Dog Days of Summer

Our walking group is smaller this week, but we've managed to keep to our schedule, at least most days.  Yesterday was planned as a walk day, and LH suggested that I take at least one photo to prove that I'd walked. Here it is --

Nature makes some cool stuff.  It's clearly not edible -- and I didn't even look that up. In a similar theme, something else that isn't edible is the fruit of the elderberry bush outside of our front door.  It has quite a few blooms this year, which I thought might result in some berries at some point. And it may, but according to numerous sources on Google, eating them might cause some distress. They're "mildly poisonous." What does mildly poisonous mean, anyway?

Saturday is not always on the walk schedule, so I got in a short bike ride this morning -- just the dozen miles that I deemed necessary for maintenance purposes.  (And enough to make June miles exceed February miles.  A good thing, I think.)  The dew point today topped out around 70, which my neighbor says makes it a don't point.  It also results in really thick air, especially when there's very little wind and it approaches 90 degrees.  This kind of weather makes the big lake really popular, and paddle boards are everywhere you look.  At one point there were four of them within frame shot.

Apparently the people on the jet ski were born in a barn and raised by wolves.  Or something.  Ill mannered.

The rain held off until about 5 pm, then rolled through pretty quickly.  I just checked outside my window, and it didn't even clear the beaches, or at least not for very long.

West Olive One Stop, Destination Ride Number 3

The loop that goes north of the Pigeon River, connecting the power plant with Hemlock Crossing Park, is one of my favorite routes. Last year I only rode it once, on a "Birthday Ride" with LH. It's been at the back of my mind for a while now, but I've dismissed it, regarding it as outside of my current range.  Today I headed north with the Port Sheldon Party store as a target, but thinking that the wind and weather conditions were good for a longer ride north.  I had in mind something around 20 miles, round trip.  At mile 8, I stopped into the PSPS to get JB a Bun candy bar and scout out their caffeinated beverages.  Diet Code Red!!!!  Proper fuel for a longer ride.   North of the Pigeon River, for sure.

The power plant wasn't quite far enough -- this photo was taken about 9.3 miles into the ride.  I knew where the 10 mile mark was -- and I knew that it would be after I'd made the turn inland at the bottom of Hill.  I also knew that there would be a tail wind once I made the turn.  Lake breeze.

I made the turn and passed the 10 mile spot without even slowing down.  I did some fuzzy math at this point.  It was about 2.5 miles to the West Olive One Stop from there, but it was all tailwind,  so didn't count.  I'd have to ride the 2.5 miles back with a headwind, but the headwind and tailwind cancelled each other out, so that didn't count either.  Like I said, fuzzy math.

The obligatory photo -- the bicycle garden is long gone, the mural on the side of the building is fading, and the place is still not on the list of places I'll go into alone.  So I didn't.  But the stretch of Croswell between Lakeshore and the highway was as nice as I remembered.  I passed Hemlock Crossing Park, but didn't add to my ride length by checking it out.  At a little over 17 miles into the ride I checked out the road signs at an intersection and did some real math.  I was still a long way from home.  There's no suspense to this story, of course.  The fact that I'm telling the story means I made it home okay.  I did phone home to alert JB that I'd be gone longer than he might expect because I'd ridden further than usual, but that's because I'm thoughtful.  At this point I'm feeling kind of smug and proud of myself.  We'll see how I feel once the endorphins wear off.  25+ miles.

So This is Summer, I guess.

Sunday was pea soup foggy along the lakeshore.  It didn't look like a good beach day when I first stepped outside.

It was a fine lawn mowing day, though -- and my faithful (and favorite) lawn mowing team was available to do the job.  We laid low until after noon, to avoid offending anyone.  (It was Sunday, after all.)

As it turned out, I was wrong about it not being a good beach day.  The water temps have crept into the 60's, warm enough for the young 'uns.  The girl dove right in, then pronounced the algae has arrived.  It comes and goes a few times throughout the summer -- I don't know why.

The fog was thick enough to make it unsafe to venture out very far.  Even though they were cautious, a jet ski went between the boy grandchild and the shore while he was taking his turn on the paddleboard.

