April 17th Rides

[sundial]

I pedaled inside the state park and enjoyed every minute of it. The sun was shining, the dogwoods are blooming, the woodpeckers are chatty, and the snakes are......uh.....
I did 9.59 miles on the mtb.

[bmccasland]

26 miles round trip on the river levee

Went on a ride after work upriver on the Mississippi river levee (paved bike path). Lots of folks were on the path, more than usual, to look at the high river muddy river. We're 3 feet below flood stage and something like 8 feet below the top of the levee. The impressive and scary part is to see that the river is higher than the ground on the other side. Without a wide angle lens, a photo doesn't capture it.

But I did find this link today to the LSU Earth Scan Lab, links to satelite images.http://www.esl.lsu.edu/modis/2008/04...3%2Emiss%2Ejpg
The image is from tuesday - less cloud cover - but you can really see the muddy water flow out the Bonnet Carre diversion into Lake Pontchartrain (the big lake due north of New Orleans), and the delta getting nice fresh mud.

Anyway, the ride was "breezy." Weather person said wind gusts from 10-15 mph, coming from the south. So the ride out we had tail winds and cross winds; ride back cross winds and head winds. I was beat by the time I got back. Top speed out - 22 mph, average speed back - 11 mph. Riding in the wind is my hill training. On the river side of the levee there were lots of wading birds (egrets, ibises, and such) foraging. They pretty much ignored activity on top of the levee.