On Saturday I rode up to Morgan-Monroe State Forest with my friend Chris. It was a great day to ride, in the mid-60s and mostly sunny, although winds were unpredictable and gusting to 20-30 mph.  It felt great to be out riding through the countryside again, something I haven’t done enough of lately. It was also cool to ride with Chris again. We’ve tried to plan rides a few times recently, but our schedules kept interfering.

Old Bethel Church

Chris and I were pretty close friends through high school, and I’ve only seen him a few times since we both returned to Bloomington. It’s always interesting catching up, especially since he has kept in touch with more people from our high school than I have. Our conversation topics ranged from politics to former classmates from high school to other rides we’ve done, etc.

Riding by these cows sparked a conversation about steak

There’s a great descent down Old 37 just north of Bethel Lane that’s a blast. We hit 39 mph on this hill, and it felt fantastic. I was glad to be out riding without a bunch of layers slowing me down. For a while it looked like it was going to rain, but the dark clouds quickly blew over.

Bryant Creek Lake

We stopped by Bryant Creek Lake to rest, drink some water, and stretch a bit. Throughout this whole ride I was surprised by how green everything is getting. There were probably a dozen butterflies sunning themselves on the bank. I didn’t get any decent shots of them, unfortunately.

Plants growing in the lake

As we rode through the state forest, many trees were losing their petals, and the wind was blowing them about. We were riding through a cloud of petals, and really got covered in them.

Riding through the forest

Petals on the ground

We stopped again at Cherry Lake. One thing I like about riding with Chris is the more relaxed pace of our rides. We tend to ride at a conversational pace, and stop frequently to check out the scenery. When I ride alone I usually hammer it more of the time.

Cherry Lake, with people fishing at the other end

Unidentified wildflower

The bikes

We saw this couple on recumbent tricycles a couple of times

We enjoyed a blistering descent down Bean Blossom Road. The road was flanked on both sides by wildflowers. White dogwoods and purple rosebud trees, violets and blue and yellow flowers on the ground.

Many fields are covered in yellow flowers, giving them a yellow-green glow

Approaching Anderson Lane

Our ride back was a little harder since we were riding into the wind for parts of it. We decided to go back via Cascades park to avoid riding into the wind for the last 4 solid miles of our ride. I saw a large bird (a turkey vulture, I think) with two smaller birds following it around. At one point one of the smaller birds flew right over the big one and — I think — landed on its back. Maybe it just hovered there, but it sure looked like it had landed on the bigger bird. Very weird to see.

Sometimes we had clear skies, sometimes they were more like this
All in all, it was a great ride. 42 miles or so.

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’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.

Dave called me on Saturday to see if I wanted to ride with him. I was literally in the process of trying to figure out where to ride when he called, so it was perfect timing. He suggested we ride what he termed the “Helmsburg Loop.” I took him up on his offer, and furthermore rode out to his place to get some extra miles in. I rode my old mountain bike since I figured we might hit some gravel, and I knew he’d be on his mountain bike. We met at Unionville Elementary School, which is near Dave’s house, and also where I met Dan On Bike when we rode together back in November.

It was a perfect day, in the 60s and sunny. Our ride started down State Road 45 through part of Yellowwood State Forest. There wasn’t much traffic and it felt great to ride without a jacket. Dave has only been on a few rides since his spinal cord injury at the end of December. Each ride he does better. I know he can’t wait to get back on the trails, but you can tell he’s thrilled to be riding again, even if it is on the road.

Inviting country road

Dave is happy to be back in the saddle

We turned onto Lanam Ridge road and sprinted up the hill to try to outpace the dogs that live up there. They really wanted to catch us, but we flew past them and once we crested the hill, they didn’t have a chance. There are some nice rolling hills on Lanam Ridge, and some climbing.

Goats along Lanam Ridge

The climbing pays off with a great descent down to Helmsburg Road. We took this into Helmsburg.

Zebra firetruck in Helmsburg

We headed back on 45 a bit and took a detour on Indian Hill Road. This is a gravel road with a nasty climb. We didn’t do that climb, though, we just took a break by the creek, which was very high and partially covering the road, while water rushed beneath it.

Approaching the train tracks

Indian Hill Road

This railroad bridge didn’t look too sturdy

We got back on 45. Soon we reached South Shore Drive, and rode across Lake Lemon. We saw a lot of turtles on logs in the water, and evidence of some beavers.

Riding across Lake Lemon

Trestle

We climbed up Shuffle Creek Road. I stopped at Dave’s for a few minutes, then rode home. My total for the day: 33.6 miles. Here’s a map of the route: