Fourteen Posts and Four Bike Rides

Mother Nature has not been kind to bikers around here this week. Monday -- strong winds. That was the day of that long ride I blogged about a while back. Tuesday -- strong winds again. I rode, but didn't enjoy it much. My bike log says, "Hard, but I did it."

Wednesday -- less wind, but it threatened to rain. It was raining in Wisconsin, and coming this way. I took a chance and rode over to Quincy Park. The outside water isn't turned on yet, but the bathrooms are open.  So there was public water available for the first time this spring.

I considered doing a post on bike racks at one point this week -- triggered by the appearance of the bike rack above at the Kiwanis Rest Stop.  The only other bike rack I found on that ride was the one at Tunnel Park, below, so I scrapped that idea.  The tunnel is still blocked by the accumulation of wind blown sand over the winter.  It's possible to use the tunnel, but you need to climb over the sand hill first.  (I made it back before it rained.)

Yesterday it was windy again, but manageable when I left the house.  NNW at 15, gusts to 21.  I had an appointment for a hair cut at 1 pm, right in the middle of prime ride time.  I (smugly) decided to use my two wheeled transportation and ride the long way to the salon.  It worked well, though I didn't quite figure the time right and had to hustle to make it there on time.  Jennifer lets me leave my bike in the back room, and other than a bad case of helmet hair, it worked.  We chatted for an hour and a half about the stuff you chat about in a hair salon, and I totally failed to notice that the wind was increasing steadily while I sat there.  When I hopped on my bike to head home, a mere 6 miles, the 30 mph wind gusts came as a nasty shock.  Home was due west, and the wind was from the WNW.  I considered riding to the other house, but we had other things to do (see yesterday's post), and it would complicate things.    My bike log says "Unbe-f'ing-lieveable wind."  (You know it's bad when you have to put a swear word in the middle of a word to adequately describe something.)

Today -- day five of this (way too long, sorry) story.  Not too bad.  Cold for April, but finally a bikeable day.  I rode north of the Pigeon River just twice last year, but this year I've ridden there roughly twice a week for the last month.  It's a bit of a stretch for me, but I really like the ride.  I stopped for a while at Hemlock Crossing Park on the return leg.  5 rides in 5 days, 115 miles.

As I re-read that last sentence, it sounds a bit like bragging.  It is, I guess.  But full disclosure here, it's still hard.  I'm putting as much time into biking and exercise as I want to put into biking and exercise, and it may be that this is the best I'll be able to do this year.  I'm not quite okay with that, but it is what it is.  I was thinking today about why I ride.  The classic answer is that I ride my bike to ride my bike.  But it's also about achieving and maintaining some level of fitness. Another blogger, Jill Homer, expressed her motivation this way.  "My fitness is only as good as the intriguing and fun things it lets me do, or the beautiful places it lets me visit."  I found that to ring true for me, at least in part.  Of course one the fun things it lets me do is ride my bike.

Triskaidekaphobia

Every month, when I get to 12 posts, I have to work my way through my triskaidekaphobia.  My solution this month is to do a double post today.  Here's my lilac bush photo, taken on a walk around the neighborhood recently.  These are the darker purple lilacs.  Or is that darker lilac lilacs?

Budding Artist

The Grand Haven High School had its Art Show tonight, and our Granddaughter had two pieces in it this year.

The first one is called a contour drawing, where the pencil doesn't leave the paper during the entire exercise. So it is all done with one line. I'm told it is quite difficult to do.

The artist was there, as were many members of her family. Three grandparents, her mom and brother, an aunt and uncle or two or three, a cousin or two, and her best friend.  I think there was a great aunt there, too.

The portrait is something she's been working on all term.  As she put it, "It's just some random chick I found on the internet." 
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Beach, Barn and Turkey Farm

OSLO and her BF spent the weekend in Wisconsin visiting friends, so I invited the COTU to hang out with us while they were gone.  Kind people that they are, they accepted.  As a direct result, I got in three good walks this past weekend.  They are excellent granny minders.

