In Which Birds of Spring Squawk ‘Go Away’

Headed downtown on trail, by Cedar Lake.

Cedar River, viewed on ride east on Otis Road.

Lake at Prairie Park Fishery.

Headed north on trail, once again passing Cedar Lake.

I encountered him about 16 miles into a 22-mile ride. A red-winged blackbird sat by the bridge where the Cedar River Trail passes over the Cedar River Trail (a couple of miles north of Cedar Lake the trail does a little loop and crosses itself).

I couldn’t see the red well on his wing because of the way he was sitting, but when wind ruffled his feathers, there was a peek his wing patches. Anyway, he was only maybe 6 feet from me, at the same level since he was in the canopy of a tree rooted at the base of the bridge, and he wasn’t backing down.

The blackbird wasn't singing in the dead of night, he was yelling in the light of day right by the trail. "Bikers, stay away!"

A turn to the left.

Spring. Birds in Iowa get a bit wacko—reproduction induced aggressive. Blackbirds are very territorial and fearless for much of the spring and summer—the reason smart Iowans wear either hats or helmets. Talon protection. A blackbird may dive at you and try to do a quick warning scratch. Luckily, my trail guarder was content to just shout at me as I made images of him.

Well, it is the season. Soon, Geese will get mean. They are usually not shy birds anyway, but they get particularly defensive when babies are around.

Daffodils blooming at Warde Hall, Mount Mercy University campus.

Well, avian dinosaurs were a theme of the ride today. Although I have too much to do for next week (sis, I should have been grading too and will pay for it now), I couldn’t resist taking my first spring ride of some distance—over 20 miles—on this cool, sunny, windy day.

I headed out at 2:30 in the afternoon, riding first to campus. I wanted to see if flowers were in bloom there yet (did not see any). Campus was also convenient for a restroom break. Then I headed to Cedar Lake and downtown on the trail, intending to go south of the Cedar River.

But there is work going on at the south end of the Bridge of Lions, and I didn’t feel like doubling back to find the detour crossing, so instead I went east towards the Otis Road area on the new trail along the flood dike. My target was the Prairie Park Fishery, so between Cedar Lake, the Cedar River and the lake at the fishery, it was sort of a water-themed, as well as bird themed, spring ride.

Seen on Otis Road before I get to Prairie Park Fishery. Eagle.

Circling back.

The world in Iowa is still a brown place, but spring is in the air. Some new grass is just starting to get green, crocuses are starting to bloom and daffodils are knifing out of the soil, but Iowa isn’t get it’s lush, green growing season self yet. Still, the sky was a beautiful blue, bikers and walkers were out and the winter feeling is leaving my corner of the planet.

Along the Cedar River, I noticed a bit of ice still in some quiet, backwater areas. White gulls in force were gathered at the edge of the ice. Most of the river was open, however, and snow has almost all melted on land. Besides my pal the blackbird, I watched a robin foraging for early spring insects as I ate a snack at the fishery, and I also photographed an eagle that was flying west of me on Otis Road.

Ice at north edge of quiet area of Cedar River--with a gull party, too.

Robin hunts at Prairie Park Fishery.

Selfie at mid-ride break, Prairie Park Fishery.

What a day! There were lots of other nice days this week, but because of a spring break trip to Chicago, which I thoroughly enjoyed, I did not get much bike riding in—one reason for the longer ride today. I rode 22.36 miles today, and a week ago, before the trip, added a few more, so for the past 8 days I have 29.65 miles, 88.33 for March so far, 351.48 for the year.

I’m sure I will ride tomorrow—I have to go to campus to get some work done—but won’t have time for such a long ride. Which is a shame, since it should be even warmer tomorrow. But still, today was a nice spring day, a sign, I hope, of longer rides to come.

As for today, the dinosaurs and I enjoyed it.

Clarence, my hybrid bike, parked at Mount Mercy University.

Sunshine on Cedar River Trail, pretty sunny day for a ride!

Map of ride.

In Which Buggy Iowa Looks Beautiful

The mystery goose from my Thursday ride. What honker is this? It was with Canada geese (below). (After I posted an image to Facebook, Dr. Bryan Cross from MMU commented, and I think he found the goose.

How has your summer been? I managed to miss three soggy weeks with a well-timed trip to the UK, and since I’ve been back in Iowa this July, it’s sometimes been hot and muggy but often been gorgeous.

Buggy, because it’s Iowa in the summer, so I’ve dipped myself in Bug Soother and had that familiar summer smell, a combination of sweat, old man, sunscreen and lemon pie.

