Mt. Pisgah

Really, who names sand dunes? The same people who name couches and chairs, I suppose. (You know who you are.) Anyway, I rode to the State Park today, for starters. The new hiking path up into the dune behind the State Park is open, and today it was quite busy. It appears to be popular. I believe that those stairs look ready for BB to try them out. The wind was from the southwest, and the only bit of land that is even mildly southwest of here and reachable by bike is the the State Park. It was a shorter ride than usual -- about 1.5 hours instead of the usual 2. Both of my shoulders were quite painful this morning -- I was beginning to think that my birthday was the cause of my sudden loss of fitness and various aches and pains. My bike log gave me a more likely explanation. I rode 200 miles the first 15 days of July -- a bit on the light side, but the weather was crappy, and there was the 4th of July weekend events and such. I've ridden almost 500 miles this month, which means I've ridden nearly 300 miles in about 2 weeks, which except for Tram years, is quite unusual. So just as soon as I clear up the 'almost' and the 'nearly' from the previous statement, I'm going to take a rest day or two. And maybe even an ibuprofen. Or two.

New Battery Pack

I put a new battery pack in the camera, and rode north again this morning, retracing yesterday's route. I was a little slow on the outward leg -- from riding into a light northwest wind, perhaps. I felt strong enough to ride as far as 'Hill' before turning around. The little park where I stopped yesterday is right across Lakeshore from the power plant, which seems to show up on my blog with an absurd frequency. Rumors have it that there is a rare nesting pair of falcons that have taken up residence on the Consumers Energy property. There was no sign of them today. That would have been very cool.

The north wind picked up strength as I headed south, with the result that my average speed on the return trip was 2 mph faster than on the ride out. Very unusual for me. I rode for a little over 2 hours, and my legs held up okay. I kept adequately hydrated and perhaps more importantly, adequately caffeinated. Recovery from 'no legs' usually takes a little while, but it is late enough in the summer that I can recover and ride more or less simultaneously. It was 64 degrees when I left and 74 when I returned. This month will almost certainly go into the record books as the coldest July in this area since they began keeping records. Monday it hit 83 degrees, the warmest day all month.

No Legs

Some days you've got good legs, some days you don't. Today was one of the "don't" days. Not explainable by any set of circumstances that I can conjure up, just a bad leg day. It is also very near the end of the month, with mileage goals raising their ugly heads (in spite of my declarations that I have no mileage goals), so I rode anyway. To complete this fine Dutch Whine, it was also windy. And cloudy. Did I mention windy? I rode north-ish to the Campbell Environmental Field Station rest area, near the power plant, and got myself, Ruby and the camera organized to take a photo of the cat-tails near the gazebo. (Sounds nice, doesn't it?) My camera said "replace battery pack," so I have no photo from the ride. I did have this photo from yesterday's ride, but it didn't fit in with that entry, so it didn't get posted then. It doesn't fit in with today's either, but there you go. (That green background is one of the picnic tables at the PSPS, just to fill in the link to yesterday's post.) I will say this about Nutri-Grain bars. They taste an awful lot like filled cookies. And I do like a nice filled cookie now and then. Maybe it is to blame for my bad leg day.

There is Something About Mornings

As you may know, I prefer to ride in the morning, though I'm not quite sure why that is. One reason may be that it is cooler then -- which may come from the childhood spent on 'da range, or maybe the Scandinavian DNA -- but I am not a fan of heat. Oddly, OSLO is. Another reason may be related to the fact that the sun is not as high in the sky at that time of day, and doesn't beat down on my head and addle my brains as much. Same cause and effect relationships as reason one, perhaps. I also seem to have more energy and motivation before noon. Rides put off until after lunch are often rides that I skip altogether. Like yesterday, though the winds gusting over 25 mph after about noon had a lot to do with that. True to form, I rode for a couple of hours this morning -- a combination of blueberry fields and the PSPS. At the PSPS I ran into the group of (old) people shown above, who bike every Monday morning, according to the silver haired guy in the green shirt. I wonder if there is a relationship between being old and preferring mornings for riding? Hmmmm.

Different Perspectives

All these photos were taken on yesterday's ride. I'm taking a rest day today.Down this road for .42 miles, each way of course. It is gravel, but it is very hard packed gravel.

Looking up the Pigeon River, northeast I think, from the end of the gravel road.

Looking northwest, from the vantage point of the old bridge across the Pigeon River. A familiar subject, but a slightly different view of the power plant than usual.

U-Pick

Fog gave way to overcast skies. I went with the armwarmers this time, and wasn't quite warm enough. The photo is of the U-Pick blueberry farm on the corner of Quincy and 160th. There were maybe a dozen people walking out to pick some berries. They seem to have gotten lost in the dark. Most of the other fields are being picked by migrant workers at this point, which means that I am occasionally treated to some Spanish style music as I ride on by. The cooler temperatures and cloudy skies probably make that job at least a little easier. Did I mention that I don't like Contador much? He does ride pretty fast, undeniably. I doubt he'll ever picked blueberries for a living.

When Does This Race Thing End?

The TdF is interfering with my life. I got out early yesterday, and rode my very nice bike, Ruby, for a couple of hours, careful to be back in time for the stage end. I rode east far enough to get in 20+ miles, round trip. I took the picture of Ruby (my very nice bike) where I stopped to remove a layer. Arm warmers would have been a better choice than a long sleeve jersey. Live and learn. Nice bike, eh? Today it rained early and I rode this afternoon, after the stage was over. No arm warmers were necessary, as the temperatures rose nicely into the low 70's by then. I have a new acronym for blog use, too. CMAAB. It stands for "Crap Masquerading as a Bike." Here's the story. I saw two women with bicycles (and no helmets) standing on the bike path -- about a mile from the house -- on my way out for my ride today. I pulled over -- bikers' code, and all. Asked if I could help. The first woman said her brake was rubbing on her rim. Well, yeah. That's how it stops the bike. She had black marks on her rim, but her brake wasn't rubbing. (Aside: I have to stop reading bike blogs. I'm tired of people who write 'break' when they mean 'brake' and vice-versa. It is beginning to annoy me.) She was riding a mountain bike, with tires badly in need of air, but a 'real' bike. Turned out they'd actually stopped because the other woman was tired. Her rear wheel was wobbling, and it was hard to ride, she said. I spun the wheel -- it was badly, and I mean badly, warped. I checked to be sure that the wheel was firmly attached to the bicycle -- it was. She said it was a new bike, and she was going to take it back. I'll bet she spent $50 for it, if she spent a dime. I had no idea what to say to her -- other than I didn't think she should ride that bike very far. (In my "unprofessional" opinion, I was careful to add.) They thanked me profusely, though I had not done a thing for them. Moral? I love Ruby. And I firmly believe that no one, not even members of the Moron Family, should ride CMAAB.

FYI

Cool, sunny, with a tricky, shifty light wind. I rode north to PSPS and from there to the top of "Hill" -- then east to where the WOOS sits near the highway. South past Hemlock Crossing. The north loop around the Pigeon river. It was 27.27 miles, according to my bicycle computer. About the length of one of GZ's two hour rides. Just so you know .... it took me two hours, 30 minutes. Just so you know.

Week's End

The week at Hogwarts went well, with both of the COTU evaluating the camp as a 10 out of 10 in the categories of fun and learned some stuff. Hope is renovating one of the original campus buildings, just across the street from where the Science Camp was held. The COTU suggested that next year the camp should be held here, in Graves Hall, because it looks like Hogwarts. I rode for about an hour and a half this morning, returning in time to watch the last hour or so of today's stage, and to see George spend some virtual time in the yellow jersey. It was the only really interesting thing about today's stage, to me. Didn't people used to fall over more in this race? I know Levi broke his wrist, and I wish him swift healing and all, but I remember this race as being a lot more interesting 5 or 6 years ago. Is it just me? Anyway, I have Granny Duty for today -- though at their ages and our ages, it's a toss up as to who is watching who. Or whom? OSLO is off on a social engagement with Brad. Tomorrow night she and the COTU are meeting his dad. OSLO and Brad spend a lot of time together and with the kids, and everyone seems to get along well. That's about all the news that's fit for public consumption, but I thought you'd like the update. It's more interesting than the TdF.

