Riding to the Start

On my tank of a Krampug (complete with frame bag, handlebar bag, "gas tank", and rear rack [that today was carrying a hammock and pillow]) it takes me about an hour and a half to get from our front door to Long Lake.  Maybe if I was so inclined it'd take me less but today I was just doodling along.  You see, I was riding there to meet up with a group ride, so I wanted to have some fuel left in the tank for that.  It only takes 30 mins to drive this but riding lets me, you guessed it, ride my bike (which I love) and not ride in a car (which I hate, especially when it's a bike able distance and I'm not hauling a cinder blocks or sheets of drywall.  Also: this is my little protest against having our society being virtually totally dependent on fossil fuels).  

Blueberries are ripe!

I wasn't sure, when I left, how long it would take me to get to Long Lake so I took my hammock so I could lay in it and kill time.

The wintergreen are ripe!

The ride to Horseshoe Lake started on some sandy ATV trails

Everybody swam in Horseshoe Lake.

After leaving Horseshoe the group rode back towards Long Lake where they were parked.  I rode with them most of the way and then turned around and headed home.

Shortly after I parted ways with the group it started to sprinkle.  It was light enough that just my wind vest kept me fairly warm and dry.

Mid August and signs of fall are around already here in northern Wisconsin.

Mayday, Deadfall Lifts, Fire, and Blueberries

For various reasons I hadn't ridden since the first of May when I went out for a ride yesterday.  The weather back on Mayday was a mix of snow and rain - snain for short.

Snain is the worst.  If it's cold, dry snow it doesn't stick much and brushes off when it does - and so a -10* ride is more comfortable than on one 45* warmer.  A warm rain is no problem, Captain Obvious has this to say about that, "you'll be wet but warm."  30-something degree rain is a whole different beast: if it's coming down hard you better put on your rain coat - but anything that's waterproof doesn't breath anywhere near fast enough to keep up with the sweat you're putting out even if you cut back on intensity alot.  So you're soaked - it's sorta warm from body heat but you also lose heat fast.  That sounds like no fun but if you don't put a raincoat on you already know what happens - you get soaked by the cold rain.  Body heat may keep you warm while you're riding but you lose heat fast.  I haven't yet found a good solution.  I'm curious to try a rain cape - anyone used one?  They look a bit dorky but if they keep you dry then that's worth it.  

I'm not particularly proud of it but I have to admit a little smugness in situations like these.  You can see in the bottom of the picture some tracks where an ATV had to turn around, unlike a bike, you can't just lift an ATV over a fallen tree.  Not that I'm too smug about it, there are many things ATVs do that bikes can't, but in a society that largely sees the limitation of bikes and not their potential, I'll take my victories where I can - even if I have to reach a bit.     

 The ride started off rather dreary (weatherwise) and so I decided before I left that this would be a hot cocoa ride - so I brought all the stuff for that - or thought I did.  I left the fuel for my stove on the kitchen table.  Whoops.  I do stuff like that.  Luckily for my hot cocoa consumption I had a woodburning stove and I was able to find a stick or two.

It has been rainy here for days or otherwise I could just use dry twigs - but since everything was wet I had to split the wood to get at the dry insides.  Perhaps I had subconsciously "forgotten" the wood to burn on purpose because I had inexplicably remembered to bring a knife and a saw - which is all I need to process wood for this stove.   

The stick that the knife is leaning against was my baton that I used the hit the back of the knife to force it through and split the wood.  

Batoning 

When I finished with drinking the hot cocoa I left my stove and setup to cool and hiked off up the hill to the north.  The trees here were fairly big and the walking was open and easy.  I hiked to the top of the hill, meaning to turn around there, but when I got there something a little farther on looked curious.  So I kept going and then when I got there there was something that looked curious a little farther on - and so on.  I ended up hiking a ways and took a few pictures on the way.  But mostly I just walked and appreciated the gorgeous spring day which had gone from dreary to sunny and beautiful.

These flowers mean that there will be blueberries here this summer.

Anyone know what this is?

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Berries

You'd think that after over 20 years of avid bike riding I would have learned a few things.  A rule that should be so second-nature that I don't even have to think about it: Don't leave to go on a bike ride without plenty of fuel in the tank.  And I usually don't (so I guess I have learned something) but recently I hadn't been for a ride for a while and just wanted to GO and so I did.  Five minutes into the ride an empty feeling in my stomach reminded me that it had been a while since I last ate.  But, dang it, I was already riding and I didn't want to turn around.  Well by the end of the ride I was getting a bit punchy and so was looking around in the trees to try and find an unlucky squirrel or bird to eat when I saw these:

Aha!  Serviceberries can't run away.  And while I haven't ever actually tasted raw squirrel and can't make a direct comparison I'm guessing these taste better. 

So I noted that there were still a lot of berries yet to ripen, made a mental note of their position, and rode back again last night.    

Maybe not the mother lode but enough to give us something sweet to munch on for a couple days.  And they're free!

On another ride I noted that there were plenty of blackberries on the way but weren't yet ripe.  I checked them this time and they were:

Magical taste (especially on ice cream) and they're free, locally sourced, good for you.