Another Season in the Books

“It is by riding a bicycle that you learn the contours of a country best, since you have to sweat up the hills and coast down them. Thus, you remember them as they actually are, while in a motor car only a high hill impresses you, and you have no such accurate remembrance of country you have driven through as you gain by riding a bicycle.”
Ernest Hemingway

The end of this season's bike riding kind of sneaked up on me this year.  Fall was moving along, beautiful, warm, and glowing with autumn's bright colors and then suddenly the temperatures dropped, the weather turned windy and raining, and suddenly Day-Light Savings Time ended and the season was over.  Just like that!

So, with the season over, I went through my photos and looked back over the summer and all the bike rides I was able to get out on.  I did beat last season's miles, but only by a few miles.  I got in 298 miles in this year, just 6.5 miles  more than last year.  But hey, an inch is as good as a mile, right?  I would have liked to have done more but all season it seemed like I was struggling with the weather.  I didn't get out in October at all, which was terrible, but that's the way it turned out.  Not only did the weather seem to conspire against me, but our schedule did as well.  There were so many days when I got off work and the weather was good but there was something going on I had to do that prevented me from being able to get out on my bike.  Nevertheless, I did get out.  I had a regular Wednesday evening meeting this summer that I even rode my bike to a few times just to get in another ride or two.  And I usually took my camera so I ended up with plenty of pictures.  In fact, after going through my pictures, I ended putting 94 photos from various rides aside for this post.  Well, that's too many so the next job was to pare them down to something more reasonable.  That was a job and a half.  What I ended up with was still a lot, not sure how "reasonable" the number ended up being.  But when you ride in such beautiful places how can you not end up with a lot?

The weather was decent for late March so that's when I got out for the first time. The season started well enough with a fill up of air in my tires that had sat all winter and then a ride through some neighborhood streets.  Not the earliest I've been out but still pretty good.  Did almost six miles.  Not too bad for the first ride of the year.

That first ride wasn't too long but I had good speed.  For me, anyway.  Right around my average of 10 mph.  It actually turned out to be just a little faster than my season average.

But shortly after that first ride the weather turned bad.  It seemed like we got as much or more snow during the next month than we'd had all the rest of winter.  Spent a lot of time moving snow out of the driveway.

It was over a month before I was able to get out again.  But then finally spring arrived for real and I began to get out again.  And what was real cool was that Brombeere began going with!

She hadn't gotten out on her bike much last year, which was understandable.  She had a number of health issues that made it hard to ride a bike.

But this year was different, better, and she was determined to get out and get moving.  Biking isn't her only exercise but it sure is one of them.

We got out all over town on the trails.  Some of my favorite places to be!

All over the trails, all over and around town.  These pictures  make it look like I ride in the woods all the time but I spend plenty of time on city streets.  In fact, I have to ride a few miles on the streets to get to the fun trails.  Its just that in the woods is my favorite place to ride.

And I especially like it when Brombeere comes with.  That makes it extra fun.

I have my favorite routes.  I like the bridges that are around.  They rattle when you ride over them, even the newer ones.  Its a fun sound.

I'm not really into traditional mountain biking, the challenging trails with twists, turns, steep rises and steep falls, roots and rocks, and all that.  The kind that give you flats or occasionally make you fall down.  I like the more tame trials.  In fact, a paved trail is my favorite.

However, paved trails are in the minority around here and in most places.  My bike tread is the knobby kind, good for trails, but I find I do ride a little slower on them.  Not by design.  It just seems to work out that way all the time.

Some of the trails we rode on were wide and open.  Lots of sunshine.

Lots of nice, interesting flowers growing along side the trails.

Other places the trees grow in over the trail more.  Those are fun areas, too.  They have a more primitive, remote feel.

The last few summers I have tried to try to get a ride or two in out of town.  This year I made it to a trail I called my Island Trail ride.  That was a fun ride.  Again, it wasn't a real long ride, only about six and a half miles.  But it was interesting, that was the attraction.

And the bridges didn't disappoint.  Several bridges, as anticipated.  Two Islands, back and forth a couple of times to the mainland.  Of course there were bridges.  It was a good time.