31 Miles -- with Guest Rider

Long rides go faster with a guest rider, I think. I haven't managed a longish ride in the last few weeks, and as I was leaving the house this morning, LH became available as a riding partner. Weather was an issue today, as usual. Rain was forecast for this afternoon, and a brisk NW wind was already blowing. It never got above 65 degrees while we were riding, and it was probably a few degrees cooler when we got back than when we left. Still, it was a very nice ride. We stopped a few times to refuel and admire what a nice place we have to ride just out our back doors. Kirk Park was nearly empty except for us. Continuing north, the clouds got thicker and the possibility of rain seemed more serious. I wanted to get as far north as highway M-45, and as Wireless can attest, this is it.

That was the turn around spot. About a half mile or so south of there is a Conservancy site and a hiking trail. LH had noticed it on the way north, and we stopped to check it out on the way back. It goes back along the wetlands, east of Lakeshore.

I've been through here several times, but in my ignorance, I always thought it was just a bridge over a marshy spot along the road. Who knew it was full of native species of flora?

We took a slight jaunt inland to see the one room school house along Pierce, then back to the lakeshore. Another slight jaunt inland took us through some woods and farmlands that LH had never seen. It felt very north-woodsy to her. I agreed. It also had the advantage of bringing us up the back side of "Hill" and added a few kilometers to our ride. Oddly, I felt strong today. Even with a headwind that shifted to a cross-wind on the return trip and robbed us of the strength we should have enjoyed on that leg. We made it home dry. A pretty good ride.

Local Flora

Two mornings of early rides this week -- in spite of the cool, nearly cold temperatures, it was a schedule that worked for me. Today I woke up to the familiar sound of rain. So no ride. OSLO and I have a simple system for getting the COTU to Science Camp and back. I go pick them up, take them to lunch, and drop them off in the Science Building on campus. When her daycare duties are done, she comes to Holland and picks them up.

That left me free after 1:00 pm to attempt a ride -- but of course, it rained again. Not a lot, but enough to wash out a ride.

Maybe tomorrow morning. It will be the last day of camp, and they will graduate from their fourth year at Hogwarts. Time is different in the world of wizards than here on earth, I think. A game of Quidditch will be played tomorrow, as well. Since this involves flying on broomsticks, I'm a little curious about how this will be done. I like magic and such, but this seems like a stretch. I'm assured that it is a fairly simple game, and that there is a plan in place.

All of the flowers pictured above are growing at the beach house -- some were here when we bought the house (the top and bottom photos) and the others I planted.

Of Sorting Hats and Houses

A quick review of the basics of Hogwart, the school of witchcraft and wizardry attended by Harry Potter. At the start of the term, students are led into the great hall, where they are sorted into their houses by placing a sorting hat on their heads, which decides which house each should belong to. There are four houses -- Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff and Slytherin. The COTU are attending Science Camp at Hope College this week, where the topic of their week is the science behind some of the special effects in the Potter movies. True to the spirit of the books, they were sorted into houses. They were questioned, and the hat chose Hufflepuff for both of them. They would have preferred Gryffindor or Ravenclaw, but at least they did not find themselves in Slytherin. It was a day devoted to many of the animals in the movies -- including several real live snakes -- shudder. They agreed to go back tomorrow when they will be making Mandrakes, so I believe they had fun. And maybe learned some stuff.

So what does this have to do with biking? In order to pick them up in time to take them to their camp, I started my 2 hour ride at 7:30 this morning. It was cold here overnight, and I wished I'd worn long fingered gloves, but it was a nice enough ride. BTW -- this summer is on pace to be the coldest one in recorded history here in West Michigan. If I had to pick a month to have colder than normal, it would probably be July. A high of 75 today was just fine with me. But mid 50's overnight is chilly. Fair warning.

Virtual Tie

After this morning's ride, the Ruby and the Elite are virtually tied for total miles.
Another 500 miles or so separates these two from the old Bianchi Boardwalk. Suddenly I feel tired.

