Camera malfunctions causing delay post

Here I am sitting at home on a great biking day; it's called getting ready for a solo trip to visit Derin and Dan in Evanston.  But I am a week late in posting our last biking adventure due to camera malfunction so biking still becomes a part of the weekend.  The trusty Canon finally bit the dust and is replaced by a very small Sony. 
Heading out on a Sunday, September 12 because of schedule conflicts we drove out to Bowlus to bike to Albany and back on the northern extension of the Lake Wobegon trail.  On our way into town we braked for a mother pheasant and her trail of young.  Seemed late in the season for youngsters.   Ring-necked pheasants are a non-native bird introduced from China (what isn't).  They only have one brood per year and don't migrate.  The peasant hunting season is just around the corner in mid-October.  I am not a hunter and can't say that I have ever tasted pheasant.  In fact this is the first pheasant I've seen in the wild since we had one living in our neighborhood years ago.  You would hear its call fairly frequently in the morning and it liked to prowl under our bird feeders.

The outstanding part of this ride was the remarkable change over from summer to autumn.  We spent most of our bike rides this year riding in upper 80 degree temperatures and high humidity.  This was the first sunny but cool day we had all year.  The leaves crackled underneath our tires.  The sumac is turning red.  Grasshoppers were around but not a nuisance.  One nearly took me out by flying in between my helmet and my glasses. Nasty bugger.  We saw lots of squirrels foraging in the woods and the occasional butterfly.  No woolly bears yet.

July

The striking change of the corn from green to brown was noticeable in most of the fields.  Soybeans were turning the golden of a ripe field.  Flowers were few and far between except for asters and an occasional coneflower.  Most fields of flowers had turned to fields of seeds.  The one picture here is the same view from July and now in mid-September.

September

I also wanted to note that along this trail there are opportunities for play for families with kids.  Bowlus has a complete playground outside its depot with picnic areas (see photo on website above).  Holdingford features a wooden train that kids can crawl through from the caboose to the engine which has a bell to ring.  I tried to wait my turn to play but the kids wouldn't give it up for me.

The season is rapidly drawing to a close more because of hunting seasons than weather.  We hope to squeeze in a ride the first weekend in October or maybe I just need to play hooky? 

See a water tower; find a town

Outside of Avon

Fresh from seeing the walking play, Nature at the Arboretum we headed out to the Lake Wobegon Trail leaving from St. Joseph to Freeport.  It was a perfect (almost) summer day with sunny skies, winds from the South at 20-25 mph (gusts of 30 mph), and temperatures in the high 80s. The sides of the trail were covered with summer wildflowers.  We rode through clouds of dragon flies, grasshoppers and at one point a flock of tree swifts.  Just before Avon we spied three sand hill cranes who took flight as soon as I got off the bike to take a photo.  Hawks were soaring in the stiff breezes; we had a cooper hawk, eagle and vulture glide just feet above our bike.  As Thoreau said in the play Friday night, "I must draw my vigor from a wild source".  We were inspired and excited to be out on this awesome day.

The Lake Wobegon trail follows tracks that once went through each of the small towns.  The landmark of note is the distinctive water towers that are usually located at a high point in the town.  As we approach they are frequently the first thing we see.  Water towers serve a practical purpose.  Although you might think they hold all the water supply, they actually only hold a day's worth of water.  It's a back up for peak usage.  The water tower supplies pressure for all the homes in its vicinity.  We rode through four towns during this ride:  St. Joseph, Avon, Albany and Freeport.  Each has a unique water tower that stands over the community.

The color of wildflowers this time of year is yellow but along the Lake Wobegon trail we were treated with the occasional cluster of purple coneflowers which is in the aster family.  This are native, perennial plants and favor dry conditions especially along roads and ditches.  I can vouch for the fact that goldfinches love their seed heads.  I don't trim my coneflowers back in the fall; in winter our goldfinches who stay all year will pull seed from the heads.  It's my favorite flower. 

The journey back to St. Joe was a major effort.  The wind became more of a headwind because the Freeport to Albany trail bends to the Southeast.  We're a high profile vehicle so each gust was an obstacle to ride through.  I was definitely thinking about my feet by the time we got back to St. Joe's.  One hint:  I wear a neckerchief around my neck and keep it damp - cools one down. 

We ate at Kay's Kitchen in St. Joe's.  It's been a fixture in St. Josephs since 1972.   Kay's is just what you would expect for a small town cafe:  great service, lots of refills, and homemade pie!  The perfect end to a  great day of nature and riding. 

Can you meditate while biking?

After a weekend off due to the Irish Fair (Will) and Mindful Leadership Conference (Linda) we got back on the bike this Saturday.  The morning dawned in thick fog and an overcast sky.  This proved to be our salvation since the dew point was high.  Sun would have been fatal.

We haven't been to Cannon Falls for a while and hadn't ridden the entire trail yet this year.  The parking lot at Welch was packed so we headed to the overflow lot.  This seemed ominous:  were we going to encounter boatloads of people on the trail??  Then I thought back to what I learned at the Mindful Leadership Conference and focused instead on the happiness that I feel when we're biking.  Can I pass on that happiness to others we meet on the trail?  I decided to look happy on the bike (Smile), say hello or wave at people and not react to the occasional road hog. 

Last week was my first encounter with meditation.  Although I practice yoga, I have never tried meditation.  There were a number of opportunities to do this at the conference under the guidance of Mingur Rinpoche of the Tergar Community.   Rinpoche encouraged us to meditate anywhere:  at work, at home, on the bus, on an airplane.  So could someone meditate on a bike?  Being the second person on a tandem I am in a unique position of actually having some contemplation time available.  If you trust in the person as Captain; you have some opportunities to explore other avenues of contemplation on the back.  True, it is best to do this when you are on a lonely stretch of road or trail with not obstacles to deal with.  The stoker could rest their hands on their handlebars or thighs, close their eyes and focus internally.  I tried this and found it restful but the fact that you continue to pedal might not bring a very profound meditation.

There are definite zones that you feel while riding.  These are my definitions of my own experience and subject to argument.  They may also be unique to tandem riding since we exist in a partnership on the bike.  The stoker may be able to have more time to enjoy the zones than the captain.  First is the creative zone:  this is me thinking about what topic I can blog about on this particular ride.  I find this particularly satisfying although it can detract from the "seeing" part of your ride.  You are in the thought process ergo you don't see what's in front of you.  The second is the pondering/thinking zone.  This can be a positive or negative depending upon where your thoughts go.  If you are inspired and think of some brilliant way to resolve an issue at work it's good; if you are making a long list of items you need to get done it's bad.  My personal favorite is the speed zone:  you have climbed the final ridge out of the river valley going into Cannon Falls and you know that the way back to Welch will have some great downhills.  The exhilaration of the speed, wind and views makes you want to raise your hands in the air and yell some ancient Celtic battle cry.  The worst zone is fatigue:  you're hot, it's late, you've got a few miles to go to the end and you're only focusing on your feet telling them to pedal.  I know that when I'm thinking about my feet I'm ready for a break or the end of the ride.

The Cannon Valley Trail was in bloom with the last flowers of summer.  I'll focus on the Jewelweed for this blog. It's from the Touch-me-not family or Impatiens pallida.  It grows in shade and likes wet.  Along the Cannon Valley Trail there are literally walls of Jewelweed.  The name comes from water droplets on its leaves that look like tiny jewels.  Supposedly the juice from its stems can soothe the sting from poison ivy.  It attracts hummingbirds.  Although the prominent color of late summer flowers was yellow we did see some brilliant splashes of purple from the Rough Blazing Star (Aster).

We have encountered all kinds of wildlife on the Cannon but yesterday was quiet.  The chipmunks and squirrels were busy buzzing back and forth across the trail.  We scared up a bevy of cardinals near Red Wing and goldfinches were very active.  At Welch the boxelder bugs had hatched.  As Bill Holm once wrote about the boxelder bug :
"I want so little
For so little time,
A south window,
A wall to climb..."

Bikes and Bands

It's Sunday and we're finally home after a three day weekend both on and off the bike.  It was a good use for my second furlough day (Friday) to pack up and go South to Faribault and the Sakatah Singing Hills Trail.  We cleverly planned to night in a bed and breakfast in town in order to spend Saturday listening to the Vintage Band Music Festival in Northfield.
Friday was the perfect summer biking day - sunny, not too humid, warm but not too hot.  We started out along Cannon Lake just outside of Faribault (to avoid nasty intersections in town) and decided to just ride until we wanted to turn around.  The Singing Hills nomenclature is so appropriate for this trail.  It's not the birds singing that is so deafening; it's the cicada.  From my office at home I can hear a cicada singing in our backyard.  Multiply that intensity by what seems thousands and you can image the "singing" by a grand chorus of cicada on the trail.

