In Which Spring Riding Begins with Ice on the Lake

Someone is out on the lake being towed by a parachute. Some man, I assume.

March 1—start of spring. Well, true, it’s a few weeks until the equinox, but this is the month when we usually see the first flowers.

Not that there were any flowers, or signs of them, today. We had snow last night, but luckily it was very light. In fact, with temperatures in the 20s and bright March sunshine for much of the day—the pavement was pretty clean.

So I rode my winter beater bike to campus. First, however, I indulged in a little detour by taking the Cedar River Trail. There were a few snowy and icy parts, but the trail was fairly clear. There were a small number of joggers and bikers out. I don’t know what it says about my gender, but the tiny number of trail users on this cold late winter day were mostly men—I think I saw one woman in a group of mostly male bikers, and otherwise it was just guys.

I wasn't close enough to confirm his gender, but one man, I assume, was even using a parachute to tow himself across the ice of Cedar Lake. He was at the south end, far from the tiny patch of open water at the north end, and the ice pushed out of the lake on the short seems quite thick, but I still don’t think I’ll take The Beast across the lake.

At the north end of Cedar Lake, many ducks congregated in a tiny area of open water. As I approached, many of them flew up and then walked along the top of a nearby train. Where is Samuel Jackson? Wherever he is, perhaps he's very tired of all these ducks on a train.

Anyway, it was still refreshing to be out. The later dark ride home at night was a bit more harrowing—on the quiet streets there are more icy or snowy stretches then on the trail—and the temperature was dramatically dropping.

Still, all in all, I got at least one day of biking in. I hope I manage more biking than in the cold February that is mercifully over.

After all, it is time for spring!

Creek that runs into Cedar Lake--some open water. I just thought it looked nice.