Scary Biker Guy

If it is raining in Milwaukee, that usually means that it will be raining here soon. Such was my logic when I pedalled out of my driveway a little after 7:30 this morning. 22 miles, up to the the PSPS and back, plus a bit. Their vining petunias are attractive, I think. There is this guy who rides a lot of the same roads that I do, during the same times. We've exchanged pleasantries a time or two, and he's always raised my hackles just a bit. My gut check is where his name came from -- TOPWLH has been hearing about him for a couple of years. Scary Biker Guy. I've been seeing him a lot this summer, and a few days ago he rode up behind me and struck up a conversation. It turns out that he isn't quite as scary as my original impression -- but still, if I should disappear while biking, check out a skinny guy with a white mustache and a slight speech impediment that rides a white Fuji road bike. A really, really nice white Fuji road bike. In fact, when I looked at his bike's down tube, I expected to see the word Cervelo on it -- don't know why, except the shape of the frame triggered that word. He says he rides about 50 miles a day, and sees me 'out there' a lot. 50 miles. A day. That's a lot. No wonder I see him 'out there' a lot. I followed him north for a while today before I turned off to the PSPS.

So for a quick change of subject, here's a photo of the possibility of tomatoes. It was a nice enough ride -- the wind was light, the skies were dark, I got home dry. An acceptable trade off, I suppose. I got back to the house in time to watch the last hour and a half of today's stage of the TdF. It's just the Pyranees so far, the real mountains are yet to come. But it is beginning to get interesting.

Late edit: Nocentini? Or No Santini?

Dukes

Bowerman's prices haven't changed much since last year, as far as I can remember.

Dukes are better than bluettas. (Pronounced blue-ettas.) Fatter, sweeter, a little mushy, and more blueberry flavor.

Bluettas

Sometimes, usually about this time of year, I get tired of riding the same old rides, the same routes to the same places. There are a couple of barriers to riding other routes for me -- some real, some mental -- that I occasionally feel the need to overcome. Today, with the wind from the northeast, I rode a half mile down a gravel road and crossed Highway 31 -- two things I dislike doing. I was rewarded with this. Yep. Fresh blueberries. Bluettas, specifically. And that is Traverse City Cherry Fudge ice cream underneath those berries. Excellent flavor combination. My first fresh, local blues of the year.

This place is right off the highway, easy to get to by car, not so much by bike. A little more wind than I expected, and the late afternoon sun got hot before I got home, but hey .... ice cream and blueberries. About 24 miles. The gravel portion is the section between the 10 and 11 mile markers.

Swans, Tiger Lilies and Pigeon Lake

The northern lakes have seen queer sights, but the queerest they ever did see .... was four swans swimming on our inland sea. I took a token ride yesterday morning, about an hour and a half. It was cold enough for tights, though it warmed up enough later in the day for the SLO's to swim. Twice. OSLO watched, but didn't get wet beyond her knees. The water temperature was mid sixties, I believe.

OSLO and the SLO's left this morning after an extended weekend visit. It always seems so quiet when they leave. TOPWLH napped and I took a longer, GZ length ride up to Pigeon Lake. There are tiger lilies in bloom in many of the ditches near the PSPS. Their color doesn't seem as intense as the ones in the photo on TT's blog a while back, but pretty none the less.

At the approximate half way point of the ride I took this photo of the boat launching facilities on the north side of Pigeon Lake to show how high the water is here, compared to a similar photo posted by GZ a few days ago. It was 65 degrees when I left home about 1 pm, and it is now about 72. I'm beginning to suspect that we are going to have a cool, wet summer. (How about that TTT today?)

Food Will be Available, I Think

I rode the tour de blueberry fields today, while the boys were riding in Monaco. CNN has a breaking news headline that is just sooooo ignorant. "Lance Armstrong loses first stage of Tour de France." Anyway, it appears from my inventory analysis that blueberries will be available in a few weeks. Tomatoes look like they will need to be found elsewhere. The deer and rabbit damage is getting to be severe. I've tried all of the organic, "smells bad" stuff, and am considering hiring a sharp shooter. Probably illegal, and certainly more expensive than the Farmers' Market approach.

The cucumbers had just started to look promising, with the yellow flowers and all. I doubt that these will survive their severe pruning.

The radishes are still untouched by these vile pests, but do not seem to be developing any actual radishes, just lots of leaves. This gardening thing is harder than it looks. Happy Birthday, America.

Odds and Ends

I took a 2 hour ride this morning, past Bowerman's farm. They plan to open next week. With many blueberry fields still standing in water, the harvest might be difficult. I do not know how the quality of the berries will be affected. The sun came out about mid ride -- the upcoming holiday weekend is supposed to be nice. Except it might rain. June is over, and it was a mediocre month from both a weather and a biking perspective. I did ride 24 times, with an average ride length of 20 miles. Mid year -- but I often ride more miles in the second half of the year than in the first. Without the distraction of a job that starts in late August, it will be interesting to see how the fall rides work out. I'm not really focused on goal attainment this year, but more on enjoying the ride. It seems to be working out okay, so far. (TT -- I left a response to your comment on the previous post.)