They both spent some time figuring out how to turn the board in the water.  Paddle boarding is apparently strenuous enough that they're happy to take turns on it -- giving their arms a rest.  We all had a graduation party to go to that afternoon for a cousin of the Grands, so beach time was a little limited, but fun.

Monday was a washout, and the rain didn't clear out until late morning today.  I wanted to get more miles in on the Allez, so in spite of it being both damp and sticky outside, I took the bike out for a spin this afternoon.  I found a tree that looked like the one GZ posted on his blog yesterday, but it's hard to be sure.  Then I found several more -- this is what the individual blossoms look like.  Maybe??  The Allez seems to be working out well -- I rode out Perry to the fire station before heading north, and didn't notice that there were hills along that stretch.  That's always a good thing.  On a less than perfect note, the tire clearance on that bike is minimal, and riding it on sloppy streets meant I had to stop once and clean the wet leaves off from between the tires and the brake arms and fork.  Still, I'm liking the bike.  Allez.

New Cockpit at 12,550 miles

As some of you know, I haven't been comfortable riding a road bike for a while now -- related mostly to the bend and stretch required to reach the brakes and shift levers.  It's resulted in a lot less riding time on Ruby this past year.  The most miles I've ridden in any month so far this year was in February, a month I spent in Florida, riding my hybrid Fuji bicycle exclusively.  Added to the mix is the fact that I have two road bikes here -- including an old one that almost never gets ridden, in spite of being a pretty nice bike.  (Funky wheelset and good gear ratios for climbing hills.)  The old one -- the Elite -- also developed a malfunctioning shifter a year or so ago.  It happens to Shimano shifters (105's, to the only one of my readers who is still following along.)  Shimano shifters are impossible to repair and expensive to replace, even if I felt a need to have a back up road bike.  My first approach involved looking at flat bar road bikes,  and I went so far as to test ride a Specialized Vita Elite earlier this year.  I almost bought it, but couldn't figure out where I'd put the thing.  This week I decided to go a different direction --

The Elite now has a flat bar, new shifters, new brake levers, new grips, new cable and new tires. (25's)  Today I took it out for a spin to test out whether or not this is going to work for me.  Here's a more complete look --

And yes, I forgot my water bottle.  And yes, the square iced tea bottle fits in the cage.  This photo was taken in the parking lot at the PSPS.  I extended the ride east from there to 152nd before heading south and back to the ranch.  One ride doesn't prove much, but so far I'm pretty happy with the conversion.  Now we'll see if I spend a little more time riding a bike.

Just a Little Bit of Riding

The walking group opted out of the morning walk today, but did meet for a group bike ride later in the morning.  It turned out to be a pretty good decision.  Light winds, blue sky, plenty of sun and warm enough temps to ride in short sleeves.  Kouw Park has been upgraded over the last couple of years, and there's a nice deck at the end of a boardwalk that leads to the stairs to the beach.  Left to right below are Ruby, Raleigh, Bianchi.  (LH rode the Bianchi since her bike still has a broken shifter.)

I ended up with about 15 miles for the day -- and rode some roads I haven't ridden for a while.  No new pavement, but the next best thing.  Favorite old pavement.

I told TT in a comment on one of his recent posts that I'd try to find some peonies around here -- that I didn't recall seeing any.  The one above was a bit easier to find than I thought it would be.  It's one of two peony bushes in my next door neighbors yard.

Before the backlog of photos gets out of control.....

I have accumulated some photos over the last four or five days.  The first two are from walks around the neighborhood on various mornings.  I haven't seen a lot of deer in the neighborhood this summer, but apparently they are still here.  This one was taken near the top of Idlewood Hill.

This old bicycle looks like it is still rideable, though a bit rusty.  It is currently being used as a lawn decoration, also here in the neighborhood, also taken on a morning walk.

For some reason I decided that I hadn't ridden enough miles last week while we were up north, so I took what turned out to be my longest ride of the year so far.  (About 20 miles.)  I rode some of my favorite roads....

And ended up at one of my favorite locations.

And then I crashed and burned.  (Just kidding, though I did a lot of napping on the couch for the next few days.)

Until OSLO and the Grands arrived to liven up our weekend, bringing enough extra energy with them that I got up off the couch and took a walk with them down to Tunnel Park Saturday evening.  We're having the usual argument about whether there are fewer stairs this year than last -- no one is sure.  We do know that we have less beach.  The water level on Lake Michigan is up 2.5 feet in the last 18 months.