My most recent bicycle rides, especially Wednesday’s, featured some pretty sights. On that day, because I was going to campus and using my good camera bag as a man purse, I decided my secondary goal was to find a Monarch Butterfly and take its picture.

Along Cedar Lake, the quest ends well.

As you see, the quest ended well.

Thursday’s ride, on the hybrid due to where I was going, was a slightly more ill-fated trip down the Sac and Fox Trail. I rode to the Prairie Park Fishery and entered the south end of the trail. As I rode on the Sac and Fox, it was unusually sandy in spots, which was treacherous because the sand was the same color as the harder surface and not easy to see. I was thinking that where the trail bends at the junction of the creek and the river, it might be muddy and impassible.

It wasn’t. But it did get very muddy later one. Overall, the trail was often either sandy and treacherous, or rocky and treacherous. It occurred to me to turn back and not ride it, but by then I was far enough in it felt like I should just finish.

Sac and Fox Trail, more treacherous than a muddy UK trail.

At the north end of the trail, there was a barrier, pushed aside, that said “trail closed for repairs.” I believe it, but if there had been such a sign at the south end, someone removed it before I got there.

Still, I found the rides this week to be pleasant, as Iowa is showing its pretty side. The weather will warm up and it will show its hot side, in time for RAGBRAI. Stay hydrated, biking friends!

Here are lots and lots of pretty pictures from the rides:

New park at Lowe Park looks almost done.

On Boyson Trail near Hanna Park.

Cedar Lake looking pretty.

Egret at Cedar Lake.

On the way to Otis Road, on stub of trail near future Sleeping Giant bridge.

Otis Road.

Bunny at Prairie Park Fishery.

Wildflower meadow near start of Sac and Fox.

North end of Sac and Fox. Now you tell me.

Bee near Milkweed, Cedar Lake.

Blackbird claims Cedar River Trail.

Bee on flower in meadow north of 42nd Street on trial.

More from the meadow.

Milkweed in bloom.

I guess I spent a few minutes there.

Coneflower.

Had not seen a Monarch before I got to Cedar Lake, but I saw this pretty butterfly.

Taking off.

Looking at Cedar Lake from trail bridge at north end, duck makes wake.

Milkweed in bloom a long Cedar Lake.

I find my Monarch at the lake. And below.

Bee approaches Milkweed.

Geese near Cedar Lake act like they own the place.

In Which We Top 75 Miles

The morning sun shines over Argent, locked to the bike rack at Brewhemia.

Well, that was a nice ride.

My first significant bicycle ride in the U.S. after my UK adventures was very pleasant. The weather was perfect—sunny skies, high in the 80s, not too humid.

The ride was Sunday. On Saturday, My wife, daughter, grandson and I went to the CR Pride Fest, and walked to lunch at Lucky’s in Czech Village.

We had briefly seen my sister Cate at the event, and as we were walking back to the car from Czech Village, she met us again. She was cycling south on the Cedar River Trail.

“I’m thinking about a long ride tomorrow. You want to join me?” she asked.

We didn’t have plans, so I said “yes,” so on Sunday, I got my bicycle out and rode to Brewhemia, a coffee shop in the New Bo neighborhood. We set 8 a.m. as a meet time there, and I arrived just a few minutes before my sister.

I had not done breakfast at that coffee shop before, and it was nice. I had the Aesop Bowl, which is scrambled eggs mixed with feta cheese, hummus and some sprouts. And, of course, I drank coffee.

We didn’t really have a specific route in mind for the ride, it was just that we wanted to ride enough to accumulate miles, so we headed to the south end of the trail, which is beyond Ely, just short of Solon.

On the Hoover Trail south of Ely. Sunshine--the kind of open, mostly blue sky seen in Iowa in the summer. Unless the sky is all dark with storm clouds.

We turned around and took a break at the city park in Ely. There were some geese at the pond there, and we heard an odd, low rumbling sound. At first, we thought it might be the geese, but I noticed none seemed to be vocalizing during the sound, and, in fact, a group of them turned towards the sound. Geese don’t have expressive faces, but to me they seemed to be thinking, like Cate and I: “What was that?”

I didn’t see it, but I think it was a frog, croaking its heart out very loudly.

Heading back towards Ely, bikers passing by Cate on trike.