Bike Touring

One more post, and I'm done with our little bike trip, I promise. Here's the obligatory shot of the truck, without which there would be no out of town bike tours. The parking lot of the Spring Lake Holiday Inn, at the south end of Spring Lake, was the starting point for our rides. We had lunch in Fruitport on Monday. Fruitport used to be called .... something with 'peach' in it ... then there was a harsh winter in the late 1800's that killed the peach trees, and the name got changed to Fruitport. True story.

It says all of that on a plaque in the park pictured below. This is at the north end of Spring Lake, the lake. In Fruitport. Sorry if this is confusing. Notice the flag -- winds were blowing about 25 mph through most of the afternoon. I'm still tired.

We finished the 15 mile circle of the lake for which the town of Spring Lake is named (Spring Lake, sort of obviously), then cruised through the hotel parking lot and up and over the lift bridge to Grand Haven, via Harbor Island. It's .... well, an island, in the middle of the harbor. I have heard that it is home to a large deer population, but we didn't see any.

We did see some strange piles of something .... Lynne thought the gray and white piles against the semi-blue sky made an interesting shot. Since she didn't have her camera, I took the photo.

There's a local street bridge from the island to the downtown area of Grand Haven, handily. We rode down the boardwalk and stopped for coffee at a shop along the waterfront. Well, I had coffee. Lynne had something called Mike's Hard Lemonade. I needed the caffeine. I am not sure what she needed.... We retraced our route back over the island and the bridge to Spring Lake, then along their West End Boardwalk, and back along a rail to trail path for a while. We found our way to the south side of town eventually, and rode east along the Grand River until threatening rain made it seem like a bad idea. I think we rode a bit over 27 miles total that afternoon. A planned evening ride got rained out, but we had a tasty supper at Two Tony's, a Greek/Italian restaurant in town. No pie, but otherwise a nice little bit of touring. I now know that it is possible to ride one's bike from Holland to Muskegon, without ever having to deal with Highway 31 -- except for the bike/pedestrian walkway across the aerial lift bridge between Grand Haven and Spring Lake. Mostly on bike path, if one chose. Interesting.

Running on Empty

July 1st. Apparently the theme for photo blogs is 'empty.' One of the pictures from the bike trip seemed to work for that -- empty sky, empty lake, empty channel. This is the Grand Haven pier and lighthouse, taken from the north -- Ferrysburg -- side, on Tuesday morning. In spite of the heavy looking skies, our bikes never got wet in more than 60 miles of riding over the course of a day and a half. Most of the trip was every bit as cool and overcast as this looks; it was still in the 50's at this point. But I have to say that the ride out there was so, so worth braving the elements. There is a lovely stretch of road that runs along the beach for about a mile, with houses and cottages set nearly right on the beach on the west side, and a dune preserve stretching inland as far as I could see on the east side. Beautiful. From there we rode back into Ferrysburg and picked up the back roads to Muskegon. Dogwood Dr., Hickory Rd., Black Lake Rd., Pontaluna Rd. Again, some interesting hills, and a strong north-west wind made it a little bit challenging. Our goal was to ride to Hoffmaster State Park in Muskegon.

As you can tell, we made it. It's as different from Holland State Park as you can imagine -- much more like Kirk Park, set in a heavily wooded section of dunes. From this sign we climbed back into the dunes for about 1.25 miles to the visitor center. We were in need of a break so we went in, and found that the view from the back of the visitor center was of another, even taller dune. There are trails for tourists to walk back through the woods and the dune, but it was more than our legs were up for at that point -- we still had many miles to go. We rode back into town with a cross tailwind, and though it felt fast, neither of us felt strong. Flatlander legs complained, but held up. Of the three rides we took, Tuesday afternoon, Wednesday morning and Wednesday afternoon, this was by far the most fun and most challenging -- and most satisfying. Even with cold, wind, overcast and dune shaped hills, this was a very nice ride, and some of the prettiest countryside I've ridden through in a while. The map for it is here.