In Which We Await Spring and RAGBRAI Training

Tuesday morning--first bike ride since Spring Break. Foggy, dark, damp morning--running with lights on. Fancy Beast in background.

I got a message via the Messenger app on my phone yesterday: My brother-in-law was reminding me that the deadline to register for RAGBRAI is upon us. I promised to register later that day, and Wednesday evening I made good.

I’m in the lottery. We’ll see if the village pulls my name out and stones me. Oh, wait—not that lottery.

It’s been a heck of a week. It’s good to be back home and bad to be back home. Jet lag is a real thing, as the return from just a week in England is proving to your fuzzy brained biking correspondent. The spring break trip to the UK was totally worth it, but I am paying the price this week.

And, it rained Monday, so I drove the Dodge.

But, luckily, I’ve been biking ever since, and experiencing the dramatic weather changes Iowa offers at this time of year.

Snow fell in Iowa Saturday, the day before my wife and I jetted across the pond. By all accounts (and the amount of white stuff slowly turning to water on the ground), quite a bit of snow.

Tuesday morning it still looked damp out, but nothing was falling from the sky, so I got out the winter beater bike. The Fancy Beast was quite nice to ride, except for on a stretch of sidewalk on C Avenue that, days after the snow, was still a frozen, frosty snowscape. I bogged down and had a sloshy walk—later sending a complaint email to the City of Cedar Rapids.

I know that sidewalk was new last fall, but come on, business park at the corner of C Avenue and Collins Road, shovel your walk.

Sidewalk that also serves as bike route on C Avenue. I'm an Iowan, so snow doesn't always make me sad. But it does make me sad when it's on a bike route.

Wednesday morning was cooler, but also sunnier. I still rode the Fancy Beast, figuring that I would encounter some snow on the sidewalk. Fortunately, by the Wednesday ride home, it appeared that ambient radiation from a nearby star had caused a state change in matter on the pavement—the solid sidewalk snow was now a liquid.

Wednesday--still very cool, but a clearly more pleasant spring day. Parked at bike rack near library at MMU.

So this morning, I decided it was time for the hybrid bike, my main commuting bike. I don’t mind riding the Fancy Beast, but a mountain bike is a mountain bike, and a hybrid is a lot more fun to ride, if you’re riding on pavement.

As it turned out, the strategy seemed to work. The morning commute was foggy and cool, but also largely dry. The only snow-related glitch was that the bike rack behind Warde Hall was still blocked by snow, a problem I solved simply by parking Clarence on the “wrong” side of the rack.

Spring! Let’s see more warm sun, blooming flowers and green—soon, please. But I did bike three out of four days during this short work week, and started a few extra hill rides to get ready, just in case I do win a slot on RAGBRAI in that lottery.

Thursday morning--Clarence parked behind Warde Hall--nice ride in, even if there is snow blocking the other side of the  bike rack.

In Which The Mornings Turn Dark and Pretty

Pond on C Avenue this morning. Still stark and brown--and cold--but still a pretty, clear sky.

We love to bash Daylight Savings Time, and maybe it is an empty gesture that makes little sense.

This March in Iowa, setting the clock forward an hour has made the mornings, still winter chilly, a bit darker, too. But, at least the afternoon rides are lighter (I’m writing this at 6 p.m. and won’t be riding home in the dark).

And the morning sun as it comes up is very pretty, something a biker gets to appreciate a bit more, I suppose.

I used all three bikes this weekend, going for a road ride Saturday, using the mountain bike for the gym commute Sunday morning and bicycling to campus for newspaper work Sunday afternoon.

Statue on MMU's Rohde Family Plaza seems to glow as I arrive on campus this morning.

I have not tried to persuade my wife to bike to church on Sunday morning, and I don’t have high hopes of even trying until the weather warms up.

Still, I noticed this past week that my miles are increasing a bit. I’m not really in RAGBRAI training mode yet, no 60-mile weekend rides, but as the days slowly lengthen and the afternoons, at least, feel a bit springy, I feel that good biking is coming soon.

In the meantime, at least the morning light is pretty!

Now it is my bike, just parked at Warde Hall, that appears to be flowing in the morning sun.

In Which The Air Is Just So

Dry Creek, March 9, 2018. A bit of ice on the creek as the sun starts to rise on a chilly March morning. My phone said it was 18 degrees.

March: In between winter and spring, and right now winter rules the mornings.