This photo is from Sunday and demonstrates a few things.  First, the dune grasses are greening up, and as a result the beach is beginning to take on its summer look.  Second, it was a warmish day yesterday, though still below average for this late in April.  Third, it was a pretty calm day.

Today I really, really needed a bike ride.  My dietary indiscretions over the weekend had left me feeling pretty punk -- I really don't handle sugar very well.  I had some extra glucose to burn.  The forecast was for sunny and windy.  Both turned out to be true.  It was a mostly north wind when I left, so I rode north as far as Fillmore (there just aren't a lot of streets named after that president.)  The barn in the above photo is along Hiawatha, near the point where I turned inland. (I was fairly close to Kirk Park when I turned east.)

I've ridden east on Fillmore before, but it's been a while.  I knew the turkey farms were there, but I apparently forgot which streets go through.  I'd checked Map-My-Ride before I left, but got misled by their map.  152nd appeared to go all the way through from Croswell (from near the WOOS), but when I got to where it should have been, there was only a meandering, sandy double track heading up and over a dune.  Not rideable. Rather than double back, I crossed the highway and took the next road heading south -- one that was paved.  I haven't ridden those roads regularly since I was training for TRAM, so I forgive myself for my memory lapses.  As a result of the route change, today was my longest ride of the year -- just a touch over 30 miles.  When I got back home the weather channel claimed the winds were from the NW at 26, gusting to 31.  Maybe.  I'm pleasantly knackered, but not totally turned inside out.  And I think I got rid of some of the extra glucose sticky-ing up my blood stream.

Who Doesn't Like a Gear Report? (Plus Edit)

I saw this water bottle described on Fatcyclist.com today, and decided that I wanted one.  It claims to be a leak proof design -- leaky water bottles are a pet peeve of mine.  It also is made of BPA free plastic, and claims to be 'taste free.'  (I appreciate both of those qualities in a water bottle.)

It has a clever nozzle thing on it, named -- and you need to be kind of old to find this amusing, the WaterGate.

With a pretty good wind from the south, a ride to Cross Country Cycle via Waukazoo Woods worked okay.  Laura was in the shop, and had some free time to chat with me about water bottles. Including the fact that they had had some of the Purist water bottles made up with a drawing of Big Red (done by Laura) on one side, and the Cross Country Cycle logo on the other.  I bought just the one, for $12.99 plus tax, since there just could be some salesmanship going on here, and I already have a gazillion water bottles.  If these don't perform as advertized, I don't need a gazillion and two.  A gazillion and one is plenty.  Laura even filled it with water for me.  (Somehow that "P" seems to be paying homage to the element of water, don't you think?)

It was now a two water bottle ride, so in spite of the winds gusting over 20 mph, I rode out past Quincy Park before turning for home.  The lilacs inland are in full bloom, and the smell of spring was in the air.  The sun even came out eventually, and in spite of the headwind returning, it was a really nice ride.

Friday Edit:

 I rode the Elite out to Hemlock Crossing Park yesterday -- the Elite because rain was in the area.  I used the new bottle, and am happy to report that I do like it, so far.  The water had no plastic taste, and it is easier to use than any of my other bottles.  As a consequence, I drank more.  I'm a fan.  (And yes, I got rained on.  Rain happens.)

The Color Purple

Yesterday's 50+ mph winds finally calmed down -- I didn't even try to bike the last few days.

There was a chill in the air when the soon-to-be-retired professor and I set off for a walk around the neighborhood this evening.

The lilacs are just beginning to bloom here along the lake.  Last week all the flowers seemed to be yellow.  This week the common color is purple.

I like the effect of the blurry, out of focus background in the last couple of photos.

Tales of the Centers of the Universe

I've been on the other side of a lot of "junior day" campus visits -- meeting with parents and high school juniors (and seniors) to put a human face on that whole campus visitation experience. Yesterday OSLO and I were the parents, and we had these two high school juniors with us -- it was their first official campus visit, and Hope was a logical choice. An easy, friendly place to start. It went well. These two had a great time.