When we got back to town, we took the stub of a trail to the future site of the Sleeping Giant bridge, and then went up the street to got to Otis Road and head for the Prairie Park Fishery. Cate noted that she doesn’t often do that because she avoids street riding as much as possible on her trike. It’s mostly a matter of her being seen—she says bikers and drivers don’t seem to look down much and often overlook her even with the tall flag on the trike. But on Sunday, I rode behind her, and I think I’m pretty easy for drivers to notice.

Riding along Otis Road, being passed by a car.

After that side trip, we returned to the Cedar River Trail and continued north. The city paving project at the bathrooms along Cedar Lake has been completed, and it was nice to be able to water up in mid Cedar Rapids again.

Cate said I could pick the lunch spot, and I decided I was hungry when we got past the railroad overpass, so we stopped at a spaghetti eatery and carbed up. We both ordered dinner, and I think we both felt a bit over stuffed. The ride after that was a bit hazy for me—I had not slept all that well the night before and am still adjusting to Iowa time.

When we got to Center Point, Cate went into the little museum there, while I dozed on a picnic table for 15 minutes or so. I think that accounts for her nickname for me on the ride. She posted this note on Facebook: “I asked Joe if he wanted to go for a long ride today. He said sure. One of my devices says we rode 75 miles, the other says 79.5. I'd say we had a good long ride. Thanks, jet lag Joe!”

Map My Ride map.

My mileage would vary from hers a little, since I started and ended at my house, not hers, and rode streets down to the breakfast meet rather than taking the trail. Map My Ride recorded 79.24 miles for me.

The total miles aren’t even what impressed me most. There was 2,185 feet of climb, which was way more than I would have estimated—rail grades on the trail are deceptive, I guess. Mostly what surprised me was our speed. We averaged 11.4 mph and had one mile where we averaged 15.6 mph. Those are probably not very impressive numbers to fast bikers, but I’m a slow, old biker. It was much faster than the rides I took in the UK, although the main difference was the bicycle. My road bike is clearly meant for a faster pace, and that I’m sure wearing the bike shoes have power throughout the whole leg movement helps, too.

Even if the ride include any Iowa river valley for a hill climb, it was a good RAGBRAI training ride. It seems proof of concept that we can both handle the distance for a RAGBRAI day. Of course, RAGBRAI is a week.

I did have a bit of trike envy on the ride—I’m sure my sister finished the ride without the pains in the back or bottom that I suffered. An almost 80-mile ride translates into a long time to sit on a bicycle seat.

Still, I’m quite pleased. RAGBRAI, we’ll see what the weather brings, but I’m feeling ready for you.

I Which I am Rescued and Save my Rescuer

Catalpa tree in bloom on Boyson Trail, from morning ride.

What a nice day! I wish I could say I got some serious biking miles in today.

Oh wait. I can. Getting lost will do that for you.

I am not sure how many miles I biked, but I did probably 8 or 9 miles in the morning with my grandson, who I was watching for most of the day. We left home around 9:30 or so, biked to Hanna Park in Marion, played for a few minutes, and then biked the trail home.

We were home by 11. I had changed him at the park, so we ate lunch and were laying down for a nap by noon. He slept for around an hour and a half. After he got up, we had a snack, emptied the dehumidifiers (trust me, when you are alone with a bumbling boy of about a year and a half, that’s an extensive adventure). By 3, I asked him if he wanted to take another bike ride.

“Yeah,” he said. And he meant it—the grandson is almost as addicted to the bike as I am. So we put on more sunscreen and bug soother, and headed off with no particular destination in mind. I rode over to Noelridge Park, thinking maybe we would stop there, but it looked a bit busy, so I continued on to the Cedar River Trail.

We went south, and stopped when we got to the park at J Avenue. We played for a few minutes, but the grandson was not as excited about this park. It’s possible there wasn’t as much “cool stuff” there, but partly it was because he was really enjoying the bike ride, and didn’t really want to spend much time away from the bike.

Since we were close to Mount Mercy, I texted my wife and daughter who were working there. My wife texted back and suggested I bring the grandson to campus, so I did.

There, my wife proposed she take the grandson home and I continue on a bike ride. That sounded good to me. I started the ride by climbing the MMU Hill four times via four different routes—I wanted to ensure I got some hill practice in today.

As fate would have it, I need not have worried on that point.

Where to go on my ride? It occurred to me I hadn’t visited the Prairie Park Fishery nor the Sac and Fox Trail much this year. I decided to do the Sac and Fox from the north end, and then I could swing by the fishery.

Anyway, I am not sure why I went down Prairie Drive by Franklin Middle School. I had the vague notion that it would be easy to find Washington High School, and from there head down Cottage Grove to the Sac and Fox Trail area.

