CR Biker: In Which the City Shows New Trails

June 10--My bike parked at pool at Ellis Park, start of city ride. Another biker (below) arrives.

“New” is a bit of a theme to my June rides.

Although I got a flat tyre on it yesterday and need to fix it, I have a new wheel on my road bike. I had slightly dented the rim getting a flat a few weeks ago, and it had a bit of a wobble my sister noted on one of our training rides. So I took it to the shop and bought a new wheel.

It won’t take me long to fix the flat, I already have the tube. A job for tomorrow.

Ill health cost me biking one day during this hot, dry month—vertigo. I checked the videos and did the head movements, and it seems to have cleared up that problem.

June has been mixed. My goal was to go on a 60-plus-mile ride each week, and due to various other things cropping up, I have not met that goal. But I’ve ridden over 470 miles in June, more miles than most whole weeks of RAGBRAI, so while I need to do more long rides, enough medium rides are giving me many miles.

One of those rides, June 10, was a “Ride the Districts” 15-mile ride where the city of Cedar Rapids showed off some new bicycle infrastructure south of the Cedar River. The ride started at Ellis Park, which I’ve cycled to in the past but avoided this year because construction projects are between me and it and I have not found an alternative route. For this ride, I drove there along a busy street I would not bike on. Still, we, me and dozens of others on this ride, headed out of the park, turned south and then west and reached the Cherokee Trail.

Using that trail, which was new to me, and some streets and roundabouts, we reached Morgan Creek County Park, one of the nicest parks in the Cedar Rapids area. It was both exciting to learn one can cycle there, and a little sad.

On my own, with my poor navigation skills, I doubt I could repeat that route. Maybe after Ellis Park finally becomes a viable destination I can experiment and figure it out—I hope so. Morgan Creek Park would be a nice new bike ride destination.

June 10--I signed up online and got one of these shirts, route on the back, not great to check during ride.

Above and below, speaker at first stop in the ride covers new developments along Cherokee Trail.

In June, summer is for sure here. Iowa this year feels like “high summer” in June. In a normal year, the state dries out and heats up in late July and August—but this year the heat and dry time has arrive early.

Well, at least that means more sunny days for biking, but careful biking, an old man like me needs to stay well hydrated in this heat.

Anyway, back to the ride. We received some updates from city staff, and I sadly didn’t take any notes, so I don’t recall a lot, except that work continues to expand the Grant Wood Trail, which is good news in my neighborhood.

Third stop, near the end of the ride.

Riders.

Ride organizer speaking at first stop.

Shelter at Morgan Creek Park was snack stop, which was nice. Whole ride was about 15 miles.

County speaker at Morgan Creek Park.

And, as the equinox came on later in the month, summer flowers, lilies and coneflowers and milkweed, are suddenly everywhere. The grass is dry, although mature trees still look OK. If it continues to be extremely hot and dry, eventually they’ll start to look sad and drop leaves early, but fortunately we’re not at that point.

Anyway, on June 23 I had a meeting at the University of Northern Iowa. It gave me a chance, in the afternoon, to ride 10 miles along some trails that were new to me. If I had more time, more water and less heat, I would have ridden farther, but at least I was able to ride some new routes in Wateloo. I’ve been using familiar trails a lot this month, so some tastes of new have been good.

Longest ride so far in June: 60.7 miles on the 9th. Year-to-date, 1.591.42 miles. Not quite halfway to the 3,300-mile goal, but there is still a week left in June, and I should get even more miles in July, what with RAGBRAI and all.

Many images from this summer month:

June 1-9:

Sunny, hot day June 9, riding trail south to Solon.

June 9--Ride to north end of Sac and Fox Trail. Nice to see bike lines added on Cottage Grove Road.

June 9--Stormy looking clouds on C Avenue.

Hybrid bike at Lowe Park, going for short morning rides while granddaughters have music lessons.

June 10--Sunset on Lindale Trail, hazy sky thanks to forest fires in Canada.

June 4--Blue Jay on commercial building next to Lindale Trail.

Sky colors June 1 on Grant Wood Trail.

June 11-17

June 11--Blackbird at Lowe Park.

June 12--Pretty summer sky on Grant Wood Trail.

June 12--Clouds at Lowe Park Trail.

June 15--Trumpet Vine blooming along Cedar River Trail in Hiawatha.

June 16--Butterfly Flower in bloom at Noelridge Park.

June 16--Common Milkweed in bloom, Noelridge Park.

June 16--Milkweed in bloom Noelridge Park.

June 16--Parked at Lafayette along Cedar Valley Nature Trail.

June 16--Watching bird at Lafayette.

June 16--CVNT north, pretty blue sky.

June 17--Sunset on Lindale Trail.

June 21-23: