I fell behind in blogging, mostly because while I did ride late last week, I simply did my Mount Gilead Road route a couple of times. I ride that route frequently, and there wasn’t much to report. Then I was working from home, so I missed some commuting opportunities.

Anyway, on Saturday I called my friend Chris, who I’ve known since at least high school, if not middle school, to ask if he wanted to go for a ride on Sunday. We had only hung out once in recent years, and we used to ride together a lot in high school. He said he was available, so we planned to ride.

I rode over to Chris’s house at the appointed time, and he showed me his new bicycle, a GMC Denali-branded bike his brother got him for Christmas. It turned out this was going to be the bike’s maiden voyage. It’s a pretty sharp-looking bike, but a few features surprised me. It’s a road bike, but it has grip shifters — something I’d never seen. And it has deep section rims but schrader valves. I don’t see any inherent problem with this, it’s just unusual.

We headed out, at first intending to do my Water Works route. But then I learned that Chris’s work schedule had changed and he had more time than I realized, so we decided to ride down to Fairfax State Recreation Area instead.

Rolling hills on Snoddy Road

Chris hadn’t ridden a bicycle in about 5 months, but he works out regularly, and it shows. He rode quite well. We rode at a conversational pace and caught up during the ride. Chris has always been a walking trivia book, but that’s even more true now, since he has driven tour buses all over the country and worked as a tour guide in Las Vegas for a few years.

It was a beautiful day to ride, in the mid 40s or so, overcast, and breezy. We had the roads mostly to ourselves, although we did see some other cyclists and some light traffic. We rode really close to some turkey vultures on Snoddy Road and saw several deer frolicking by Harrell Road.

Some rain late in the week washed a lot of the sand off the roads, except for Strain Ridge Road which was in pretty bad shape and had thick layers of sand in parts. There’s a pretty long downhill section, and then a big climb. Chris and his new bike handled both pretty well, although he did have a few shifting problems. I’m sure that some derailleur adjustments will help there.

Strain Ridge Road

The bridge in the above photo goes over a creek, which was very high, and there was some flooding off to the left side. If we get the heavy rain that’s predicted in the next couple of days, things could get interesting in this and other low-lying areas in the near future.

Smithville Water tower


Riding

Before long, we reached Fairfax. The office wasn’t open yet so we got in for free. We rode down the big hill, nearly hitting 40 mph on the downhill. I’ve ridden this much faster in the past but with bulkier, warmer clothing 38.5 was as fast as I could get. We rode to the end of the road, which is on a small peninsula on Lake Monroe.

Lake Monroe

Chris’s GMC Denali bicycle

My bicycle

We saw a few boats, a houseboat, and we also saw a flying boat take off from the lake and fly by overhead, but very low in the sky. I tried to get a photo but it was out of sight before I could get my camera ready. We hung out by the lake for a while and caught up some more. It was a great day to be outdoors with an old friend. I’m used to riding being the primary focus of my rides but in this case it was something to do with a friend. Conversation and riding alternated as the primary objectives.

Chris checking his tire pressure

Chris and me

We stopped at another place near the lake and watched the seagulls, ducks, and geese, then rode back. Chris had some more shifting problems as we climbed toward the exit to the recreation area, but after that his bike did pretty well. We took our time on the way back and stopped a little more frequently.

It was a great day to be out riding, and cool to ride with Chris. We hadn’t ridden together in probably about 10 years, possibly more. Hopefully we can ride together again soon. At the end of the day we rode a bit over 30 miles. This gave me almost 90 miles of riding for last week, and I’ve already ridden more in March than I did in February. I can see my mileage increasing already, and it feels great.

Saturday afternoon, Sarah and I went hiking with my friend Dave. We brought our dog Rob and Dave brought his two dogs. I wrote about Dave’s mountain biking accident before, and it’s past time for an update. Dave suffered a spinal cord injury and for a while thought he was going to have to have surgery. When he got a second opinion, that doctor said they should wait for him to heal more first. And now it looks like he probably won’t be having surgery. His condition continues to improve, and now he needs to do some hiking and riding on the trainer to get back in shape and continue healing. The main remaining symptoms for Dave are some pain and numbness in his arms.

We went hiking with Dave a couple of weeks ago and he had trouble with even small hills, but now he’s climbing very well and in fact was moving at quite a clip on Saturday. He even did well bushwhacking through a difficult section with a lot of brush (more on that in a minute). He’s still got a ways to go before he can get back on the bike, but he’s getting there and looks better every time I see him. His progress is very encouraging.

Anyway, we had talked about hiking and Dave suggested the Shaw Lake hike in Yellowwood State Forest. Shaw Lake was drained back in 2002 because the dam was deemed unsafe, but the trail is still more or less there. We arrived to find a lot of logging has been going on there. Mitch Daniels, our current governor, has increased logging in our state forests by 300%, and it’s been quite evident on some of our hikes this year. Apparently, there’s a public input session in a couple of weeks about the logging in the state forests. I hope we can do something about it.

The trail was more like a logging road, really, and it was fairly easy. Dave said he’d been cross country skiing there in the past, and I can see how it’d be great for that. There’s a long, gradual downhill slope that curves only gently.

Heavy logging

Once at the bottom, we found a clearcut meadow, and there were some of the only aspen trees in Indiana, which unfortunately were dead and falling over.

Clearcut area

After a few minutes, we reached the spot where the lake once was. It was really cool to see it and imagine how it would’ve looked full of water, and then to walk in the former lake bed.

Shaw Lake was once here

This creek is all that remains of Shaw Lake

We headed up the opposite side of the ravine and found more logging had blocked the trail. We managed to get through all the brush, but it was pretty challenging.

The only upside, I guess, is the logging gives you a good view, if you can look past the carnage.

All in all, it was a fun hike, but it was discouraging to see how much logging is happening in our state forests, which I thought were intended to preserve the forests, not cut them down and sell them.

Sarah and I went to Chicago over the weekend for a party, a reunion of sorts of many of my college friends, most of whom Sarah had never met. It was great to catch up with some old friends and talk to a few people who went to Northwestern at the same time, but who I never got to know then.

The party was Saturday night, so Sarah and I took advantage of the day on Saturday to make a trip up to Northbrook to visit the church where my grandparents are buried and visit some of the places we frequented when we lived in the area. It was insanely cold, with a high of 8 degrees and very cold windchills.

I brought my “new” camera, a Yashica Lynx 5000 rangefinder I won on eBay last week, to give it a trial run. I had loaded it with slide film for cross-processing. The camera was untested and sold as-is, and I quickly realized the light meter didn’t work. At first I thought this was going to be a lost cause, but I decided to try shooting without a meter, using the “Sunny 16 rule” and making adjustments as I felt were necessary. The results were much better than I anticipated.

While we waited for the car to warm up, we took a few shots of the El tracks around my friends’ place.

The El

The underside of the El tracks

After that, we had breakfast at the Deluxe Diner, where we used to go quite frequently. We noticed they’re not open 24 hours anymore … what a shame! Other than that, it was just how we remembered, with great food and mediocre service.

Cool wall on a neighboring building

I am astonished at how well these photos turned out, given that I was basically guessing the camera settings to get the proper exposure. It was also a completely different way of thinking about photography; instead of looking at the meter reading inside the camera, I found myself looking more closely at the subjects and light sources and making adjustments based on how much light I saw. It was really quite liberating. I definitely need to spend some time reading the Ultimate Exposure Computer to learn more about shooting this way, but I was surprised how well I did by simply using Sunny 16 as a guide.

Next, we went to Rogers Park to visit my old, ghetto neighborhood. We didn’t spend a lot of time there, but did go by my old apartment and took a few shots in the alley.

Power lines

Alley

My old building

Chimney

After that, we went to Northbrook to visit the church where my grandparents are buried.

