In Which May Features Many Miles, Creatures

May 30--Morning bike ride to campus leads me to encounter this bird. It's a substantial bird, but a very young hawk at the end of one its first flights. Resting on a bare bush behind Warde Hall.

May 31--This time, the young hawk is on the loading dock, which is a problem because I'm trying to get inside the building with my bicycle. The loading dock door is the only external access. I was a bit worried, since I had to get close to junior, that I might meet mom or dad under adverse circumstances, especially since junior was making plaintive cries. Luckily, I got peacefully inside the building.

I had some bike struggles in May—a persistent problem with flats on my hybrid bike, mainly. The good folks at Goldfinch bike shop kept at it, eventually replacing the back tyre, which was fairly new, for free, which I appreciated.

My other issues were personal—mostly the first half of the month was crazy busy until Mount Mercy University, where I teach, had its graduation. The final two weeks of the months featured my first longer summer-style rides.

I rode 50 miles on May 18, although I discovered I was not feeling all that well afterwards. My sister and I rode 40 miles together on May 23, but it pretty much knocked me out afterwards. The next day, I wanted to do another long ride, but only managed 28 miles before exhaustion took its toll. At least, I did manage 35 miles on May 25, but my wife observed, “we have to build you up.” Indeed, those aren’t very impressive RAGBRAI ride distances.

May 4--Morning sun at C Avenue Pond.

May 6--On a cloudy day, sun peeks out on side trail off of Boyson Trail.

May 16--Interesting morning sky on bike ride to work.

On May 31, the weather forecast was for a nice morning, followed by a hot summer-like afternoon with the high around 90 Fahrenheit. I had a plan—I would get on the road by 8 a.m., ride 50 miles before it got hot, and then do 10 miles later after it had cooled down.

The best laid plans and all that—it didn’t exactly work out. I slept later than I expected and took a while to get ready, so I left after 9. That was still earlier than I’ve usually started rolling, so there was still hope. I rode north to Lafayette, doing the loop around the Robins Park both coming and going. Then I rode down to Cedar Lake. I had to turn in my letter of appointment at the university where I teach, and planned that as a break in my ride. By the time I got there, I had about 25 miles and the day was getting hot.

May 17--Weather in warming up, bugs are getting common and sunscreen is now part of each ride.

May 17--Bike parked on Lindale Trail as I pause to photograph flowers.

May 17--Sweet smelling flowers of spring along Lindale Trail.

The afternoon was quite warm, but on the way home I rode partway down the Lindale Trail, going to the west end and back to the bridge area on the east. By riding a slightly indirect route home and by messing around on the Lindale Trail, I managed to get to 42 miles. It was about 2 p.m., and I decided it was time to hide inside for a while.

I fixed and ate lunch and took a nap. By the time I was up again and ready to ride, it was past 5 p.m. I decided that if I rode 8 mile and reached 50 for the day, I would still call it a success. I rode out to Waldo’s Rock, and then returned to the Lindale Trail, turning to take the Boyson Trail and the new Creek Trail that leads behind Linn-Mar High School.

May 18--Rode bike to Urbana, parked for break at Lafayette.

May 18--Hazy skies on Cedar River Trail north of Center Point. Sorry about the forests, Canada.

I’m normally a slow biker. My 42-mile ride was on my road bike, my fastest bike, but it had a slow motor that day. For the later ride, I rode my hybrid bike. For one thing, I had moved my bike bag there, so didn’t have to wear my camera bag, which I liked.

By the time I got to the north end of the new creek trail, at Tower Terrace Road, it was getting dim, and I didn’t want to ride a dark, wooded trail in twilight. So I turned west along Tower Terrace Road. I was well past my 8 mile goal, in fact, I had ridden more than 10 miles. Even though it was getting late and I had not had supper, I was too motivated. I rode to the Lowe Park Trail—not taking the trail as it was too dim, but just heading up the street and back to gain some distance.

May 24--Rode mountain bike to Sac and Fox Trail--took side mountain bike trail for a couple of miles.

May 24--Halfway down Sac and Fox, trail is closed for a road bridge construction.

May 24--Cedar River seen as I ride along Otis Road.

May 24--Cedar Lake.

