In Which Friday the 13th Isn’t Unlucky

Late afternoon ride on Jan. 1 on trail behind Linn-Mar High School.

Pretty late afternoon light on bike trail, Jan. 1.

The first almost fortnight of January 2023 has been pretty good, from a biking point of view. California has been socked with rain, the South is dealing with tornadoes, but in Iowa, the weather has been sometimes grey and damp, sometimes sunny, sometimes cold—but never as harsh as Iowa in January can be.

There has been snow on the ground, but no blizzard. There’s ice covering the C Avenue Pond, but it’s melted and frozen again several times. It’s been windy and chilly, and most (but not all) of my rides have involved insulated long underwear, yet we’re been in positive degrees above zero Fahrenheit pretty much for the whole first two weeks of the year.

Jan. 6--I take a slightly indirect route via Boyson and Lindale Trail as I head to campus. Seen from bridge over Dry Creek on Boyson Trail, some ducks in the glistening sunlight.

Jan. 6--Boyson Trail. Marion does a good job with snow removal, but it's the nature of a limestone trail to still have some snow. Riding my mountain bike, however, so it wasn't really an issue.

Another view of Dry Creek from Boyson Trail bridge Jan. 6.

My goal is to ride 3,300 miles this year, but last year I fell about 300 miles south of a 3,000 mile goal. I have a flat tire on my hybrid bike, and because of sometimes wet or slick on pavement, have been mostly riding The Fancy Beast, my oldest and slowest bike.

Still, the weather, while mixed, has been kind. At this time last year, by Jan. 13, 2022, my total mileage was 47.51 miles. I’m well ahead of that, now.

I’ve ridden 85.02 miles as of Friday the 13th. On Friday, I rode 7.99 miles on my road bike, one of two days I was able to ride that bike.

My longest ride, Jan. 1, made the best map image. Sideways view of bird?

Jan. 10--Morning light as I ride to work. Days are slowly getting longer, but it's a bit dark on morning rides still.

Jan. 11--Road bike awaits ride home. Bikers get the best parking spots!

Jan. 13--Image of bike bag as I park on campus--mostly for the few flakes of snow in the air. Can you see the dusting on the bag?

Jan. 13--Another view of winter bike dandruff--little flakes of snow. Rode road bike, but it was OK, snow was extremely light and didn't coat pavement at all.

My biggest mile total was 14.39 on Jan. 1. Two rides on Jan. 6 totaled 11.40 miles. I haven’t really taken any longer rides so far this year—over 40 miles—but it’s January, it’s cold, and I’m still getting some miles in.

That makes it, as of Friday the 13th, a pretty lucky biking year. More images:

Jan. 6--The Fancy Beast ready to ride home at Warde Hall.

Jan. 6--Morning snow cover and light at C Avenue Pond.

Jan. 11--Argent, my road bike, near Warde Hall as I leave work. One of two days this month when pavement was clear enough for road bike.

As I ride to work in the morning Jan. 11, I see this eagle perched in a tree at Kenwood Park. It flew off after I made a few images, second one below. I looked for it because I thought I heard an eagle's cry--for such large birds, they have a surprisingly pretty chirpy call (why in movies they usually use louder hawk cries to stand in for eagles).

Jan. 11-Second look at eagle.