Bike ride adventures

[47of74]

Rode around St. Paul today.  I stayed on Summit instead of going down hill so I went past the Cathedral and the Capitol.

Such a perfect day for riding yesterday.  Since it was a Sunday it wasn't very busy around the Capitol and church was in session down the street so we didn't have a couple thousand people hitting the road at once there either. 

[47of74]

I've been on a few rides on the Midtown Greenway which I've shown on some of the recent videos.

Here's the official website: https://midtowngreenway.org/

Here's the wikipedia entry: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midtown_Greenway

 

[47of74]

And this afternoon's post work constitutional around Minneapolis

 

[47of74]

Planning to do some other stuff after work today so got the ride in during lunch today.

Getting to the point now where sundown is early enough that I have to plan out my days.

[CTRLZero]

Now that the forest fire smoke has cleared, we decided to use our bikes to run a short errand.  It was so pleasant out, that we pushed on to our favorite trailside pub.  It wasn’t open when we arrived, so to kill time we biked to the end of the trail and doubled back.  Anyway, after roaming around, we calculated about 25 miles round trip.  I’ll be feeling it tomorrow, I’m sure! 

[Howl]

I feel so fortunate where we right now.  No forest fires this year and many gorgeous days. 

Lots of riding in the Ponderosa pines at the Boggy Draw Trail System.  The weather is starting to change and cool off a bit, so soon we'll be riding a bit more technical trails at Phil's World, about 1,000' lower elevation in the sagebrush/piñon pine/juniper woodland. 

Edited September 13, 2022 by Howl

[47of74]

1 hour ago, CTRLZero said:

Now that the forest fire smoke has cleared, we decided to use our bikes to run a short errand.  It was so pleasant out, that we pushed on to our favorite trailside pub.  It wasn’t open when we arrived, so to kill time we biked to the end of the trail and doubled back.  Anyway, after roaming around, we calculated about 25 miles round trip.  I’ll be feeling it tomorrow, I’m sure! 

Yeah I remember the first time I did the whole Heritage Trail from Dubuque to Dyersville and back. 26 miles each way. Or 52 miles total. Yeah I was a bit sore the next couple days.  But goddamn it felt good to post that achievement on Strava and in the cycling slack group at work. 

[47of74]

13 hours ago, Howl said:

Lots of riding in the Ponderosa pines at the Boggy Draw Trail System.  The weather is starting to change and cool off a bit, so soon we'll be riding a bit more technical trails at Phil's World, about 1,000' lower elevation in the sagebrush/piñon pine/juniper woodland.

It's been cooling off a bit up here as well lately.  Temperatures are down in the 50s at night now, and have even gotten down to the upper 40s a couple nights.  It's still fairly pleasant out during the day for the most part.  Big thing is that the sun goes down early enough that it puts a crimp in the amount of riding time available after work, especially if I'm stopping anywhere. 

[Howl]

It's an interesting time of year.  We're having two days of unsettled, cool rainy weather that seems to mark the beginning of fall.  There will be many more lovely warm days ahead, but summer is over.  I noticed on the weather radar that there is  snow at the highest elevations in the San Juan Mtns to the east.  In a week or two the aspens will be turning bright gold. 

It's truly a nice change from Texas, where summer and HOT days can hang on through October, and then suddenly it's the first week in Nov and the leaves are finally dying. 

1 hour ago, 47of74 said:

Big thing is that the sun goes down early enough that it puts a crimp in the amount of riding time available after work, especially if I'm stopping anywhere. 

Also this: 

On March 15, 2022, just days after clocks were adjusted to “spring forward,” the U.S. Senate passed the Sunshine Protection Act of 2021, which would abolish clock changes in favor of permanent daylight saving time.

So will we "Fall behind" on Nov. 6 or not? 

Edited September 14, 2022 by Howl

[47of74]

13 minutes ago, Howl said:

It's an interesting time of year.  We're having two days of unsettled, cool rainy weather that seems to mark the beginning of fall.  There will be many more lovely warm days ahead, but summer is over.  I noticed on the weather radar that there is  snow at the highest elevations in the San Juan Mtns to the east.  In a week or two the aspens will be turning bright gold. 

It's truly a nice change from Texas, where summer and HOT days can hang on through October, and then suddenly it's the first week in Nov and the leaves are finally dying. 

Also this: 

On March 15, 2022, just days after clocks were adjusted to “spring forward,” the U.S. Senate passed the Sunshine Protection Act of 2021, which would abolish clock changes in favor of permanent daylight saving time.

So will we "Fall behind" on Nov. 6 or not? 