May 24--Mountain bike parked where the trail ends, halfway.

May 28--Riding back to start of Sac and Fox, pretty late afternoon.

On the way home, I turned north into the Cedar Rapids neighborhood north of Boyson Road. I had about 15 miles on the ride—but looping around, I managed to eke out the missing 3 miles. It wasn’t so hot in the evening and I didn’t want to stop in the 50s if I could make it to 60 miles.

Which I did. It was the last day of May, and 60 miles is my longest ride so far this year. To get ready for RAGBRAI, I’ll have to try to ride that kind of distances several times a week in June, but it was good to get the first “long” ride in.

In May of 2022, I cycled about 210 miles. This year, May 2023, my milage total was 397 miles. Maybe I would have gone for 63 if I realized I was only 3 miles short of 400, but I don’t feel bad about 60 miles on May 31. For the year so far, I have 1,118 miles. The old rule of thumb is one should ride at least 1,000 miles before attempting RAGBRAI. With my old body, I need more prep than that—it just takes longer to try to get in shape.

May 26--Rode to Boyson Trail on mountain bike, parked along mountain bike trail there.

May 25--Where there was a detour at a sink hole site on Cedar River Trail south of the river. The regular trail is open now--rode down to Ely this day.

The rides in May came as the weather quickly transitions from a warm spring to a hot, dry summer pattern. I hope we get some rain soon, as it’s way too dry for this time of year.

The rides, while getting buggy as they do in Iowa, have also been nice. One feature of the May rides has been the increasing number of interesting critters I’ve seen—deer, of course. Also a groundhog and a snake. And several times, late in May, a young hawk. A pair of red-tailed hawks nest on top of the five-story building where I have my office, and this year they successfully produced at least two young hawks, that one of my faculty friends dubbed “front door” and “back door,” because the first tentative flights of one have been to the front stop of the building, while the other prefers the rear. On my bike rides, I’ve encountered “back door” several times.

May 31--Catalpa Tree flowers near Cedar Lake.

May 31--Very hot day, summer look of Cedar Lake.

May 31--Pond at Waldos Rock park late in the day as I aim for 60 miles.

May 31--Summer "snow" on Lindale Trail--Cottonwood seeds.

May 31--Sun going down on Lindale Trail.

One day, I even saw a fox family on the Lindale Trail. I'm aware that wild fox live in Iowa, but this was my first time seeing one, and it' wasn't one, but a mom and two kits.

May—miles are picking up as I plan longer training rides, and nature is getting more interesting to look at. I hope May rides have been pleasant wherever you are!

The creatures of May:

May 6--Fox family on Lindale Trail.

May 6--Young fox is watching me as I photograph it.

May 18--Snake on trail in Robins. I'm glad to say it quickly moved off the trail.

May 18--Snake makes a break for the grass (my bike in background).

May 25--Geese along Cedar River.

May 26--Groundhog crosses Lindale Trail.

May 26--Deer near Boyson Trail.

Groundhog near Lindale Trail (before crossing it).

May 31--Geese at Cedar Lake.

In Which We Hum “Hawk Child in the City”

The context shot--bird of prey on symbol of praying.

A bit of a cool, gray late February Friday morning—not that I’m complaining. Unlike the harsh winter several years ago where a super-cold February was followed by a super-cold March, the seasons seem to be turning this year, and a slightly cool, cloudy morning ride isn’t a bad thing for a city biker.

At least I don’t have to bother with the long underwear—it’s not that cold anymore.

So I biked to campus and decided to scale the hill by going up Mercy Drive. If I’m not in a super hurry I take this route; it’s a good hill to ride for RAGBRAI practice. I arrived, breathless, heart pounding as usual, and started to cross the Rohde Plaza in front of the U Center.

And then I saw it, sitting atop the cupola of Warde Hall.

I zoom in. Hawk is atop 5-story building and hangs out like it just doesn't care. I guess I"m too big to eat.

An Iowa Hawk, not from the big U to the south, but from the sky. I didn’t know how long it would sit there, so I started to shoot some photos with my little camera from ridiculously far away, but it just sat there as I cycle closer to Warde Hall.

