In Which A Buck Has One Antler

March 4--Lindale Trail. Deer are plentiful in the modest woods along creek beds that parallel local trails.

March 4--It's been damp lately, and in a temporary pond in woods near Linn-Mar High School, a duck pair enjoys the wet.

March 4--Late afternoon like on trail off of Boyson Trail.

I’ve made decent use of my spring break. With some day trips planned and some bad weather, I’ haven’t gone on any super long rides, but I have accumulated a few miles.

My longest ride was March 12, when I went almost 24 miles on my road bike. This morning, March 16, I managed to get a few miles in, but the day turned to a cold rain so the ride was rather constrained. As I write this, it’s snowing, with the coldest St. Patrick’s Day in years expected tomorrow.

But I’ve rolled over 155 miles during this inconsistent March, and have just over 447 for the year. And I’ve been pretty good about doing the GHC (gratuitous hills climb) on each ride—gong up the neighborhood hill during this morning’s rain-shortened ride, for example.

March 11--Road bike at end of pavement on Grant Wood Trail. Beyond that, on limestone, snow has not yet melted, but I'm out in the county now, warmer March weather means trails in the countryside are becoming passable.

March 12--The Fancy Beast, my mountain bike, on the Boyson Trail. I have ridden a bit on the limestone, but it can be a bit mushy. Got a bit muddy on this ride and my wife kindly washed my coat and vest.

March 12--Snowman seen on ride is a bit, well, leaning.

During a 15-mile ride March 15, I encountered many deer along the Boyson Trail. A herd of maybe 15 was up on the hill as I headed down the side trail to Menard’s. And on the way back, a much smaller group, maybe six, crossed the trail in front of me—one of them a big buck who had just one antler.

I supposed winter is when bucks lose them, and it probably has not shed both yet.

March 13--Took a look at woodland mountain bike trail off of the Boyson Trail, and decided it's too muddy today. Will have to save that trail--maybe Friday or Saturday when it's frozen solid?

March 13--Buck with one antler crossed trail in front of me.

March 13--Deer by trail.

Well, one-antlered buck, this old biker was happy to see you, happy to be riding the first spring ride sans coat, hat and gloves, glad, even as snow is falling now and a winter chill settles in, that spring is on its way.

And glad, despite the chills, that I’ve ben lucky to get some miles in.

March 15--Goose by Cedar Lake, Windy day, some clouds, but warmest day of the week with temperature in the 50s.

March 15--First bike ride sans coat and other winter gear.

March 15--Mostly cloudy day, but some breaks, which makes for interesting sky at Cedar Lake.

March 16--As I get bike out of garage, I notice this moth, first insect of spring. Hope it finds a hiding place as snow fell that evening and temps dipped way below freezing.

In Which I Enjoy the Returning Light

March 1--I worked a bit late that night and am riding home at sunset--but this is the corner of Blairs Ferry and C Avenue, which means I'm almost there. Not as many rides are in the dark as the light is gaining on the dark at this time of year.

March can be a fickle month in Iowa—sometimes, the soft foreshadowing of spring, sometimes the clinging on of a cold winter, sometimes a bit of both or a bit of in between.

We’re only three days in, but they have not been a harsh three days. My late February rides were a little constrained by snow, an ice storm and cold rains. Yet, on balance, it was a good month, with nice enough days at the end to travel on my road bike rather than the winter beater mountain bike.

And, while we’re getting plenty of blustery winds, the deep cold of winter has only visited now and then. Rides have been doable—and many days, warm enough that I could skip the thermal long underwear.

Feb. 19--Sunday afternoon ride--last year's flowers seen at Cedar Lake, still icy (it's water, now).

Feb. 19--I climbed the hill at MMU on this ride, and saw this hawk on top of Warde Hall in the late afternoon light.

And the light is coming back. In January, most commutes even in the morning, were with lights. I often have to work a bit later in the office, but these days it’s well past 5 p.m. before I feel compelled to turn on the bike lights.

Last time I checked (Feb. 19), the gate on the Cedar River Trail headed north was closed. And I haven’t done any longer rides yet this year, nothing 40 miles or more. But I have started changing my biking routine a bit, mostly by seeking out hills. Whenever I ride my road bike, my rule these days is to climb at least one hill. Either I climb the Mount Mercy hill by one of the “hard” routes (it’s easiest to reach the campus via the gentle drive by Warde Hall, any other road or sidewalk approach involves a longer, steeper hill) or, if it’s a weekend and I’m not riding to work, I’ll climb the Brentwood Drive hill in my neighborhood.

Feb. 19--The end of my ride north, gate closed on Cedar River Trail. I know, I could have gone around it, but I was on my road bike and the ground was mushy, plus my heart wasn't set on a ride north--I just turned around and rode south as far as the Cedar River to get my miles in.