On other posts I've always focused on nature along the trails we ride but there is a striking amount of commerce going on.  Not far from Cannon Lake we ride past the Humphrey Manlift Co.  This name brings all kinds of interesting images to mind but it's a technology that moves people or things from floor to floor when you have limited space.  We also pass a very fragrant turkey farm where fans exhaust the wonderful turkey smell out to the trail.  Rumor has it the turkey dung has more value than the turkey.  I'll pass on that.  In Waterville we pedal past the Whitewater Grain and Feed elevator and the See-A-Cake company.  See-A-Cake is a leading manufacturer of bakery packing products.  Further along the trail we ride past Laska's Mercury Outboard sales and services.  That would be outboard motors for your boat which are displayed in the Laska's front yard.  Alley Scoops in Elysian sells ice cream (and hotdogs) right along the trail.  The Bear's Den is a restaurant in Elysian made from logs; we've eaten there after a ride.  Pro Fabrication, right on the trail in Madison Lake, fabricates metal.  Dale's Marine in Madison Lake sells boats but also provides snowmobile service in the off season.  And finally there's Prange's Heating and Airconditioning in Madison Lake; you can guess what they offer.  It's not all farm fields and wildflowers out there on the prairie.  Actually Faribault is a hub of manufacturing that has attracted a very diverse community. 

Back to nature which is really why we ride.Yellow is the prominent color of wildflowers on the Sakatah trail.  Our flower of choice this trip is the Woodland Sunflower or Helianthus divaricatus, member of the Aster family.  We find it usually in the woods along the trail.  At this time of year it can get fairly tall.  I braved an onslaught of mosquitoes to get this photo.  We also were looking at a goldfinch at the top of a stand of spruce in Madison lake when we looked up and saw a Northern Harrier hawk.  It's black wingtips are quite striking and the key to identification.

So you are wondering how far we ended up riding?  Our turn around point was Madison Lake (Mankato we'll see you on another trip) but it was a 50 mile endeavor.  We refreshed at the Alley Scoop with root beer floats on the way back and showed up at the Historic Hutchinson House B&B in our sweaty glory at close to the promised time of 5:30 pm.  Tami  Schluter, formerly of Eden Prairie, showed us to Dr. Hasseley's Suite where we showered, ran off to eat and headed to our first vintage band concert by the Newberry's Victorian Cornet Band at the Cathedral of Our Merciful Saviour in Faribault.  More bands and more music followed on Saturday and a second night but different room at the Hutchinson House.  In all the best of weekends, riding the bike, lots of music, two nights of hospitality at the Hutchinson House, a walk through historic Faribault and plenty of good food. 

Small Town Girl at Heart

Downtown Bowlus

I grew up in a small town in Pennsylvania where everyone knew they would probably leave for somewhere else.  All of my adult life has been spent in one city or another. But deep down in my heart I want to live in every small town we visit.  Our bike ride this weekend took us out to the northern extension of the Lake Wobegon trail http://lakewobegontrail.com/ from the Blanchard Dam blancharddam.html to just outside Albany.  Many of the towns in this area of the state were named for or by the railroad men.  Bowlus, our starting point, was named by railroad officers but no one remembers who Bowlus was.  It's a small town with the bike trail running across its main street.  A grain elevator stands next to the railroad/bike trail.  The town would have had freight and passengers coming through on a daily basis.  Now it's off the main highway but has created a comfortable stopping point for cyclists.  A major activity for the town in the 1920s was the building of the Blanchard dam across the Mississippi.  It's worth the effort to ride there.

Downtown Holdingford

Seven miles further down the trail is the town of Holdingford which was named in honor of its first permanent settler, Randolph Holding.  He settled in the area in 1868.  Yesterday we watched truckloads of hay drive through town.  Haying was going on in many of the fields we rode past.  As in Bowlus, a grain elevator sits empty next to what would have been the rails.  The trail cuts right across the main street in Holdingford but traffic doesn't stop for us like it would have for trains.

