, a sunny Christmas in the 40s. Cedar Lake, which had almost frozen shut in November, is open again. We don’t have trees blooming as they do in England now, and much colder weather is expected next week—the lake will probably be frozen by New Year’s.

Francis casts a long shadow at Cedar Lake. We paused for a quick snack of nuts and then headed home. I'm using new Canon camera we got as a sort of mutual Christmas present--my wife will take it to England this January..

Days like this are precious to us. No white Christmas? Brown was OK and better for biking and it was good to see some sunshine. The ride was around 15 miles, and the time was well spent.

And finally: A Christmas song first posted for me by my sister Cate on Facebook. It seems like a good way to wish all you bikers out there a Merry Christmas: