In Which Summer Continues in October

Sept. 21--Riding on the trail east to Marion means watching for the large walnuts that get dropped this time of year.

The lastest month of biking in Iowa? Beautiful—and also dry. Honestly, I would not mind missing a few rides due to rain, if you ask, Mother Nature.

Still, today I want on a 19.7-mile ride along the Grant Wood Trail—I chose that route because I didn’t get out the door until mid-afternoon and didn’t have time for a super long ride. The Gazette reported this morning on the ribbon cutting for the Cedar Valley Nature Trail, now paved for all 50 miles north to Waterloo, and I would like to ride that soon—but not today.

And today, another reason to take it easy in the afternoon was heat. It flirted with 90 degrees today, very hot for this time of year. Luckily, it was also breezy and dry, so it was not a terrible humid heat.

Oct. 5--About 10 miles from home, east on Grant Wood Trail, pausing before heading back home. Fall look to the woods by the trail.

Oct. 5--Trail and corn, as I again pause on the way back home. On the paved trail now, beside a corn field (above and below).

I didn’t really plan it that way because, to be honest, I didn’t pay attention to the forecast, but there was a gusty south wind today, so my choice to go down the Grant Woods trail, a mostly east-west ride, was a good one.

In late September, the drought and shortening daylight caused the plants to react as they should. It hasn’t really felt like fall yet, no hint of frost, but there has very much been a fall look to the rides with nuts dropping from the browning trees. We are getting to that dry time of fall when the first hard freeze will be welcome to get rid of tiny biting insects that suddenly abound in the dry grass, but I guess the dry weather means there aren’t as many biters around as usual.

Well, the riding has been good. Fall break is next week, and dry, sunny weather continues, so maybe I’ll get in a longer ride north to check out some of new paving. We’ll see. In the meantime, I am enjoying fall rides. As of Oct. 5, 51.05 miles for this month, 2,449.7 miles for the year so far. In September, my miles totaled 246.32.

More September bike ride views:

Sept. 21--Mountain bike on mountain bike trail by Boyson Trail, fall look in the land.

Sept. 15--Pretty fall sunset.

Sept. 13--Lucky Friday at the bike rack. Some other MMU employees decided this was the one day they would ride bikes to work--fuller bike rack than usual.

Sept. 21--Trail in Marion on day before Equinox--fall is arriving.

Sept. 24--C Avenue Pond on pretty fall morning.

Sept. 27--Despite warm weather down here--it must be very cold up there where the thin clouds are--Sun Dog, usually only seen on very cold day in winter, appears.

Sept. 24--Another look at the C Avenue Pond.