We had another day of spectacular skies and fields of wildflowers.  Joe-pye weed is in full bloom.  It has spectacular pink clusters of flowers and stands 2-10 feet in height.  This flower favors wet areas; we saw it blossoming among the cattails.  There were entire meadows of Joe-pye weed outside of Bowlus.  Last blog I wrote about the common mullein.  This is another giant flower that favors dry conditions and sun.  It blooms alongside of roads and bike trails. 

Chipmunks were overrunning the trail yesterday.  We spied a red tail hawk sweeping low over the trail probably hoping to snatch one up for lunch.  Will sees more animals than me and reports a frog and a small garter snake on the trail.  On the way  home driving down lonely route 32 we saw wild turkeys.

Drive west to the prairie...

Today is one of those perfect summer days which you wish you could pack up and open in the dark of February like a birthday pop up card.  It opens to let out the sun, the blue sky and the soft summer breeze.  We were lucky to have this perfect day for biking.  It was an adventure going back to one of our earliest trails that we biked on our tandem but that we haven't been back to for more than a year.  The Glacial Lakes State Trail http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/state_trails/glacial_lakes/index.html starts in Hawick and goes south to Willmar.  The trail winds through farm country, dotted with series of small lakes created by the glaciers.  It's the end of July and the sides of this old Burlington Northern railroad bed are covered in wild flowers - yellows, pinks, purples from the giant mullein which can reach six feet in height (and we saw some that tall) to delicate birds-foot trefoil.  As we ride along we are constantly pointing to the next flower.  We discovered a new plant called the lead plant, a member of the pea family.  Tt has a cluster of blue or purple flowers and its leaf is divided into tiny leaflets.  According to my wildflower book, it can live for centuries but will never get more than 3 feet tall.  Its growing is in the root which can delve more than 10 feet into the ground.  Parts of the plant used to be made into tea.  Another of  the hundreds of flowers that were blooming is the common milkweed.  Did you know there are 13 varieties of this pink flowering plant in Minnesota?  It's important to us because it is the only plant that the Monarch butterfly uses to lay its eggs.

We had our share of wildlife sightings including a hawk, three deer (looking but not bolting), a heron, numerous rabbits and ground squirrels plus a toad.  We took one break and sat on a bench listening to the sounds of the trail:  wind rustling the leaves of the cottonwood, bird song, insect clicks and buzzes, and the solitary mow of a cow off in its pasture.

The 36 miles of trail wind through several communities.  Each is marked by a monument that carries its name and something unique about the town.  For Spicer it was Green lake and a picture of a sailboat. Life ebbs and flows in the small towns.  The grain elevator in Spicer is for sale but the junk yard outside New London seems to be busy. We did see the original telegraph poles still standing along the trail outside of Hawick.  It takes some imagination to think of the trains once passing through all these places we are now biking. 

Detours on the Gateway

Today was my first of five voluntary furlough days at the U of Minnesota.  I remembered to turn off my alarm and sleep until 7:30 am!  Crawled out and did my morning yoga routine (thank you Kitty) and drank my first cup of coffee in the backyard while I watched our backyard critters.  One of two chipmunks is featured in this blog.  Will finally woke up and we packed up the bike first heading for excellent lingonberry waffles at http://www.steamworkscoffee.com/ where owners Jeff and Kristine remember your drinks and bring them to your table.  We leisurely read the paper and eventually got on the road for the Gateway Trail in St. Paul.  http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/state_trails/gateway/index.html  This is a heavily used commuter trail that passes through woodland, prairie and bogs.  In the spring you are serenaded by the peepers.  There is a parallel horse path for part of the trail. Today we encountered quite a few horses.  We were surprised when we hit a "Trail Closed" sign about 40 minutes into the ride.  We followed some other cyclists off to the horse path, then on to a road, across County Road 15 and down a gravel path for a short stretch.  Not the best surface for the tandem or its riders.  A new bridge is being built over County Road 15. This will make the trail safer and easier for riders.  Later (at the Dairy Queen) we discovered that a second bike trail bridge was being built over Century Avenue.  We never go that far west because of the difficulty in maneuvering across the street on our bike.  Great improvements; thanks to the DNR and the citizens of Minnesota that support and fund bike trails.  We are usually on this trail in early evening when we can fit a two hour ride in after work so it was revealing to see it in the light of day.  Butterflies were everywhere; splashes of colorful wildflowers lit up the sides of the trail.  We saw the orange of butterfly weed, the yellows of woodland sunflowers, grayheaded cone flowers, birds foot trefoil and butter and eggs, the pinks of spotted knapweed and wild bergamot, whites of prairie clover and sweet clover.  And the absolute best:  the rare find of a cluster of Turk's Cap Lily which we saw only once before on the Lake Wobegone trail.  That was more exciting than the deer running in front of us.  I've come to realize that being out in the country on our bike is important for my soul.   Not sure why it was so hard to get started this year.  Valuable happiness time lost.