While I have no “long” rides yet, I’m adding hills to my routine in anticipation of summer. I know from experience that, if one is riding RAGBRAI, one does not regret any hills climbed earlier in the year for practice.

I finished February this year with 161.1 miles, compared to 147.85 in 2022. I have 25.1 miles in March on the third day of the month, and 317.02 miles for 2023. I realize there are bikers who have passed 1,000 miles this year, but I’m not in a race with them. I want to ride enough to please myself, and, as I advance in years, any month or year in which I can look back and say I rode more now than I did then, well, that’s a win.

I noted in my previous blog post that on Feb. 18 I saw a bike alone on the Grant Wood Trail and wondered a bit about it. This is Feb. 19 on the trail that runs along the levee towards the Sleeping Giant future bridge--and again, a bike with no biker. Hmmm.

My two longest recent rides. It may be May before I do any "long" ride, mostly because time is too precious during the spring semester, but I've gotten a few miles in. And some hill climbs.

In Which I Contemplate Trees, Turtles and Humans

Feb. 4--Cedar Lake, shadows on snow.

Feb. 4--20 mile ride today. Pretty light and shadows at Mount Calvary Cemetery.

It’s been a while, bike pals. The weather in Iowa this February has been all over the place. Deep cold, followed by spring warm, followed by snowfalls (missed school on two Thursdays in a row due to snow, and snow is in the forecast for next week—on Thursday).

I’ve managed a couple of rides on my road bike Argent, but most riding in February, due to ice and snow, has been on The Fancy Beast, my trusty old mountain bike.

Two of my longer rides were Friday, Feb. 17 and today, Feb. 18.  It snowed 7 inches or so on Thursday, so no riding that day. Friday morning the wind-chill was well below zero, so I drove to work. But by afternoon it was in the low 20s. I came home in the afternoon, donned my winter gear and headed out.

Feb. 10--Low sun at bridge on Lindale Trail.

I decided to ride close to home. Due to snow the day before, I wanted to do trails, which I knew would be reasonably ride-able. I headed up C Avenue to the Lindale Trail and rode towards the new trail that goes behind Linn-Mar High School.

I gambled that the short stretch on unpaved trail would be OK, because although the sun was melting some snow on pavement, I figured the limestone surface would be mostly frozen. Despite some soft spots, it was OK.

I was riding late in the afternoon, and as light faded and the wind picked up a bit, I admit was getting a bit cold. My feet, in particular, were letting me know that they were displeased with my life decision, but I pushed on. If cold, it was also quite sunny and pretty. The later afternoon light in February is quite nice.

Feb. 17--Sunshine on Lindale Trail. Trail mostly clear day after snowfall.

Feb. 17--I notice something in the woods near Linn-Mar High School. See how the trees are all close in size and growing in neat rows?

Feb. 17--Shadow of CR Biker on trail during afternoon ride.

Feb. 17--Bike in front of my house before afternoon ride.

As I rode behind the high school, I noticed something I hadn’t before. The woods along the creek—the trees are approximately the same trunk size. And they are growing in rows, like a field of corn.

This “woods” isn’t the wilds at all—I’m riding by a cultivated field of trees. When were they planted? What was the goal of the tree planter not so many years ago? I enjoy these woods, and my pleasure at them isn’t lessened realizing that they didn’t spring spontaneously, but were planned and planted.

Today, it was warmer, more comfortable, for riding, although the sunshine was less intense, the sky a bit milky. I headed east on the trail, the goal today was Waldo’s Rock Park.

Feb. 18--Mystery bike near Waldo's Rock on Grant Wood Trail. A child's bike, but no child.

Geese fly over Waldo's Rock at Waldo's Rock Park.

Feb. 18--Another biker circles pond at Waldo's Rock Park.

While I was paused, making some images, another biker stopped and chatted. He rides around the Waldo’s Rock pond often in summer, and remarked it lacks turtles—possible because it lacks logs or rocks at its edge. Turtles need basking spots to warm themselves, and he is hoping the city will add some stones or something for their sake.

Another human intervention in the landscape. One that I wouldn’t mind—rocks and turtles at Waldo’s Rock. Sounds good, to me.

Winter is still hanging on. Some days. It’s spring on other days. Biking continues, and, I hope, will increase in coming weeks.

Except on Thursdays. These days, every Thursday is snowstorm day.

So far in February, 97.7 miles. Year’s total so far, 228.52 miles.

In Which I Take the Plunge in New Light

Jan. 24--A snowy, slow morning commute. All of my rides recently have been on The Fancy Beast, my mountain bike.

Jan. 24--Same street, framed by my bike. Like my fancy rubber band system for holding the computer?

January 2023 is over. Did I ride more this month than in 2022?

Yeah. But not impressively so. In 2022, I rode 115.3 miles in January. In 2023, I rode 130.8 miles. So I gained 15.5 miles.

