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.

In Which I Blaze New Trails New and Old

Oct. 26--C Avenue Pond at Collins Aerospace steams on a cold fall morning. I think it was around 30 degrees (international friends, that's just below 0 in Celsius).

Hello, bikers, it’s been a minute. Busy times in the life of CR Biker.

Fall break this month was a few days of not biking as I traveled to Minnesota to visit a daughter and her family there—reportedly, the Twin Cities are a great biking hot spot, and I hope in the future to feature more rides there.

But the family are settling into a new place and I was there briefly with my wife to help some in that process, so the vehicle was full of stuff that did not include a bicycle or bicycles. Future Minnesota biking to come!

Anyway, I did do a few rides this month—some on older trails, some on new places as bike trails in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, continue to expand. I usually do at least one fall bike ride on the Sac and Fox Trail, a 7-mile unpaved trail. It’s best to have a mountain bike, and this year, for the first time, I rode some of the mountain bike side trails off of the Sac and Fox—so that trip was both trails old and new.

Oct. 7--Rode the Sac and Fox on a fall Friday afternoon--this is Cedar River seen from trail.

Oct. 7--The Fancy Beast, my mountain bike, on mountain bike trail off of the Sac and Fox Trail.

Oct. 7--Put bike in minivan and drove to north end of Sac and Fox Trail. My bike, ready to ride.

The Cedar River Trail, which had long been paved through town, became unpaved. Heavy equipment had to be brought in to take out trees destroyed in a destructive 2020 storm—the infamous derecho—and that equipment had basically converted paved trail back into gravel. It took some time to get all repairs done (and, to be fair the trail was not closed, it was just gravel for a while). One of my rides was to roll along that new pavement.

Most exciting, and closer to home, the westward expansion of the trail whose name confuses me (there long has been a Grant Wood Trail heading east from Marion and, more recently, a Lindale Trail headed from Cedar Rapids into Marion—now the trails have been joined, and I’m wondering if the “Lindale Trail” still exists or is or will be renamed to be part of the Grant Wood Trail—unsure) continue. It’s growing, like a long aside that can eat a blog post sentence.

Oct. 22--Riding to the new tunnel under Blair's Ferry Road.

Oct. 22--Bike with Tag-A-Long ready for ride to new tunnel.

Anyway, although paving is not done along this new trail, much of it is done. You can now ride under Blair’s Ferry Road. Because the trail after that still goes nowhere, it’s unclear if that will become my usual morning commute ride, or if I will continue heading south along C Avenue to the bike lane south of Collins Road, but we’ll see. Anyway, I took several grandsons under Blairs Ferry using my Tag-A-Long attached to Clarence, my hybrid bike.

For the record, grandsons love new trails at Halloween time. A great place to make sunset ghostly howls.

It’s been a fine, dry, warm fall in Iowa—great for biking even if the human and gardener in me wouldn’t mind a bit of wet stuff falling from the skies. We can, however, tell that that the seasons are shifting.

Mornings have become freezing cold at times, and the winter riding jacket, warm socks, gloved and the biking hat that fits under a helmet have all been found and worn.

Still, it’s not winter yet. I wear the jacket in the morning and stow it in backpack or bike bag for the ride home.

October is not quite over and I may do a few more miles, but so far this month I have rolled 211 miles. That gives me 2,406 for the year—still some 600 from my 3,000-mile goal. Not sure if I will make it, but it’s still possible. And certainly I’ll get within rounding of 3,000 miles.

And now, as happens when I have not posted for a while, a long gallery of October biking images: 

Oct. 3--Ride along Grant Wood Trail, seeing some last-minute fall insects. You can still find bugs in Iowa, but they are becoming increasingly scarce as frosty nights are common:

Pond at Waldo's Rock Park.

Big predator on Grant Wood Trail.

Mantis guarding my bicycle.

One nearby had been run over, glad I saw this one before it either was squished or froze.

Pretty sky on Grant Wood Trail.

Oct. 7--I was on my own for part of October, as my wife was helping my daughter in Minnesota. One of my "bachelor" Friday afternoons was spent riding the Sac and Fox Trail:

Fall colors on trail.

Fall colors.

Sac and Fox Trail.

Sign for mountain bike trail off of Sac and Fox.

Bike on trail.

I know it's not true, but I felt like my mountain bike was happy. It enjoyed the trails it was meant for. Of course, it was me enjoying it, but that's what it felt like.

Fading fall flowers.

Finished one of the bike trails.

Deer on trail.

Deer by trail.

Watch out for the trees.

Power line by trail.

I had not planned to ride the whole trail, light was failing, but I did--at south end of trail and now I have to ride back to van.

Sunset seen on Sac and Fox Trail on ride back.

Famous frog in park at north end of trail, pretty in pink.

Oct. 12--Ride south on Cedar River Trail to see new paving--and new art downtown:

Above and below, biking mural in downtown CR.

Late blooming Hibiscus in downtown.

No more loose gravel--this paving is now repaired.

Leafs on Cedar River Trail--very fall look.

Above and below, biking mural under downtown bridge.

Part of trail by federal courthouse closed, a minor detour on the way to the repaired trail.

Here and next three images--mural on parking garage downtown.

Above, below, Cedar Lake light.

Oct. 18--Part of my daily commute, navigating construction zone at Blair's Ferry and C Avenue. Not to complain, glad to see improvements, but it takes a while:

Barrier north of Blairs Ferry. Still waiting for paving to be poured.

Paved corner south of Blairs Ferry.

Road work zone.

Oct. 19--Two late bugs warming on pavement on cool day after freezing night, seen on Lindale Trail:

Caterpillar.

Grasshopper.

Oct. 21--Final image, fall morning at C Avenue Pond:

C Avenue Pond morning light.