More Than Just a Ride

The last several rides I've done have been just that - just riding my bike.  Of course if there's anything wrong with that and if there was I'd be in deep trouble as that's what the vast majority of my rides have been in my 20+ years of riding.  But I'd like to make rides into something a bit more substantial.  This one turned out to be that.

Heading north into the CNNF under blue skies.

This ATV trail heads up into the CNNF and I decided to take that instead of the gravel/sand road which I usually stick to.

Sometimes the ATV trail is a narrow two-track winding through the woods.

Catering to ATVs is big business up here.  This means that the ATV trails get torn up and washboarded from use so every couple of years they run a bulldozer over them to grade them.  The end result is a an sandy, ridiculously wide trail.

If you look closely through the trees you can see Sunken Camp Lake - a small (3 acre) lake in the middle of the CNNF.  I bet there's a good story behind it's name.  

On the way back from Sunken Camp Lake I stopped at Horseshoe Lake...

...and did a little wading.  (In case you are wondering my left ankle is recovering from some poison ivy)

It doesn't really look like it but this is a loon head down looking for lunch.

As I was sitting on the bank of Horseshoe Lake waiting for my feet to dry in the sun I heard a boom of thunder off to the south.  Although it was perfectly sunny where I was a dark cloud was rolling south of me.  When I left the lake and started riding south - the direction of home - this is what the sky looked like.

A little further down the road.  I was heading right into this and though I was pretty sure it would be gone by the time I got  to it (things were moving pretty quickly from west to east) the trees generally don't let you see much of the sky at once so it was a bit of a roll of the dice.  I did end up getting rained on a bit later but it was a warm day, it didn't rain all that hard, and it only rained for 5 or 10 minutes.

Mini sinkhole in the road.

 The day before this ride I had spent some time online looking at maps.  I love maps and Google maps cover everything - so I tend to spend longer than I need to.  Anyway, Google maps has a feature that you can get GPS coordinates for a point on their maps.  I found a little lake ("lake" might not even be the right word as it was probably less than an acre in size) away from the road.  I entered coordinates for the "lake" as well as where to park my bike.  I got the the parking spot, hid my bike in the bushes, got out the GPS receiver, and took off hiking.

Further back into the woods was somewhat more clear but right alongside the road opening it's pretty brushy.  Maybe I'll be back when these flowers have turned into blackberries.  

The bugs have only been out here for a couple of weeks and they're really not bad right around our house.  Anyway, when I left the house bug dope wasn't on my mind.  When I got here it sure was.

I counted just shy of 90 growth rings on these pine trunks - they were sprouts during the Roaring '20s.  What I have trouble wrapping my head around is that - as huge as these trees are in comparison to most modern trees - not that long ago, in the scheme of things, a 90 year old tree would have been young.  Hartwick Pines in Michigan has about 50 acres that are virgin and resemble today what much of the northern midwest looked like before the logging wave hit.  Most trees in the virgin part of the park are between 350 and 375 years old.  [just for reference my wheel (with tire) diameter is 31"] 

Back on the Corridor and nearing home

In addition to the good fun of riding my bike today my bike was also the vehicle that got me to places I could wade, birdwatch, hike, explore, ponder old growth.