I'm not sure if they liked it because it was a warm and sunny spring day on a pretty campus -- or if they loved the fact that Graves Hall could pass for Hogwarts, and they're both Harry Potter fans.  The two are good friends, and they'd like to go to the same college.  I don't know if that's going to work out, but it doesn't hurt to see if it's possible.  One's leaning towards pre-vet, the other wants to major in art.  They will continue to look at other colleges, but it was a good introduction for them to the process of choosing a school.

Today the other grandchild needed some sand for a science project he's working on.  Fortunately, we knew where to find a bottle full of it.  I believe I mentioned in my last post that I needed a rest day and a walk day.  Yesterday's tour of the campus involved a lot of walking, so that part worked.  I took a short ride this morning before picking up the Grandkids for the weekend, as it looks like Mother Nature has plans to provide me with a rest day.  Storms are rumbling across the plains, and it looks like it's time to hunker down again.  Beware the Ides of April.

Pigeon Creek School House

It was my longest ride of the year, so far -- though not by much. It's further out there than I thought it was. It said 14 miles on Ruby's computer when I took this picture. Not that 14 miles is all that far, but you know, I was still 14 miles from home.

Here's the money shot of Ruby next to the school house sign, just to prove I was there. Or at least that Ruby was.  It was a two water bottle ride.

The school house sits at an intersection with three gravel roads and one paved road.  I got there via the paved road, but knew that if I took that gravel road that you see in the first photo for about a mile, I'd run into pavement and shave almost a mile off the return trip.  A mile isn't much.  But at the end of 27 miles it can feel like it.  I pondered it for a while, and took the short cut.  Ruby is the woman's version of the Roubaix, a bike named after the Paris-Roubaix bike race, famous for its cobblestone sections.  I live sort of out in the sticks, so this issue comes up pretty often, at least compared to you city folks.  I've ridden Ruby on gravel a number of times, and she does fine.  My average speed was even respectable, especially given a mile of gravel.  I need a rest day and a walk day, but today was an "I feel like a biker" day.

Playing Outside

I took a long walk around the neighborhood last night with LH, leaving today open for guilt free riding.  Cold, but guilt free.

The wild turkeys made their first appearance today.  There were three in this group -- the two Toms were camera shy.  This was taken just a bit north of the power plant.

The sign at the bottom of Hill refers to this as a trail, rather than as a bike path.  It might be 6 inches wider than the bike paths -- at most.  I've been wanting to ride up to the old one room school house, but I got tired of riding north into the wind and cut across to the WOOS instead.  Maybe next week.

 

I've been looking for some marsh marigolds for a while and today I finally found some.  In a swamp -- or maybe a marsh....  At least it didn't look like winter out there today.  My take on today's ride is that my fitness level is still not where I'd like it to be -- my endurance level is pretty good, but I'd like to be stronger.  In bike terms, I'm happy with the distances I'm riding, but not with my speed.  Something to work on.

April?

It feels like a ride report is past due. I've taken a couple of rides since I last reported in.  One of them was my current favorite, the Pigeon River loop. The route winds its way through blueberry fields, which are running ahead of schedule -- so much so that there's a risk that a significant freeze will damage the crop this year.

Both the cherry crop and the apple crop have suffered significant freeze damage, according to news reports.

This time I did stop in at Hemlock Crossing Park, where I got a pretty good view of Pigeon River as it heads west towards the big lake.  A woman crossing this bridge, coming toward me said, "nice day for a bike ride."  So I said, "nice day for a walk."  Really guys, this is about all the human interaction I have on most of my rides.

It may actually be called Pigeon Creek at this point.  I'm just not sure.  This was last Friday, I think.  I continued on from there, taking the bike path west from the WOOS to the lake shore, before heading south past the PSPS towards home.  The property this stretch of path is on is mostly owned by the power company, so there are very few driveways along the 2.5 mile stretch, and no pedestrians, at least at this time of year.  The path is also new, and thus in much better shape than the rough, pothole filled, pitted road surface. 