I plan to do some riding in and get some pictures as the leaves start to change, especially along the river.

As for time change, the House hasn't passed the legislation yet and they're still not sure about how well it'll fare over there.

Quote

Earlier this year, the Senate unanimously passed legislation that would make daylight saving time permanent in the United States by the spring of 2023, but five months later it remains unclear whether the House of Representatives will take up the bill.

The measure, sponsored by Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, would take effect in Nov. 2023, meaning that Americans would spring their clocks forward in March of next year, and then wouldn’t have to adjust the time after that.

While the measure passed by voice vote in the Senate, it is not known at this time what the legislation’s fate in the House will be.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who has signaled that she supports the measure, has not yet scheduled it for debate in the chamber.

So if the bill were to pass we'd still switch this year and next spring.  The article goes on to mention that some doctors think ending DST would mess with people's health - namely sleep cycles.

I remember being in Spain and weirded out a bit because the sun didn't come up until after 8:30am.  Spain uses CET along with DST.  So in the winter the sun comes up late but on the flip side is up a bit longer into the evening during the winter.  Our tour director said that Spain should probably be on Western European Time along with the UK and Portugal but most people like the idea of later sunsets during the winter.

[47of74]

Today was my in office day rather than Wednesday since I wanted to attend an e-discovery training class.  So I rode to and from work on the ol' two wheeled money sink.  Tried a slightly different route today.

 

[47of74]

Went and got a ride in over lunch since it sounds like the weather might not cooperate after work.

 

Just under 10 miles total.

[47of74]

Well I got another ride in after work today once it stopped raining.  About 3.5 miles.

My brother went and sent a msg out to the sibling/inlaw snapchat group that he and my older niece were coming up this weekend.  I said ok is this serious or are you joking.  Yeah he said he was just kidding so I can do a nice extended ride tomorrow.  I think I'm going to (gently) tell him off about doing things like that because if I don't want to have to guess whether or not he's being serious when saying stuff like this.

Edited September 17, 2022 by 47of74

[47of74]

Here's Saturday's ride.  Went downtown, over to St. Paul. then back home.

I was too tired to post it yesterday but managed to get it done today after I got home and had a nap.  Turned out to be a pretty decent day yesterday for riding.

Edited September 19, 2022 by 47of74

[47of74]

And here's today's bike ride.  

It was cloudy and a bit cooler today with a few sprinkles mixed in here and there.  Still, not too bad of a day for riding though.  Almost 23 miles total.

[47of74]

Another Monday post-work ride. 

Much nicer today than yesterday even though the sun is going down distressingly early and my favorite Nokomis lakefront joint has closed.

[47of74]

This afternoon's ride down to Richfield and back.

 

[47of74]

And today's rides. 

Complete with some horse's ass driving down the bike lanes.  Thinking of seeing if I can get a good shot of the license plate and sending that in to the PD so they can at least talk to that clown.

[CTRLZero]

33 minutes ago, 47of74 said:

Complete with some horse's ass driving down the bike lanes

That is so annoying!  Last time we went out, a car pulled right in front of me from her driveway.  Fortunately, I could see she was looking for cars, but was overlooking the bike lane, so I slowed down (not fun to do on an incline).  Grrr.  I put my face practically up to her window, and I could tell it was an “oops” moment, but bikers have to be so careful out there.  Glad you’re okay. 

[47of74]

Decided to go out and get today's ride in over lunch. 

So I went up to Lake Harriet and back.  Stopped for an ice cream at the lake front place and might go back some weekend soon so I can spend more time just chilling up there.  The last day of the season for them is October 15th.

Gotta start finding my colder weather riding gear now.  I wore a jacket but I have to find my balaclava and gloves.  It was 59 when I went out riding so it was kind of chilly in the shade.   

[47of74]

And yesterday's bike ride over to St. Paul and back.

It was pretty nice for riding but it got pretty windy out later on in the day.

[47of74]

Got a couple rides in today.  One over lunch break and one after work.  About 5.5 miles total between the both of them.  The GoPro battery is drained so I don't have any time lapse videos of them.  Still a bit windy and it got a little chilly later in the day.  One of these days I need to get a high visibility coat for the cooler months.  I had one but it got torn up and bloody after the hit and run last April so I need to get a new one.  One of these days I'll get out to Fleet Farm to get one.  I still have the bright yellow jacket but it's not enough with temps getting down there now.

[47of74]

Another Tuesday after work, so got some riding in.

 

[47of74]

Got one more ride in for September after work today.

 

Nice enough out I didn't need a jacket.

[47of74]

Headed downtown today for my bike ride