The ice melted a while ago on the C Avenue pond that I ride by each morning on my commute—but it was 18 today, with little wind. In the cold, still air, a thin layer of ice had again formed, and the pond was mostly frozen over, except for one small open patch where a rather chilly looking duck slowly moved.

Pond on C Avenue--not sure you can see it well, but a thin layer of ice has formed on this cold morning.

Tiny bit of open water with a cold looking duck.

I rode Clarence this morning, for the second time this week. On Wednesday I had ridden the mountain bike, but Thursday and today it was clear enough for the hybrid.

I was gambling that the pavement would be clear, and for the most part I won. I should have gone directly to campus, but was drawn by the cool but pretty morning to take the trail. I encountered some snow in Noelridge Park, but otherwise the way was clear.

Two views from Noelridge Park. A bit of snow on the bridge at the east end. Nearer the west end, where the community flowers gardens are, two geese stroll during the cold morning.

And the morning ride was cold. My toes were suffering a bit by the time I got to campus.

Bridge work along the trail. I thought the crane looked pretty in the morning.

View of artwork in garden behind Warde Hall, near where my bike was parked this morning.

The afternoon was also cool, but probably 30 degrees, which is better than 18. The ride home was still chilly, however. But, the March sun had warmed the city enough that the pond which was frozen in the morning had thawed again by 5:15 p.m.

C Avenue pond again, in the afternoon, almost the same spot. Water after sun was shining on the ice all day.

March—it’s not very much like spring yet, but you can tell it’s coming. Meanwhile, the air is just at that point where it will freeze ponds in the morning, and melt the ice by afternoon. This weekend, we have the spring time change—may it be a sign that the weather will soon make the turn from the frozen season to the time of new growth and more pleasant bike rides.

In Which I Do Early Spring Bike Maintenance

Bike pump and three bikes--Fancy Beast, the winter mountain bike; Argent, the road bike; and Clarence, the hybrid commuting bike. Why does a biker need 3 bikes? Why does an adult need more than one pair of shoes?

Tuesday—the student newspaper has been sent to the printer and I’m wasting a bit of time before a staff meeting. Snow is coming late tomorrow, so winter isn’t completely done with Iowa, but I plan a quick bike ride in the nice early evening before the meeting takes place.

It’s been a pretty good biking week, even if much of my riding is early in the cool mornings or well after dark. This is a time of year I don’t think I’ll struggle much with what do when I finally retire, as long as I can ride a bike.

Anyway, Sunday afternoon I had to go to campus, but before leaving home, I took all three bikes out, aired up their tyres and lubed their chains. The surprise is that neither the road bike nor the hybrid bike actually needed much air—despite not being ridden a lot lately, the warmer day probably boosted tyre pressure a bit.

I also swapped out worn brake shoes on my mountain bike with relatively new ones that were on The Beast, the old Schwinn bike that isn’t rideable anymore. There is also a frame pump on that old bike that I’m planning to take off and attach to the hybrid, one of these days, but I did not quite get that done.

My plan was to ride Clarence, the hybrid bike, but with all three bikes out of the garage, I fell under the spell of the road bike, so I instead flew to campus on Argent. Naturally, I took the 10-mile trail route rather than the 4-mile direct route. There was a cool wind, but despite that, it was still a sunny, cheerful afternoon.

Sunday--Read to head out on Argent. Cedar Lake, below, with what I think is an eagle resting on the ice.

Monday and Tuesday, the pavement was clear enough to use the hybrid bike, which meant riding without a backpack, which I enjoy.

Spring! It’s not really here yet—all is brown, with barren trees, and any water is ice each morning. But the change is in the air. February is about to give way to March, the transition month from nasty to nice in Iowa. March can go either way, and will start with snow—but if there are days like there were this week, there will be nice, too.

Monday--Sunshine on the bike rack by the library at MMU. It's cool like winter, but pretty like spring.

In Which the Winter Bike Proves Valuable

Dry Creek seen from the C Avenue Bridge on the way home, 5:30 p.m. or so Tuesday, Feb. 20. Not so dry.

My wife asked me if I was going to drive Friday morning—I had driven Wednesday and Thursday due to expected wet weather or van maintenance or a combination of both.

It rained overnight and was damp and chilly, but not raining. So I did ride. “I’ll take the mountain bike, but I hope we have a sunny day soon so I can ride the hybrid one,” I said.

She replied, somewhat amused, that she has no idea which bike is which.

Well, I did ride and I did use the mountain bike, the Fancy Beast. This winter, using it has proven to be a good move.

