CR Biker: In Which I Ride with a Secret

I've got a secret. Or I had one. Read on at your own risk.

So, how did the first half of 2022 go?

June is the Saturday of months, in my corner of the planet. It’s time off, for the most part, although June 2022 ended up crowded with travel, family projects, gardening, life in general. Still, June is the fun month.

And now it’s July, the Sunday of months. It’s still time off, but there is a sense that the time is limited. Soon, summer will be spent.

On a 50-mile ride with my sister, all of it in Marion. It's not that large of a town. We meandered, quite a bit. She may have learned not to let me navigate.

Ride down to Ellis Park area, walked bike over Cedar River on Edgewood Road bridge, too.

But, then again, summer is only sweet because of the rest of the year.

And, in June, I did something that I’ll share with you, but you have to keep it on the down low. It’s our little secret—read on only if you’ll accept the burden of keeping the tale of my cap under your hat.

A fortnight into the Sunday of months, and year-to-date, I have 1,481.24 miles. My year’s goal is 3,000 miles, and I’m 19 or so miles behind the midpoint with the year half over. Honestly, I don’t feel too bad about that. For one thing, in terms of weather, the deepest winter in Iowa is January and February. The second half of the year has a longer biking season than the first half. And, for whatever reason, spring semesters always seems more stressful to me than fall.

I’m hoping to keep rolling on beyond my goal. If not, well, I’ll just declare whatever total I do get to as a success, since I get to ride all of those miles, and closing in on 1,500 miles still feels like something.

In my last post, I noted that I had a goal of exceeding 60 miles in the final days of June. I had a nice 50-mile tour of Marion with my sister Cate on June 27. And on June 30, the final day, I put in 64.89 miles, riding down to Ely and then up to Center Point and back.

Pair of eagles seen in tree across the river from trail during ride to Ellis Park.

I have seen many deer on recent rides, including this fawn making its exit on Otis Road as I ride to the Prairie Park Fishery.

It was warm that day, and I rode down to Ely. One the way back, I planned to ride to Lafayette, a 7-mile ride north from Hiawatha, then double back and ride on the Lindale Trail to make up the miles and reach 60.

Secret coming. Remember, if you read this far, you promised, right?

When I started going north, I just was enjoying the trail, so when I got to Lafayette, I just thought I would keep going. Simplify things, and if the miles added up, I wouldn’t need to ride on the Lindale Trail.

It worked out that way, by the time I got to Center Point I had enough miles and was far enough from home breaking 60 was inevitable. But it as a warm day, and I was tired—I took off my shoes to rest my feet, and planned to sit on a bench for a while, wearing the MMU cap I had brought with me in my bike bag. But when I took my helmet off and reached into my bag—no cap.

That cap was a gift from my wife, who retired from Mount Mercy this year. It’s not my only MMU cap, but it represents something. I don’t wear this cap when I garden, for example, because it’s too special for that.

Selfie as I reach 60 miles on a ride.

And it was gone. Shoot. Where I had left it and lost it? I sat in Center Point and contemplated how much trouble I would be in. It was, honestly, not going to be that bad. But then, I got to thinking. Hadn’t I taken a break at the trailhead in Hiawatha? Sitting on a bench there, sans my bike helmet, wouldn’t I have donned the cap to protect my scalp from the sun?

Hmmm. And then the memory was dredged up—I had worn the cap, but hung it on the end of a bench as I got ready to ride. And I had neglected to pick it up.

The Center Point rail depot is 13 miles north of the Hiawatha trailhead. After a ride of 26 miles, a couple of hours for me, what were the odds that the cap would still be hanging there?

Whatever they are, they paid. As I approached the bench by the restroom building, I could see it hanging there.

Here it is ...

So, my secret is I lost the cap on the ride, but it was found. The kicker is that I held that secret from my wife for a while, and started to draft this blog post. But the story was too good, and I cracked.

Thus, while my wife doesn’t read my blog, and therefore the secret should be safe with us, in the end I was the one who couldn’t keep the story of the cap under my hat.

There must be a lesson there. I forget what it is.