It was facing away from me, so I decided to circle around to the front for a better view—and there it was, a second hawk. I had decided to leave my Nikon at home this morning—I might bring it back to campus tonight for Vegas night—and I wished I had it, because I would have liked to capture hawk two in flight. The second hawk, more skittish then the first, roosted briefly in a pine tree in front of the building.

Hawk 2 in tree.

I snapped away, and then the second hawk flew away, but hawk one maintained its perch atop the copula.

Well, it’s nice to see some birds of prey at MMU again. Will the summer be filled with screams of young birds once more? Will Warde Hall be guarded by a stern looking juvenile, as it was for a good part of last year? I don’t know, but I did enjoy the nice dinosaur punctuation to the end of my morning ride.

Two views after I park Francis--back of hawk has more colorful feathers, and it looks like there might be a nest there at the base of the copula. Welcome back, hawk pair.

In Which I Take a Nice Camera for a Ride

Bike parked in rack at Regina Hall. It took me a long time to try to get this shot, but here I am in the cracked mirror of Francis. About to start on my way, wearing the Nikon.

I had to meet a student on campus today so that he could use a newspaper camera to shoot a basketball game.

I brought my good Nikon camera, too, just to practice a little, and I wrote about that in another blog.

So when I got ready to head home, I decided to document my 4-mile commute in a bit more detail than usual, using the good camera. In short, the things I saw fit into four categories:

1) Creatures of the road. Before I left campus, I noticed a hawk sitting on the cupola of Warde Hall. I shot it from the campus side, but it seemed to be facing away. As I headed down the drive beside Warde Hall, I was almost accosted by another form of wildlife: There were some angry tree rodents. I’m not sure why they took issue with me. Maybe having a hawk up high makes them nervous, although how scampering around and making angry tree rodent noises at me helped solve that problem is a mystery—if anything, I would think they were making themselves more visible to the bird of prey. Anyway, after shooting the squirrels (with a camera), I also photographed the hawk from the street side of Warde Hall.

First squirrel, above, is in mulch-covered garden surrounding crab apple trees at Warde Hall. He or she merely eyed me balefully. The two below (they are two different squirrels) sprang up a tree beside the drive, and proceeded to heckle me as I photographed them. Hey, squirrels, I have a right to be here too. And I"m bigger, and I'll live decades longer than you, so neener-neener-neener to you.

Two views of the cupola hawk.

 

2) Signs of the season. There was a man putting up decorations on his garage on Eastern Avenue, but I was too shy to photograph him. But here are some other decorations I saw.

Santa on Elmhurst Drive across the street from MMU. Tree in lawn (below) near Kenwood School.

3) The stark, bare trees of late fall. It’s starting to look a lot like winter. The ground is not yet frozen, but leaves are history. I prefer trees with their foliage, but the bare branches have their own stark charm, too. Some of the trees along the ride.

I like green leaves, but the shape of bare trees, like roots reaching into the sky, is pretty cool, too. And you can see nests like the one below. The tree that held this nest had five large ones in it, made we wonder who the tenants in that bird apartment building had been, and if they had any amusing sitcoms made about themselves.

A few oak leaves cling to tree at Kenwood School.

A couple of tree reflections in pond at Rockwell-Collins.

4) Some transit signs. I took the shortcut through a weedy lot at the end of F Avenue just south of 42^nd Street, and wondered at a bike leaning against the golf course fence. And I photograph new traffic control measures at the corner of Collins Road and F Avenue. I e-mailed the city about that corner, which has become more difficult to cross, and their e-mail indicated they are putting in these video controls. That might be good news for bikers—I know the ones at the corner of Prairie Drive and 29^th Street seem to “read” bikes OK, so I’m hoping that this corner will again be easy to cross.

Why the bike, against a golf course fence? I don't know. But crossing the path beside said bike did bring some tyre leaves to my bike (below).

New traffic control on F Avenue at Collins. Set to see bikes, I hope. City informed me in an email that it probably will be set to see bicycles in a certain lane "zone" that may be marked later on.

Most snow is gone, melted in rain Thanksgiving Day--but a few mounds of dirty snow are left at the edge of parking lots, and I think they are morphing into interesting shapes as they slowly melt.