 I stole this last photo off of my cousin Carla's Facebook page yesterday, where she posted it in memory of her father.  I liked it, so I thought I'd put it here.

Road Trip, Part Two -- Leelanau Peninsula

The B&B where we stayed in Suttons Bay was right off the Leelanau Trail, a rail-to-trail that runs from just north of Suttons Bay to just west of Traverse City, about 16 miles.   This was a nice view to wake up to.

The first order of business after breakfast on day two was a trip to the local bike shop.  We hoped they could fix LH's bike so it would be rideable, and if that didn't work, rent her a bike. (They also offered winery tours by bike, an interesting idea, but not one that appealed to us.)  The bike shop was small but staffed by people who knew what they were doing.  The verdict on LH's shifter problem was that her shifter was broken.  It wasn't an expensive repair, but they weren't a Trek shop, and didn't have the parts she needed.  About 4 days to get the parts, they said.

Option 2?  The mechanic could adjust the limit screws on the front derailler to hold the chain on the middle chain ring.  She would then have about 6 or 7 gears to choose from -- but as there is lot of overlap on bicycle gears, it should see her through a day or two of riding.  She chose option 2.  No charge.  Bike shops are great, and we were all back on 2 wheels.  Crisis avoided.  We headed south on the rail-to-trail.

Somehow I managed to forget to take any photos of the first half of the ride.  I've ridden a few rail-to-trails before and this one is hands down the best of them all.  It must have been abandoned as a railroad quite a while ago as there are long stretches where you ride through a canopy of trees that nearly touch overhead.  (Most rail-to-trails are wide and barren, to allow room for trains.)  We rolled through cherry orchards and vineyards, slowly climbing up hill for several miles.  Railroad track grades are great, especially in an area as relentlessly hilly as the Leelanau Peninsula.  Even uphill for miles was just not a problem.  A slight tailwind didn't hurt, either.

Our turn around point was an old stone building, in an advanced state of crumble.  We chose an out and back to take advantage of all of that slight uphill that we'd just ridden, which was now a downhill, of course.  A great way to spend a morning.  No one was ready for lunch yet when we got back to Suttons Bay, so we loaded the bikes onto The Big Truck and drove north with the thought of finding a place for lunch and another place to ride near the top of the peninsula.  We ended up in North Port for lunch, then opted to drive the rest of the way to the top of the peninsula where there's a State Park and a lighthouse.  We were greeted there by hordes of mosquitoes and signs that said "no bikes."  Well.  Back to Omena, a tiny little town with an art gallery, a beach, a winery and a loop around a peninsula that looked quite rideable on LH's smart phone.  First we toured the art gallery, then unloaded the bikes and biked the peninsula.

There weren't a lot of lake views -- the peninsula appeared to have a dense, fairly old growth forest.  The roads were smooth, there was just the one monster hill and a few smaller ones, and there were even some yellow lady slippers blooming along side the road.  This was our third great ride in less than 24 hours.  We weren't racking up major miles, but we sure had found some nice places to bike.  The loop dumped us back in Omena where a few bottles of the local vintage were purchased by my travelling companions before we  headed back to the B&B.  Our string of good luck with weather was running out about now, and the sky was beginning to look like the forecast for rain was correct.  We shifted into tourist mode for the rest of the day.

The rain made it a bit easier to pack up and leave the next morning.  We stopped in Traverse City to browse through a huge four floor antique shop before heading south through the National Lakeshore area and eventually home in time for dinner.  So, three days mostly off the grid, lots of good food and company, three very nice bike rides, and more spectacular views than I can count.  Some of you (well, one of you) may have noticed that I took the Elite with me instead of Ruby.  I assure you that Ruby's fine, but the Elite has a triple chain ring and climbs hills better than Ruby, and in spite of the fact that she has that funky, not quite enough spokes looking wheelset, she's less fragile and frankly less valuable, so less of a worry than if I had my "good" bike with me.  She performed quite well, and I was reminded once again of what a nice bike she really is.

