March Rides: In Like a Lion or a Lamb?

[Geonz]

This morning I was up earlyl... so I went to Mass... then to pick up bagels... and was wondering how I was going to work in riding the extra 20 minutes or so I had. Then I saw hi-viz jackets and .... a drone! (circled in pink) I was greeted because I'm on the Bike/Ped Advisory Commission and the one guy had presented to us about this huge major big deal construction project that will take this stretch of road and make it so it can actually handle buses. This pic is of very recently re-done concrete; this whole stretch gets patched up and then broken apart by the buses so parts of it have oh, inch-deep gaps where concrete breaks apart at the cracks... The drone is getting data for the construction planning (so it'll include me ) ...

As I decided to turn around because ... I couldn't take a picture because I didn't have my phone and ... it would take about 20 minutes to go back and get it... I saw the drone come crashing to the ground. I wondered whether their day was pretty much ruined.

On the return trip I got this picture -- they say they're pretty good at fixing the thing

[north woods gal]

If anyone saw one of those things floating above our woods, the switchboards would be flooded with UFO sightings.

[emily_in_nc]

I can't handle cold weather at all, but since I am post-menopausal now, I also can't handle it as hot as I used to be able to. It is just so much more uncomfortable to me now. I do best in spring and fall now. Fortunately, the winter in Florida is kinda like spring most other places, so it's been very good overall. Only a few too hot or too cold days for me. This week is hot, but the mornings are still pleasantly cool. After a week in chilly Ohio, though, the heat is bothering me more than usual.

35 miles Sunday and today, same route.

[north woods gal]

Now that I'm in my late 60s, I am more sensitive to cold and drafts in the house, so I usually bundle up in the house more than I used to do. Going out in the cold requires me to be very active, as in bicycling or skiing. That's the key. Still very doable for me to do really bitter cold as long as I am moving and working. Soon as I stop, though ...

As for my current biking status, I'm right in the middle of mud season on the trail work. Most of the snow is gone, except for short isolated stretches of trails, but the rest is gooey mud. Once, again, I am so thankful for fat bikes. Ordinary mountain bikes, even my 29+ with 3" tires, are still not doable, not to mention they cut up the trail too much. Thinking of going with fat bikes for all my trail riding, 365 days a year. They truly are 4 season trail bikes.

[north woods gal]

Took a sledge hammer from hubby's shop and actually used it to break up the ice patches on my hilly sections of trail, so now the most dangerous parts of the trail are ice free. Lots of work, but won't have to wait for another couple of weeks for the ice to melt. Nice to feel soil under the fat bike tires, for a change, instead of snow and ice.

We do have open water on part of our lake, so for the sake of the record, I will paddle the canoe out so I will be able to say that I paddled, up here, in March. Doesn't happen very often.

The open water has attracted some migrating waterfowl. Spotted Common Mergansers, a Hooded Merganser pair and lots of Ring-necked Ducks, which we see a lot on our smaller north woods lakes. No Wood Ducks, yet, but they are more of a fair weather species, so will be here, later, when the weather warms a bit. Have lots of them nest here on our little lake. Such beautiful birds.