The last time I rode, the day these images are from, was Tuesday. Monday was wet, too, and Tuesday during the day it got cold, so ice was the concern. But it was too warm to freeze Tuesday morning, and I figured as the temperature chilled below freezing, most of the water was evaporate into the dry air rather than freeze on the pavement.

The gamble paid off. I was a bit damp when I got to work Tuesday morning, and it cooled off during the day into the 20s. As I set off for the ride home, most of the streets I rode on were bare.

Not totally bare—there were patches of ice here and there, and I did have to slow down and take it easy. But the wide mountain bike tyres did their thing, I and arrived home safely.

And almost fell down. The only place that I had a bad slip was right in front of my own house.

The site of the slip that started but did not end in a fall--ice on my sidewalk and driveway. More than I saw Tuesday anywhere else.

Which was not too much of a surprise, because the geography in my home area does tend to the damp. I was a good citizen, and sprinkled some road salt after carefully dismounting.

Anyway, I hurt my left knee rather badly a few years ago falling on ice, and vowed I would never again ride on it. Clearly, I am stretching that rule a bit.

But also clearly, so far, the gamble has paid off! Hooray for the Fancy Beast!

Corner of C Avenue and Blair's Ferry on the way home Tuesday, Feb. 20. Grey day, windy and chilly, but bare pavement.

In Which an Eagle Circles Over the Lake

Three views of pretty sunshine from Friday morning ride--Rockwell Collins pond on C Avenue (top), hillside approaching MMU (middle) and Catherine McAuley's halo gets a little bright on Rohde Plaza (bottom). Blue sky day.

Winter is slowly losing its grip on my corner of the hemisphere. While part of this week will be too wet for riding and there was fresh snow Saturday, Sunday was quite warm. I didn’t have time for a long ride, which was probably OK, given how slushy the world was.

And there was Friday, which was a cool day but nice by winter standards.

I rode to work in the morning by the direct route, admiring the sunshine. I left work about 4 in the afternoon, and decided to take the longer Cedar River Trail route home—swinging by Cedar Lake before heading north.

I had not been to the lake for a while, and enjoyed seeing the crowded patch of open water at the lake’s north end. It was crowded with geese and a few ducks, and sounded like a busy cocktail party. I shot some images and moved one.

But a particular bird caught my eye, flying high above the others in a straight line headed southeast. It was a bit distant, but unmistakable—white tail feathers and white head gleaming in the afternoon sun.

Your eyes may be playing tricks on you--in the above picture, three geese are near the middle of the lake. Higher and farther away, that is no goose. The bird in front with the straight wings is a soaring eagle. Below, the eagle has wheeled away from the lake and is heading west, probably for the dam area of the Cedar River. In profile, I think you can see it's an eagle more easily, with the naked eye it was much more obvious.

I instantly wished I had my good camera with a long lens. Fortunately, the bald eagle interrupted its straight flight and circled for a while near the south end of the lake before turning and heading west.

As you can see, it was a pretty winter day. And in this part of Iowa, in 2018, eagles are not incredibly rare. Still, I think this was the clearest sighting I’ve had in recent months, and there’s still something awe inspiring about the sight of an eagle.

It should rain tomorrow—and I don’t do cold rain, even on my winter beater bike. We’ll see when I can get back in the saddle, but it shouldn’t be long. I did a short ride to and from the gym today, just one day after fresh snow fell, and it felt good.

Not as good as Friday—no eagles—but it seems biking weather is coming back!

Other Friday views--sunshine through park trees on J Avenue in the afternoon on my way to the trail.

Just a small selection of the large bird party going on in the patch of open water at the north end of Cedar Lake.

Low sun looking west on trail by lake.

End of trail loop, I've circled the lake counterclockwise and am nearing the T intersection to turn north.

In Which Warm Wet Days Lead to Rides

Sun shining on a driveway at MMU on the afternoon of Feb. 14 (above), My winter bike parked in a rack on campus on a grey, cloudy but warm Thursday (below).

On Wednesday and Thursday, it was cool and wet in the mornings, and the pavement seemed a bit iffy.

But, after a week of not riding, I was ready to take a chance. And I am glad I did. I did slip a bit on ice about 100 yards from home, but other than that, the mountain bike proved sure footed. And although both mornings were wet and cold, afternoon rides were nice.

Friday is supposed to be cold, but that just means I will have to dress a bit warmer. Let the rides begin.