We're back on the bike!!

Most cyclists smile at us as we pass on the bike trail. It’s not clear if it’s the bike they’re smiling at or the sight of Will and me pedaling down the trail. It certainly isn’t our good looks although we always wear matching bike shirts. And on that topic we have yet to find a sensational recumbent jersey. I’m still relegated to putting essentials into back pockets when I really need front pockets. There’s a market out here if only someone will rise to the creative occasion.

It’s hard to confess that mid-way through the summer was our first ride. Blame it on vacations, people visiting us, weather, heavy gardening, too much work, etc., etc. Whatever the obstacles we finally burst out the other end and headed to our traditional first ride: The Cannon Valley Trail http://www.cannonvalleytrail.com/ . We actually left the house by 8:30 a.m., then an hour and hot chocolate and soy vanilla latte later we arrived at the Cannon Falls trailhead. Actually my map reading skills were defective so we drove around Cannon Falls for a while before we found the trailhead. Typically we start at Welch and never go all the way into the town of Cannon Falls. Two issues with starting from town: a U-turn onto the bike trail from the parking lot which is impossible for us to complete and a hill coming back into town. Remember: hills are not our friends.
Clogging up the bike trail was an inordinate number of people on roller skies (or whatever you call them). These are insidious athletes who poke their ski poles into your bike lane. The response is to move your bike as close to center as possible and play chicken with them. Big bike vs. young girl in teeny shorts and sports bra; result – ugly. Our early start tactic to ward off the high dew point was shared by too many people
The Cannon Valley Trail moves from woods to prairie to bog so the quantity and type of wildflowers are amazing. Just a few we saw (not everything) were harebells, purple prairie clover, cow parsnip, Goat’s Beard, Gray headed coneflowers, and wild bergamot. Despite the high traffic we had a pudgy raccoon cross our path headed for the river and off on one side trail saw a mother turkey herding her five poults (young). Several hawks circled over head but not close enough to identify.
At the Welch rest area we were treated to polka music from Ray Sands of the Polka Dots http://raysandsandthepolkadots.com/about_the_band.html . He’s been in the business over 60 years! Grandpa’s Garage in Cannon Falls donated free sugar cookies topped with pecans. We met a couple riding Ran single recumbents and had a chat about the advantages of recumbent bikes and why we like a tandem and they didn’t. They were about our age so it was interesting to get their perspective which really centered on our comfy seats.

Leaving Welch to return to Cannon Falls I was leafing through the wild flower book when our new friends passed us. The Mrs. single recumbent pulled alongside of me to comment on how I was “reading” when she drove a young kid off the trail. When her husband came up alongside of us he commented that he’d try not to replicate her effort.

It was very satisfying to get to pass them eventually since we pedal, never coast, and actually were keeping an even pace. I didn’t thrust my arms up in celebration.
We stopped outside of Cannon Falls to take a photo of the falls and a swan plus cygnets alongside the trail. The single recumbents rode past but Mrs. couldn’t keep momentum going up the hill and fell over. Will looked at me and asked if we should walk it and I said “never”. Off we went creaking up the hill at about two MPH. Success!! We got the pass our new friends again while they patched up the Mrs. Our second attempt to make the U-turn into the parking lot missed again however.
After the ride we strolled through Cannon Falls. The hardware store was closed for Megan’s wedding: congrats to Megan. The Cannon River Winery http://www.cannonriverwinery.com/ was humming. You could get a massage or tan on the main street. We ate at the Old Market Deli http://www.theoldmarketdeli.com/ – food was great but the service was slow and odd. We helped an older couple clear the table and another couple found them silverware. Neighbors helping neighbors.
Hopefully we’ll be out again on my furlough day this week. Keep on biking!