This apple tree photo is from yesterday, when my ride was just up to the PSPS and back.  Winds from the WNW at 20, gusting to 30.  Ugh.

If I ignored the wind -- hard to do -- it was a pretty April day. 

Like it or not, this week looks like a rest week, at least from bicycling.  I saw my Medical Oncologist yesterday, and have been encouraged to walk more.  No surprise there.  Other than that, things looked good.  I got the same opinion from my Radiation Oncologist this morning when I went in for a 6 month (!)  follow up visit.  He claims I'm in the 'early' recovery period from radiation treatments.  I said I thought I was pretty well completely recovered.  He laughed.  When I walked out of LAROC, I was greeted with heavy snow flurries.  Snow?  Really?  Snow?  Apparently I didn't miss winter after all.

Easter Sunday Beach

The dune grass has begun to send up new shoots.  The ends of these are unbelievably sharp.  They will puncture the bottom of a bare foot -- quite painfully.  One more reason to wear shoes on the beach in the spring.

Last year's dune grass is still hanging around, doing its job of catching the sand as it drifts.  The heads are starting to look pretty ragged, though.

The shape of the foredune changes over the winter every year. This year there seems to be a more significant bowl between the base of the primary dune and the foredune than what I remember from last year.

It looks like a lot of beach -- especially since the snow melt run off season is over.

There was enough wind off the water today to make it pretty chilly walking along the water's edge.  Even with a winter coat, a headband and winter mittens.

I tend to prefer the wet sand for walking -- a firmer surface.  I saw three other people and one dog during the time I was down there.

The vegetation on the face of our bluff is still pretty brown, with green sprigs just beginning to show through.  One sign of life is the lilac bush at the bottom of the stairs.

It has been crushed by snow and reduced to next to nothing on multiple occasions but it always seems to come back and even thrive.  The lilacs near the lake tend to bloom quite a bit later than the ones inland, but these look like they are getting close.

Walk Day

What happened to all that warm weather everyone was exclaiming over while we were in Florida? Dang, it's cold here.

I needed some help from my minions to get my Christmas decorations stored in the attic, so I borrowed the best (and only) ones I have.  Once we got the holiday trimming boxes tucked away, a walk on the beach seemed in order.

It was not my best idea ever.  The cold wind off the water froze us out pretty quickly.  The girl COTU dipped her toes in the lake, and the expression on her face pretty much describes its temperature.

Not to be outdone, the Girl from Indy (GFI), who is visiting the COTU for spring break, also gave it a try.  She put on a brave face, but retreated from the water's edge towards the warmer sand quickly.

The beach was absolutely gorgeous today, though.  The sky was as blue as it ever gets, and a few brave souls even brought a kite.  We turned around at about this point, headed downwind and up the hill.  We did a circuit of the neighborhood a bit later, more or less out of the wind, and called it good enough. 

Happy Birthday

The Center of the Universe is celebrating her 17th birthday today.  What could be nicer than that?

Kirk Park

We've been back from Florida for about 10 days, and counting today's ride I've ridden 5 times.  I need to kick it up a bit.  Don't even ask me how many times I've walked.  I need to kick that up, too.

There were a couple of traditional experiences that I didn't manage to fit into last year's biking schedule.  One of them was to eat a pig at the PSPS.  I was probably better off to let that one slide, but I was there around noon, I hadn't had lunch, and they had pigs.  (The napkin is to soak up some of the grease.)  One of these every two years is enough. 

A more serious omission was a ride to Kirk Park.  I put it on my list of goals for April this year, and checked it off today.  Park maintenance has not removed the winter sand accumulation yet.  The path to the beach was fine, but the fence at the gazebo was drifted over.

I rode up the inland route and back along the lake shore.  That has the advantage of putting all the hills on the last half of the ride.  The wind was pretty fierce at the top of Hill, but otherwise not a big issue.  Florida miles haven't trained my biking muscles for anything but flat, and I'm feeling a little washed out.