Sunday, April 15, 2012

85 and Windy: Photo Dump

Now that I'm well rested, I'll share a bit of the scenery from yesterday's ride.

Wet Shadow
The roads were still wet from the previous day's rain when I left the house at 7 A.M. Worms were everywhere. I did my best to not run over them, but judging by the number of carcasses all over my bike by the end of the morning, I didn't do that great of a job.

Over the Bars
After 11 miles of riding, I finally got to my first windbreak. Thank you trees! Unfortunately, it only lasted for a mile and a half before I had to turn back into the wind.

Reflecting Puddle
Still wet.

2012-04-14 Caribou Lake
Caribou Lake

Osprey in Flight
Once I crossed Hwy. 53 I passed an osprey nest and was lucky enough to see the pair in flight.

Swamp Sisters
Swamp Sisters
This is a folksy little restaurant that's only open during the summer. Looks like I'm a little early.

Headwind Speed Warning
It's nice to have a sign telling you what the windspeed is.

Old Timey bridge
Truss Bridge

2012-04-14 Cloquet River
Cloquet River

Portable Graffiti
Rolling Graffiti-Bringing big city atmosphere to the country.

Blue Skies and Gravel
My first chance to take advantage of a tailwind. It felt like I hardly had to pedal.

Nichols Lake
Nichols Lake

4 Lane
1 mile of 4 lane is 1 mile too many. Even though there is a wide shoulder, there is just too much traffic. I'm much more comfortable on a lightly traveled 2 lane, even without a shoulder.

Lost My Cookies
This is what happens when you don't close your bag after stopping for a snack break. I had six Fig Newmans, but was only able to save four (the 10 second rule does not apply when outside). I'm sure a crow had a nice treat.

Pavement Ends
The pavement has to end eventually. I think about 18 miles of my ride was on gravel. All with a tailwind.

Wind-is-a Whipping
Sun, Wind, Trees

Curvy Hill
Back to pavement, with my friends here blocking the wind for me.

Wetland
More nice scenery.

Island Lake
Island Lake
By this point the wind speed was 30mph, gusting to 40. I had to lean quite a bit to stay upright.

I was home around 2:30 and ended with 85.1 miles. I would have gone for a century, but I didn't want to burn myself out. There are still 16 more days to ride this month and I don't want to miss a single one.

2 comments:

  1. I am a journalism student at UMD. My classmates and I run a Duluth news website called Lake Voice. Part of our site is dedicated to biking in Duluth and I am wondering if we could post links to your blogs? Also, if you ever have content or photos to contribute to our site, we would gladly post them. Let me know when you can. Thanks!

    Callie
    good0503@d.umn.edu
    www.lakevoicenews.org

    ReplyDelete