Well, a gain is a gain. As I age, I’m finding I’m a bit less cold tolerant, and to be fair, the fierce arctic cold snap we had in the second half of January this year, which cost me about a week of riding, is just the kind of thing that can happen at this time of year. Any miles at all in January, particularly a few more than the year before, thus counts as a win.

And it is now February. I rode 7 miles on Feb. 1 to start the new month. With clear, sunny days and a white snow pack, the light lately has been very pretty even if the temperature hasn’t always been biker friendly. The wind chill was minus 3 this morning, but with enough bundling, I was OK to ride. The days are slowly getting longer, the sun is slowly climbing in the sky, and we’re slowing starting to exit the dead of winter. With luck, maybe we’ve seen the coldest weather we’ll get. Hope I’m not jinxing it.

Jan. 24--We had snow on the weekend, and someone made and dressed this snowman, seen on my ride home from work. Closeup below.

Besides wind chills in the double digits below zero Fahrenheit that cut into my bike riding time, I’ve also struggled with some mechanical issues. My Elemnt computer stopped communicating with my phone, and I sent a “help me” message to the company. They responded with a couple of helpful emails, but their fixes (restoring factory settings and reconnecting) did not solve the problem—and to provide further help, the Wahoo company wanted a copy of my original sales receipt.

Which I never had. The computer was a gift. It was from my wife, so I suppose at one time the receipt was in our house, but we’re talking about a gift given more than a year ago. I don’t know about  you, dear reader, but no, neither I nor my wife catalog all old sales receipts, so help on the tech problem came to an end.

Well, no more ride maps for me. I may try to reinstall Map my Ride on my phone. At least the computer unit does still measure speed and record miles ridden.

Jan. 29--Waiting for the light at the corner of C Avenue and Collins Road. It's cold, but the winter sun is pretty.

A flat tyre, however, caused even more havoc. I purchased a tube for my hybrid bike and proceeded to change out the old tube to fix the flat. I’ve changed hundreds of flat tyres in five decades on two wheels, but this time, when putting the wheel back on, I accidentally popped off the nut at the end of the axle. Meh. But before I got it back on, part of the axle came out and the wheel started giving birth to ball bearings.

Never in my 50 years of serious bike riding and incompetent bike maintenance has that happened before. I was having a rough day when this particular disaster happened, and it did nothing to improve my mood. A simple tube swap has become an expensive problem that will involve a bike shop before the hybrid is rideable again.

It was a Sunday, I had too much work to do for school that week, and I had gotten a late start on a cold bike ride to campus. Lucky I have three bikes.

Anyway, so I was in a bit of a sour mood—but it lifted a bit later one. It happened to be the Sunday after the Saturday when RAGBRAI announced their route. It’s the 50th ride (51 years of RAGBRAI, but 2020, so it’s actually the 50th ride). It will go through Ames, Des Moines, Tama-Toledo, Coralville and end in Davenport—none of those places are terribly far from Cedar Rapids. It’s not as great as if they actually rolled through Iowa’s second city, but I’ll take it.

I was thinking about how I would sell the idea of my rejoining Team Joe to my wife, when she said, sans any prompting, once she saw the route: “Why don’t you go ahead and register?”

And I did. I took the plunge. CR Biker’s awful day of computer glitches and ball bearing escapes ended on a happier note. I’m registered as a rider for RAGBRAI 2023.

Image posted on Facebook by RAGBRAI, the 2023 route. Not sure I'll go all the way to Sioux City, but I may start in Ames or Carroll. In any event, I registered as a rider this year.

It just got a bit easier to meet my higher miles goal for 2023. I’ll gain a few hundred in July—and I now have incentive to push it when nice weather rolls around. I know from personal experience that the main prep needed for a RAGBRAI is as much saddle time as possible. Yes, train on hills. Yes, work on distance. But most of all, get your butt in gear and in shape for long sits on the seat..

In the depth of winter, 2023, for me, is looking a little brighter. As long as my ball bearings stay in place.

Feb. 1--It's not exactly spring, but at least in late afternoon as I get ready for the ride home, for once I don't need to turn on my lights.

In Which Winter Rides Continue In Snow

Jan. 15--Above and below--Birds fly over Cedar Lake on a grey winter afternoon. Taking a longer route to campus to enjoy them.

January is back, baby. I’ve missed a few days of riding as a result—once for a cold rain. I won’t ride in rain when it’s warm, given the choice, but certainly not when it’s in the low 40s.

And then winter, on vaca apparently, decided to return. Late Wednesday this week, the forecast was for light freezing rain changing into snow, and we sort of got that weather. But we were lucky, the change to snow happened early enough that we didn’t get seriously iced. Instead we got about an inch of snow—wet, heavy, dense snow.