Brombeere and I took one ride planning on a visit by Erdbeere and her kids.  We wanted to take her some place interesting so we rode to one of the parks and did some exploring.

We saw some interesting trails, some I hadn't seen before, even though I ride through this park on a regular basis.  I just had never gotten into this part of the park before.

And while we saw some new areas of the park, we didn't see it all.  I still need to get back there and check it out some more.

Before Erdbeere came, though, Heidlebeere came and brought her bike and trailer.  So we loaded all those wheels up and went for a ride!

Brombeere came with.  This ended up being one of the longer rides of the season.

It was a good time.  We stopped part way through for a break in the shade and a drink.

Checked on the kids in the trailer - they were doing just fine.  In fact, they did amazingly well for a ride that was over 18 miles long.  Bribing them with a stop at our favorite ice cream place may have helped with that.

A short time later, Erdbeere came with her bikes.  So we loaded up again and went for a different ride.

This time we thought to stop and get a picture before we hit the trail.  Quite the crowd.

That day Blaubeere joined us with her kids.  We had two trailers for that ride.  Lots of kids riding along.  I have to really admire these ladies that hauled these trailers and kids around all over the place.

To make this one fun for the kids we went to a nice park and let the kids play for a while.

Then it was back in the trailers and back on the trail.

I, for one, had a real good time.  On both of these rides. 

New trails, new sights.   I had hoped to see more wildlife on this particular trail.  Prior to going, I had seen a lot of pictures on social media about this trail, lots of different kinds of birds, and all.  Unfortunately, while we did see some, we didn't seen anything exotic or out of the ordinary. 

But it was fun nonetheless.  Especially since these rides were with some of my favorite people.

After those rides it was back to my usual haunts.  Any ride is a good ride, right?  As long as you stay upright, anyway.

But then came the big ride, the one I'd been planning since winter, when I found out the Steward Tunnel was not the longest tunnel of all of the state's bike trails.  I learned about tunnel #3 on the Elroy-Sparta trail.  That tunnel is three quarters of a mile long.  Dark and wet inside.  We had to get some bigger lights to do this tunnel.  It was such a good ride.  I'd do that one again. 

We only went from Norwalk to the tunnel and back, a distance of  around eight miles but it was so fun going through that tunnel. 

East entrance

West entrance

They had what they called a "selfie station" at the west entrance to the tunnel. 

Yeah, I'd do it again.

Back to more familiar ground, it was still fun being out on the trails, out in the trees.  The days were already getting shorter. 

Summer Solstice is a day I always take note of because it means the daylight is at its maximum.  After that day every day gets a few minutes shorter as fall marches ever closer.

The farm land on either side of some of the trails I ride is full of summers crops. 

As the days would get shorter harvest would arrive.  Shadows would begin to stretch across the fields.

The days were surely getting shorter and even though it was usually the same time of day when I'd get out most days, the evening shadows would start arriving sooner and sooner as I made my way home after each ride.

Slowly at first, leaves would begin to turn colors.  Fall was creeping in.

And then, it seemed like fall was suddenly in full color.  Reds, yellows, oranges, browns all around.

The colors you saw most depended on what stand of trees you rode through.

Trails became littered with fallen leaves.  The smell of the trails would change to that musty fall odor.

Sometimes the sight of the sun setting through the trees can be very, very nice.

This year, fall seemed to build to an amazing crescendo and then suddenly it was gone.  The weather turned cold, the rain and wind kicked up and before I knew what had happened, the riding season was over.  The season was done.  I had really hoped to get a few more miles in, I had kind of wanted to break 300.  And there was one more little trail I had been thinking of riding during this summer that I didn't get to.  But there's always next year.  Next year, if the weather and my schedule will cooperate I will get more miles in and get to that other trail and get to the lake and back.  And I'll have to give some thought to what other major trails I might do, as well.  Blaubeere has already been talking about a ride she wants to do over in her neck of the woods.  So there's lots to look forward to once summer gets here.  Winter Solstice is only 35 days away - then the days start getting longer! A few minutes every day!