Except, I was wrong. I managed to get turned around in the unfamiliar neighborhood east of First Avenue. I ended up on 19th  Street, which I knew was way too far south, so I turned north on Grand Avenue, which I took to Bever Park. From there, I headed north on Bever Avenue.

As it turns out, Bever Avenue ends somewhere I have never been before. I had some heckish hills during that odd ride to nowhere. Yet, I wasn’t upset—I figured Cedar Rapids is not that big, and the point was to ride my bike anyway, so who cares if I rode for a while on new streets?

Except suddenly I was on East Post Road during rush hour. I don’t even know how I got there. I knew that East Post went by the Sac and Fox Trail, so at first I decided to stick with it, but after a hill climb in traffic there, I didn’t want to remain on East Post anymore, so I turned off at the first substantial looking side street.

And I almost immediately got lost again. Eventually I accidentally found Mt. Vernon Road. I headed up a sidewalk (I was not going to ride on Mt. Vernon Road, it would have been worse than East Post) until I came to a light across the street from a HyVee. I figured if I turned right, I would be heading into the area of Memorial Drive and could find that street and then reach Otis Road.

And, oops, I did it again. Only worse, this time. It was as if I had been dropped into a strange town. Nothing was familiar at all. My spirits were starting to sag a bit—partly because, for hill-climbing reasons, I was very reluctant to try to backtrack to Mt. Vernon Road.

I texted form this corner. I have no idea where it is except it's in Cedar Rapids.

I texted my wife to let her know I was hopelessly lost, but expected to be home some time. I just didn’t know exactly when. And, no, in cast you ask, although I do have a smartphone, I do not have a GPS app, partly because I don’t use any roaming data.

Anyway, about that time, another biker rode by me, with a passing “hello.” He was a serious looking biker, a tan spandex-clad skeleton on a thin, quick bicycle.

I hailed him and he stopped. “Where are you headed?” I asked.

“I’m going to ride the trail down by New Bo,” he said.

“How are you going to get there?” I asked. He started to give me directions, looked at me, and saw that I was confused. More than usual, I mean.

“Would you like to follow me?” he kindly offered. Kindly because he was a fast biker on a good road bike, and I’m a biker who is slow even when I’m in biking clothes on a road bike—and I was riding an even slower hybrid bike in plain civilian attire. Trust me, my butt was letting me know what it thought of all these miles without biking shorts. In effect, Mr. Biker Guy was selflessly offering to ride at an incredibly glacial pace for him, just to help me out.

I thanked him and followed him. Several twist and turns later (good thing he let me follow him), we were at Memorial Drive. I thanked him, and I assured him I could get where I was going from there. We waved goodbye and he took off.

But as I crested a rise, there he was again, this time stopped on the side of the road. “My chain came off,” he said. It wasn’t broken, it had just over shifted off of his front gears. He flipped his bike over, and I held the rear derailleur for him as he put the chain back on track. It wasn’t stuck, just off, so he got it on the gear again fairly quickly.

That’s biking karma for you. He had slowed down to aid me, which meant I was there to help him.

We again said so long and I took off. A few minutes later he zoomed past me with parting wishes for a good ride.

Which I had. It was longer than expected and a bit tiring, but I took Memorial over to Otis Road, and then circled the Prairie Park Fishery. Along the way, I chatted briefly with Dr. David Klope from Mount Mercy.

Prairie Park Fishery, above. And Catalpa bloom, below, along the loop around the lake there. Honestly, why doesn't everybody have a Catalpa tree?

Then, I rode over towards the Cedar River Trail. I took the St. Ludmilla shortcut to get there—but now I was in geography so familiar to me that a known shortcut was worth it.

How far did I go? I was on bike from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. or so, but it was in-town biking, so it’s hard to say. I think I topped 40 miles for the day and maybe even did 50, but without a computer on my bike, I do not really know. I could look at a map, but I’m not sure I could ever find the route that I actually rode.

And I rode lots of hills, which made today’s mystery ride good RAGBRAI practice! That’s even what I told myself when I was lost—it was good RAGBRAI practice since RAGBRAI is a hot summer ride where you’re lost most of the time. Except you know the way on RAGBRAI due to the stream of 10,000 bikers you’re in, so I guess today was a different kind of slightly edgier, solitary lost.

Still, it was a gorgeous day for a bike ride. And I got in two rides with the grandson, and that’s always a winning day.