Road Trip, Part One -- Getting Out of Town

Monday morning the human members of my morning walking group loaded some luggage and our bikes into GG's Big Truck.  For the last month or so, we've been planning  a trip to Suttons Bay, 15 miles north of Traverse City.  We took our time on the trip north, stopping for lunch in Manistee.  (We also checked out an antique shop and a kitchen shop.)

We got to Suttons Bay, a small town on the west shore of Grand Traverse Bay (northern end of the lower peninsula) by late afternoon, checked into our B&B, unloaded our stuff, changed clothes, checked the route on LH's smart phone, and headed out for a short ride.  We were treated to an immediate mechanical failure, when the shifter on LH's trusty Trek refused to allow her to ride in anything other than the small chainring.  We biked to the only bike shop in town which was closed for the day.  By holding the twist shifter firmly in her hand she could keep the chain in the middle ring, so we continued on with our plan.  Clearly this wasn't going to work for long.  We were going to need a better plan, but for now we continued on with the original one.

We were headed for a county park at the end of the peninsula south of town.  We were on Stony Point Road -- an apt name, foreshadowing what we would find when we got to the end of the bay.

Photo of LH and GG standing on a picnic table to be able to see over the weeds.  You can see some evidence of why this is named Stony Point.

More evidence.

And more evidence.  We headed back towards town by a slightly different route, stopping for an occasional photo opportunity.  The scenery was great, the road was right along the edge of the harbor, there were only a few smallish hills and the weather was cool but fine.  Except for the mechanical problem, it was a very nice ride.

We grabbed a bit of supper and took the advice of the proprietor of our B&B to head west to the Lake Michigan coastline for a sunset at Good Harbor.  It's part of Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, and the beach he directed us to was both secluded and nearly deserted.

The light was nice when we got there about 20 minutes before sunset.  The bugs were not so nice, and by now it was chilly.  We entertained ourselves with selfies for a while --

 But the show off to the west eventually took all of our attention.  Notice that I am the only one in the group without a smart phone.

That's Manitou Island (probably North Manitou) straight ahead and Pyramid Point to the left.

There's still more of this story to be told, but that's enough for now.

Destination

The light in the woods a little after 9 this morning was nice.  This path begins across the street from Tunnel Park and cuts through to a quiet neighborhood.  It was a little cool, but we'd warmed up and the jackets came off before we got back home.  Big Red (the dog) likes this route, I think.

The mileage was not as long as some walks we've taken lately.  LH had an exercise class later in the morning and I had a bike ride planned for the afternoon, another destination ride.  Quincy Park  has public water, though I didn't really need any at that point.  And it has benches.  Though I didn't really plan to sit, either.

I was standing over my bike, just watching the flag flying over the ballfield, resting on my handlebars and thinking that this ride didn't feel as long as the ride to the PSPS, though they're almost exactly the same length.

At that exact moment the flag snapped -- and changed from gently waving in a north wind to standing straight out from a west wind.  The lake breeze had followed me that far inland.  The 8 mile ride home was now going to include 4 miles of headwind.  I hate it when that happens.

Wind Gusts Only 28 mph

The good news was that the wind was supposed to lighten up as I rode, and for a change the forecast proved true.  A west wind is the most rideable of all the big winds here, since it is fairly easy to find a path that goes north from here, and that route has a lot of trees and houses on it to provide shelter from a west wind.  Still, had it not been for Gino's blog post yesterday,  I probably wouldn't have ridden today.  Thanks, GZ.  Apparently I needed a reminder of the Auckland rule.   It was a nice ride, and the wind didn't seem all that bad, considering.

 This was the turn around spot, more or less.  An hour and a half seemed adequate, given that the walking group did a 2 mile walk this morning.  We're back to full force, except for the dog, who was still at the kennel where he'd been while his owner was out of town.  It seemed odd to be without his company, but it was good to get back into the morning walk routine.

We all know what these are, right?  This is from a field near New Holland and 160th, on the return leg.  As I was fussing with trying to find the Macro setting on my camera, another biker stopped and asked if she was interfering with my photo if she rode through.  I explained that I was just trying to get a photo of the blossoms.  She said "They have a different aroma, don't they?  I've always thought that they smell like beer."  I'd never given it much thought, so I took a closer sniff, and I have to agree.  They do smell like beer.  Mother Nature has an interesting bag of tricks.