The Village Church in Northbrook, IL

The path through the small cemetery

Me (taken by Sarah)

We headed down to Evanston next and took our film in for processing. We went to a few other places, picked up our photos, and then went to our old apartment in Evanston. At this point I switched to B&W film.

Looking up at our old apartment

Bikes

Cover

Railing

Our old apartment building

Neighboring garage

Neighboring house

Finally, a few shots I took later.

The El going by (long exposure)

Sarah

Rob

It was a great trip, and I’m very pleased with this camera, as well as my ability to use it without a functional light meter. The lens is nice and sharp, and has pleasant bokeh. I’m looking forward to shooting with it more, and improving my skills at shooting without an exposure meter.

My mountain biking buddy Dave crashed over the weekend while mountain biking in Texas. He was riding down a hill with some root dropoffs and lost control at the bottom of the hill, flying headfirst into a tree. He was paralyzed for about 20 minutes and gradually regained feeling in his arms and legs. The guy he was riding with helped him walk out.

I saw Dave at work yesterday and he looked pretty bad. No visible bruises, but he had some swelling in his neck, and his hands were doing some kind of strange involuntary grasping thing. He finally went to PromptCare, where they thought he might have a broken neck. They referred him to the hospital, where they determined that his neck isn’t broken, but he injured his spinal cord and got a concussion. He’ll have to have some rehabilitation, the extent of which is unknown at this time. His new bike also suffered some damage to the fork, we’re not sure yet how much damage.

Dave was largely responsible for getting me back into cycling after several years away from it. He went mountain biking with me at Brown County State Park and showed me the ropes. I was hooked, and Dave was always patient as I attempted to get in shape, riding slowly and making frequent stops as needed. He’s a great guy and a great rider.

Here’s hoping Dave heals quickly and can be out riding and hiking again soon.

It’s been unseasonably warm here but all that changed on Thanksgiving. I woke up Thanksgiving morning to find temperatures in the lower 30s and a bit of drizzle. It had rained some overnight and was sprinkling a bit. But I checked the ground when I walked Rob and it seemed solid — we shouldn’t have any problem riding. I got ready and drove to the state park to meet up with Dave.We were dressed appropriately but unfortunately this means feeling quite cold at rest so we got going quickly and before long we were much more comfortable. But the trails were completely covered with leaves. If we hadn’t been familiar with them, it would have been extremely difficult to figure out where the trail was. I don’t think I’ve ever seen these trails so covered with leaves. The leaves add a lot of rolling resistance and make it impossible to see roots and rocks in the trail.

The real problem, though, was that the leaves were wet and destroyed our traction. We rode pretty conservatively so our wheels wouldn’t slip out from under us and got through the whole North Tower Loop without incident. The Aynes climb was tougher than usual with the leaves slowing us down and making the steeper parts of the climb very difficult as our rear wheels kept spinning as we rode. But we got to the top and as usual took a breather.

It was the kind of day I’d often just want to sit inside, overcast and cold and drizzling. A great day to stay in bed all day. But it felt so good to be outside and enjoying the fresh air and a quiet ride through the woods.

Dave asked if I wanted to take the lead on the descent, which sounded fine to me. The first part of the descent is the hardest, with a lot of big rocks and eroded trail right on the edge of a ravine. We made it through this section but it required intense concentration and a bit more care than usual. At this point, I thought we were pretty much home free and let loose on some fast flowing sections. I went through an off-camber turn and felt my wheels starting to slip out from under me. I dabbed and managed to keep myself upright. A few minutes later another off-camber turn got me. My wheels washed out and I wiped out, laying my bike and my self down to the uphill side of the turn. I wasn’t hurt but I got a little frustrated with my mistakes.  The same exact thing happened yet again a few minutes later, really taking me by surprise as I was riding pretty slowly at this point. Dave said it looked to him like I pedaled too hard coming out of the turn and while I’ll bet he’s right, I was surprised by just how little traction I had. I didn’t have any more problems after that and I wasn’t hurt, but some damage was done to my pride.