Mourning Cloak

A mourning cloak butterfly basks in the sun.

Trail Condition

This week I have been riding the road bike. Weather has been great. Couple days with some wind - but learning to ride the "roadie" in the wind.
With the rides (and side rides to the river boat landing) it was cleat that the Missouri River is dropping. It has dropped about 2 feet or more in the last couple weeks. Still its gonna be some time before the trail dries off. What I have heard, much of the dirt trail is accessible and rideable - just can't ride through. Hope weather cooperates so our trail crew can get the trail open before the snow.
Re-paving reported in the previous post has started. As you can see from the photo here, the old asphalt paving is being removed. Thursday the machine was seen on the Western Historic Trail. The section of the Veterans Memorial Trail has been stripped. Hope they get right on to pouring concrete.
Hit the 1600 mile mark for the year with second ride around town in the week. Will make another 100+ miles week.

Where My Lines Are Laid

I've been listening to The Wind in the Willows on podcast and am thoroughly entranced! I've never read it before. Pom Pom, don't be ashamed of me. I have a copy of the book with illustrations by Michael Hague and am leafing through looking at the beautiful paintings. This was my favorite section from the entire book; and one very appropriate since I was listening to it on our way back from Oklahoma.
"As he hurried along, eagerly anticipating the moment when he would be at home again among the things he knew and liked, the Mole saw clearly that he was an animal of tilled field and hedgerow, linked to the ploughed furrow, the frequented pasture, the lane of evening lingerings, the cultivated garden plot. For others the asperities, the stubborn endurance, or the clash of actual conflict, that went with Nature in the rough; he must be wise, must keep to the pleasant places in which his lines were laid and which held adventure enough , in their way, to last for a lifetime."
I agree wholeheartedly with Mr. Mole. I'm a creature of tilled field and hedgerow, linked to pasture and lane of evening lingerings. My lines are laid in pleasant country places with adventures enough for my lifetime.

More Scoping Out My Property

A nice morning yesterday, except for the wind - very windy. Not a riding day. I decided to hike down to the bottom of my property to scope out possibility for my singletrack.

I took my GPS to see what the altitude change down the hill. The GPS could not seem to make its mind, but it looks like about 50-60 ft from the bottom to the top. There's a area in the bottom with possibilities - through some trees, dead fall, and gully.
For information, the property is about 350 ft deep and about 750 ft long, with the yard cut out from that.

So, just have to think about flagging a trail...

Family Ties

Here's "Aunt Darcie" and her four nephews on Easter Sunday. There were some unhappy faces, because I made them pose BEFORE Sunday dinner. They wanted to eat first and take pictures later. But I know those clothes wouldn't look the same AFTER.
When Laurel and I are together with these five young ones, most people think they all belong to her; even though she doesn't look old enough to have one or two much less five! Of course I look like the grandmother of them all. I wonder if anyone ever thinks that they're all mine? Nah!
For those of you who don't know us, Darcie is my youngest and Laurel is my oldest with three boys sandwiched in the middle. I had four little ones, all two years apart, who are now ages 29, 27, 25, and 22. Eleven years later I had Darcie. Surprise!
It sure has been a lot of fun; first with having four teenagers and a toddler and now having four adult children, an eleven year old, and four grandchildren. I feel very blessed.

Upstaged!

It's not often this happens, but sometimes it does all the same. It stemmed as a result of last weekend's riding. Saturday wasn't really the issue here -- just a pleasant cruise through Tallebudgera Valley to warm up a little. And warm up it did! But more on that later. The wildflower season is apparently still in force out there.



I had been supposed to lead an O'Reilly's ride on Sunday, but received no enquiries about it. And I'm not sure this was a bad thing -- especially after last week's debacle. Oh yeah, I took another call about that one on Friday (almost a week after the ride had actually happened), this time from someone who didn't even have a bike! "But the rainforest part sounded so beautiful". Geez, no wonder Rowan got sick of running a cycle-touring business if this is what some people are like!

However, Sunday I felt like a ride along the Northern NSW coast, with a few gutsy hills around Mullumbimby thrown in to keep me company.







Yes, it was a beautiful day. I could have taken several more photos if I'd had the mind to do it (maybe next time). However, a couple of things weren't quite as planned. Firstly, the feed I had in Mullumbimby was a little too good. I now know all about over-eating on a ride such as this one! My stomach did plenty of grumbling, before I was able to burn some of it off on the Burringbar Range.
Then there was that headwind that sprung up. All the way back to the coast, and at times it was brutal! Still, it's not a challenge unless there's actually some doubt about whether you're capable of it. I think the heat was worse than the wind. Such a ride would have been owned three months ago, but now that the humidity's here, it's causing problems. I'd like to say I'll adjust to it, but I won't hold my breath for that one!

The final tally for the day was 222.5km, with 1882 metres of climbing. As I said, I'd been feeling pretty good about such a ride in the conditions, but I was brutally upstaged by Rowan (a friend of mine from Hobart), who decided to do a 300km ride -- and this only three days after dislocating a shoulder in a fall! Sometimes I just have to bow to the guts and determination of others -- maybe I'll have a crack at a 300 in the near future.

Pots of gold

It is said that at the end of a rainbow is a pot of gold, so where is the gold in this shot? After having yet another memorable day at Springbrook today, perhaps the gold has simply assumed another form.

I delayed yesterday's plans to do the 17km Warrie Circuit walk at Springbrook (which would have been closer to 19 after detours) because my ankle was still giving me grief. A day later it was still doing the same thing -- albeit in a slightly less pronounced way. I decided to press ahead anyway, as I had options to back it off if I needed to. I felt strangely flat on the ride up the mountain this morning. My ankle doesn't cause any problems when riding, but there was some bushfire smoke around earlier (note: we still need a lot more rain), and perhaps that had an effect. As it was, the slow ride combined with the later than anticipated start meant that I was starting the walk 45 minutes later than I was hoping. Incidentally, the 'flat' performance continued on the descent much later.

This in itself wasn't the end of the world, but after starting the walk and treading some of the uneven ground, it soon became apparent that my ankle just wasn't up to 17km of this. Fortunately, there is a shorter, 4km option -- the Twin Falls walk. That was doable, and in truth, there were charms on that walk that I hadn't seen for a while anyway. This was the option I chose. Being a Saturday morning there were virtually no people around, and I really felt at piece in a place that I first fell in love with back in 1995.

I actually dreamed of moving here several years ago, I heard about a 10-acre property with a load of fruit trees that was for sale. I was never going to be able to afford it, but in my (then) 20-year-old mind, I had a grand dream of moving to the mountain and just living off fruit trees. That was before I had experienced the bite of the travel bug, and developed a desire to cycle tour in as many parts of the world as possible. One dream was ultimately sacrificed for another, but days like this always remind me of what I first saw in this place all those years ago. I may move on from this part of the world in the next few years, but wherever I go, Springbrook will always occupy a special place in my heart.