School at my university was delayed two hours as a result on Thursday, and when I did got to campus, I drove rather than rode.

But Cedar Rapids was better about clearing this snow from streets than the previous one. Maybe it helps that on Thursday after the snow it was warm enough that road salt was fully effective. Anyway, despite  some patches of snow and ice here and there (Amaco, can’t you afford some snow removal on the sidewalk?), the commute to campus was rideable with a mountain bike on Friday.

I’ve been enjoying the winter riding that I’ve had. Snow is again in the forecast tonight, so it remains to be seen whether I bike much this coming week. Last Sunday, I meandered a bit on my way to campus and rode the Cedar River Trail down to Cedar Lake, one of the spots I enjoy on my local bike rides.

I continue to be ahead for 2023—may that be the trend. I’ve ridden 126.62 miles. My computer has stopped talking to my phone, which means I’ll be recording miles to the tenth rather than hundredth place until or unless the phone app recognizes the computer again.

Jan. 14--My sister and I inspect some of the new bike trails in the neighborhood. It was cold, but we were dressed well. We're at the end of the new trail that leads from the Boyson Trail north to Tower Terrace Road. She had not ridden there yet, nor under Blair's Ferry, and we rode both routes.

Minor technical problems. Whatever. The world is still a beautiful place, worthy of seeing from a bicycle. And today, I stopped at my neighborhood bike shop and finally got a tube so I can fix Francis, my hybrid bike.

But most of my January miles will be on the crusty, rusty old mountain bike. And yet, miles are mile and a ride is a ride and I’m grateful for any distance I achieve in the dead of an Iowa winter.

In Which Friday the 13th Isn’t Unlucky

Late afternoon ride on Jan. 1 on trail behind Linn-Mar High School.

Pretty late afternoon light on bike trail, Jan. 1.

The first almost fortnight of January 2023 has been pretty good, from a biking point of view. California has been socked with rain, the South is dealing with tornadoes, but in Iowa, the weather has been sometimes grey and damp, sometimes sunny, sometimes cold—but never as harsh as Iowa in January can be.

There has been snow on the ground, but no blizzard. There’s ice covering the C Avenue Pond, but it’s melted and frozen again several times. It’s been windy and chilly, and most (but not all) of my rides have involved insulated long underwear, yet we’re been in positive degrees above zero Fahrenheit pretty much for the whole first two weeks of the year.

Jan. 6--I take a slightly indirect route via Boyson and Lindale Trail as I head to campus. Seen from bridge over Dry Creek on Boyson Trail, some ducks in the glistening sunlight.

Jan. 6--Boyson Trail. Marion does a good job with snow removal, but it's the nature of a limestone trail to still have some snow. Riding my mountain bike, however, so it wasn't really an issue.

Another view of Dry Creek from Boyson Trail bridge Jan. 6.

My goal is to ride 3,300 miles this year, but last year I fell about 300 miles south of a 3,000 mile goal. I have a flat tire on my hybrid bike, and because of sometimes wet or slick on pavement, have been mostly riding The Fancy Beast, my oldest and slowest bike.

Still, the weather, while mixed, has been kind. At this time last year, by Jan. 13, 2022, my total mileage was 47.51 miles. I’m well ahead of that, now.

I’ve ridden 85.02 miles as of Friday the 13th. On Friday, I rode 7.99 miles on my road bike, one of two days I was able to ride that bike.

My longest ride, Jan. 1, made the best map image. Sideways view of bird?

Jan. 10--Morning light as I ride to work. Days are slowly getting longer, but it's a bit dark on morning rides still.

Jan. 11--Road bike awaits ride home. Bikers get the best parking spots!

Jan. 13--Image of bike bag as I park on campus--mostly for the few flakes of snow in the air. Can you see the dusting on the bag?

Jan. 13--Another view of winter bike dandruff--little flakes of snow. Rode road bike, but it was OK, snow was extremely light and didn't coat pavement at all.

My biggest mile total was 14.39 on Jan. 1. Two rides on Jan. 6 totaled 11.40 miles. I haven’t really taken any longer rides so far this year—over 40 miles—but it’s January, it’s cold, and I’m still getting some miles in.

That makes it, as of Friday the 13th, a pretty lucky biking year. More images:

Jan. 6--The Fancy Beast ready to ride home at Warde Hall.

Jan. 6--Morning snow cover and light at C Avenue Pond.

Jan. 11--Argent, my road bike, near Warde Hall as I leave work. One of two days this month when pavement was clear enough for road bike.

As I ride to work in the morning Jan. 11, I see this eagle perched in a tree at Kenwood Park. It flew off after I made a few images, second one below. I looked for it because I thought I heard an eagle's cry--for such large birds, they have a surprisingly pretty chirpy call (why in movies they usually use louder hawk cries to stand in for eagles).

Jan. 11-Second look at eagle.