The Road Less Traveled

And now I know why.

I pedaled a new route on my way home tonight; got misplaced 3 times and had to back track! The trail was bumpy, overgrown and twisty with lots of walkers; not sure I'll take that way again. But it was nice riding through the woods rather than next to traffic :) Distance wise it didn't make much of a difference, maybe one mile. 

I'm really enjoying my commute to work but the ride home is not as nice. The ride to work is quiet, not much traffic and it's nice and cool. The ride home can be like playing frogger getting across the busy hiways. I have to cross 55 and 110 both of which have long lights and lots of traffic in the afternoon. I find myself debating on a longer ride with less traffic and hills or the shorter ride with traffic and hills. Generally the longer ride wins. 

Who knows if I keep test riding new routes one of these days I'm bound to find a good one!

pedal, pedal, pedal :)

Heat index 110

Started my ride in the rain and ended my ride in the rain. I'll take this heat and rain over a headwind any day :) I discovered another bike path today; this one has bunnies, birds and wild flowers! Plus two big red barns!
as a side note McKnight is no longer flooded Day 108

People I Follow

I've been following Sarah Outen since she left London several months back; she has now arrived in China. Traveling around the world on human power!

Day 104

Whew, I really need to post more often. They've changed the look and I don't even know when it happened. 

Day 104 of 30daysofbiking. 

Todays adventure was brought to me by the St. Paul police!

Me: Do you know if the bike trail is still open?

Police Officer: Road's closed; ride at your own risk. 

To me this means I can ignore the road closed and do not enter signs! YAY! I had a fun ride through the construction area and the bike trail was still open  :)

I know everyone hates that the state government has closed down and it really sucks for all the state employees but it sure is nice not to have to deal with road construction. Everything has come to a halt.

After the Storm

By far one of the best times to go for a ride is right after a storm. All the creatures of the forest are upset and they're out-n-about on the trails. 

Example: yesterday we had some nasty storms come through the Twin Cities, high wind, rain, thunder and lightening and even some funnel clouds were sighted. After everything had passed I went for a quick ride along the Gateway Trail. There were lots of geese along with their goslings which are pretty normal on the Gateway. The goslings are actually pretty big by this time of the year. 

I spied a mama turkey and her poults about 6 of them from what I could see. They were right on the path and scurried into the bushes when I got near them. 

My favorite sighting was a Doe, she was beautiful. I had just turned off the trail and she was standing at the top of a small hill; I was within 15 feet of her. We both stopped, stared for a second and then she bolted into the woods. It was great :)

This is not KV approved...

but it sure looks fun!

Past the Halfway Point

Today is Day 16 of 30 Days of Biking and I'm finally starting to feel like I'm getting some strength back in my legs. This past week has been tough; fierce headwinds every day. I've learned if I wait until after 5 pm the wind dies down a bit but I don't always have that luxury. I decided yesterday that I would start tracking my miles to see how many I ride during this 30 days and guess what? The battery went out in my bike computer! So now I'm trying to remember where I rode each day. So far I've been good about writing it on the calendar but there is one Monday that I don't remember yet. My approximate miles so far is 180! 

I'm hoping the weather will get better and I can add more miles to my daily rides. It would be great if I could hit 500 miles by the end of the month but I don't think that is realistic so I'm shooting for 350 as a minimum and aspiring towards 500 miles. 

The Mighty Mississippi River 2011

Sights and Sounds

It's day 8 of my 30 Days of Riding Challenge and it's been great! I'm really happy that I took the challenge. I feel soooo much better since I started riding again. I hadn't realized how much this winter was getting to me. 

I observed some interesting things on todays ride. First, there is a lot of clothing on the side of the road, in parks and dumped around town. I don't know where this stuff comes from but I sure have seen a lot today. Under one bridge it looked like someone had just taken his/her pants off and left them there; weird.

As I was crossing the railroad tracks in downtown St. Paul I saw a hawk with a pigeon, he made sure I wasn't going to take it from him. He picked up the pigeon and carried it further down the tracks. I tried to explain that I'm a vegetarian but I guess he just didn't understand. 

On my way home I decided take the long way and to ride along the mighty Mississippi. With Shepard/Warner road closed to traffic because of the flooding I had the entire road to myself. It was great but a little disconcerting to be riding along a normally very busy stretch of road and have it entirely to myself. No traffic, no fellow bikers, walkers or anyone else; a little spooky. There's a small part of me that would like it if the road remained closed to traffic all the time.

I took the Challenge!

Whew; it's been a while. I'm not even going to try to catch up. Let's just say this winter sucked for riding, my job moved to Eagan and my commute went from 6 miles to 16 miles one way. And with all the snow, ice, and shitty weather we had I did not ride to work even one time after September 1, 2010. 

But as they say it's a new year! I've signed up for the 30 Days of Biking Challenge  and I'm looking forward to riding every day for the next 30 days. Yesterday I stopped at the bike shop on my way home from work and picked up some fenders for my road bike. I am not a fan of the brown stain up the backside. The fenders I bought are light weight race fenders that are attached using rubber bands. I went with these fenders for two reasons 1 they were on sale and 2 I can put them on and take them off easily (really just 'cause they were on sale). I put the fenders on yesterday in preparation for my 30 days of biking challenge. 

This evening I went for a nice casual ride through the neighborhood. The fenders worked great, no nasty brown streaks! 

Tomorrow my game plan is to ride to Artcrank but we shall see what Mother Nature brings. In any case I will get on my bike and ride. 

pedal, pedal, pedal...