April was not a good month for cycling for me. Despite the fact that spring weather finally arrived, I spent about two weeks off the bike. I had two of my wisdom teeth extracted, and had some really bad allergy problems. Shockingly, looking back on my riding, I only rode my road bike once in April.

The flipside of this has been increased productivity in other areas. I had more time for some geeky projects (and even made a little extra money), photography, hiking, and music. I am looking forward to getting more time in the saddle again, but I may need to find a better balance between riding and … well, everything else.

All told, I rode 135.10 miles in April. That’s least I’ve ridden in a full month since I started tracking my miles. That’s breaks down to 47.30 road miles,  54.30 commuting miles, and 33.00 mountain biking miles. Oh, and one half-mile errand.

I was finally able to get outside and do some riding and some more hiking this weekend. My doctor gave me some Allegra D and it helps enough with my allergies that I can get outside and be active. I still get a little stuffy or sniffly and have a little trouble breathing at times, but it’s a vast improvement.

Saturday, Dave and I hit the trails at Brown County State Park. This was our first mountain bike ride together since his accident around New Year’s. It’s great he’s finally back on the trails, and we had a gorgeous day for riding, in the upper 60s and sunny, with a breeze that felt great. We rode the North Tower Loop 3 times, twice clockwise and once counterclockwise. I wasn’t as sluggish as I expected after two weeks with basically no riding. There were a few muddy spots but overall things are in great shape. We rode for about two hours.

Sunday was a very full day. After getting some breakfast, Sarah and I headed to McCormick’s Creek State Park to take some photos and do a little hiking. I borrowed a Tamron 28-300mm lens from a coworker and wanted to try it out. I’m thinking about buying one, or something similar. It has some macro capability, and having that range of zoom is great. Here are some of my better shots. First, we went by the waterfall.

Falls at McCormick’s Creek

Another shot of the falls

Redbud. These are everywhere.

Ferns and moss

My favorite shot of the whole day

Foam in the creek

Stairs

After spending some time by the falls, we decided to head over by Trail 2, which we hadn’t hiked before. We looked at the map and saw it had a side trail to an old quarry. That sounded interesting, so we went for it. There were wildflowers everywhere by the trailhead, so we spent a while getting some shots of them.

 
Wild Blue Phlox

Virginia Bluebells

Mayapples — these are all over the place, too

Trail 2

The old quarry

Hardy plant

Huge frog

Quarry ruins

Creek

Another creek

 
Trail 2 again


Fiddlehead ferns, partially unraveled

Trillium

Jack-in-the-Pulpit

After our hike, we headed home, got the dog, and headed out for another short hike in the forest in my old neighborhood. We hiked for about 30-45 minutes.

Rob

After that, we went back home and I went for a brief road ride, about 14 miles. It was a full day and at the end of it I felt tired, but great. I’m glad that spring is here, and I’m finally able to properly enjoy it.

I missed a good portion of things blooming in my absence last week. Many things are in full bloom now, and a few things are shedding petals already. Let me assure you, this town isn’t called Bloomington for no reason. While all of the flowers and flowering trees are very beautiful, my allergies are going crazy right now. Even Claritin can’t help today, it seems.

I took it easy during my ride to work this morning, in part because I can’t breathe too well, and in part to enjoy the scenery. Here are a few photos.

IU actually goes a little overboard with the landscaping at times

Flowerbeds

We have a lot of these trees with white flowers

Mossy tree

One of a few cobblestone roads in Bloomington

Apartments

It’s hard to believe how long it’s been since I wrote anything here. Back on April 11, I had my wisdom teeth out. I was pretty afraid going into it, but I tried to convince myself I was overreacting. Immediately following the procedure, I felt surprisingly good. I was suddenly awake, and I was numb, but it didn’t seem so bad. I got a false sense of security. The next two days were terrible, and things have gotten gradually better since then (except getting dry sockets, which are still healing), but I was pretty much out of commission last week. I called in sick Monday and Tuesday and worked from home the rest of the week. I planned to go into the office yesterday, but woke up with probably the worst headache I’ve ever had.

Finally, today, I went in to the office. My ride to work this morning was also my first time back on a bicycle since my surgery. It felt good to ride, but I think it’ll probably be a couple more days at least before I can do any major riding. Naturally, during my hiatus, Spring hit in a big way around here, everything blooming, and the weather was finally warm and sunny. I missed out on some prime riding time, but it feels good to be back, at least to some extent.

I did manage to do some photography in there, taking some cool infrared shots, and we went hiking once. More on that later.

I’m terrified. Tomorrow I get my bottom wisdom teeth removed, and I know it’s going to be awful. I really should’ve had this done 10 years ago when they recommended it then as a preventative measure, but obviously I’ve been putting it off. I know this is a bad move, but having been without medical insurance for a lot of that time, it wasn’t really a viable option for me. Now I’ve got the insurance and I have still be dragging my feet a bit. At least I’ll have the weekend to recover, and if the forecast is right, it won’t be good riding weather, anyway.

This week has not been a good one for riding for me. The weather has mostly been pretty good, but I have been busy with a geeky project that’s cut into my recreational ride time. It’s been fun, though, and hopefully there’ll be more projects in this vein.