No matter how we explain it, it's been plain old, hot. By the way, please remind me of this weather when I am whining about the winter and it's cold weather. Last week the heat index, which is a way of measuring heat and humidity together, was in the high 90's. We took a week off of biking.
Today the forecast was partly cloudy, less humidity, temps in the mid 80's. We rearranged our schedule a bit, so we would have part of the day to go for a ride. Our intention was to get an early start, but we each had some business phone calls to make, and didn't actually get started until 10:30 AM.
The Schrader valves did just fine when I checked the air, and when Tony added air to them. No valves shooting across the garage or any business like that, just nice complaint tire valves, the way tire valves should be.
When we did our ride to Bristol a few weeks ago, we saw a paved road we wanted to explore further, so we rode the White Pine Trail to Tustin, then took 20 Mile Rd west. The only paved road we came across was 200 Mile Rd, one that we had already ridden. The sun was pretty intense, and there was no shade, even though we wanted to ride on "new territory," after 5 miles, we decided to turn around and head back to the trail, where we knew there would be some shade. It was very pleasant riding in the shade.
Nothing new to see, but I did stop and take a picture of the beaver pond, which has many lily pads in bloom. Once again, the beavers alluded us. Makes me appreciative of the one time we saw a beaver swimming across the pond. If you look closely in the upper right hand corner of the picture you can see the beaver lodge.
For some reason beavers fascinate me. They are family oriented and good parents.
According to a study that was done, it is believed that what motivates beavers to build is the sound of running water. Scientists placed a speaker with the sound of running water near a pond. The beavers got busy building right away, and they built up their dams by the speaker, until it was effectively silenced.
We all know beavers love their dams. In fact, by building their dams and changing river flows, they change the world more than any other creature, besides man. As good architects, they take water flow into consideration when building. They are smart enough to use straight dams on trickling waters and curved dams in raging rapids. The dams are used as protection from predators and create a living environment and a shelter for the beaver to raise it's young. If a predator destroys part of the dam, it will be fixed over night.
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Beavers won't stop building until the task is complete. For that reason, if beavers are causing destruction in an area, the only way to really eliminate it, is to relocate the beavers. They have been known to
build massive dams. The largest beaver dam on record is 2,750 feet long. These dams are the only animal created structres that can be seen from space.
The wild flowers were in full bloom, giving us a show of color as we rode along.
Met a couple riding with their little white dog in a handle bar basket. They were from the Muskegon area, and were camping at the state Park in Cadillac. I wanted to get a picture of them, but the batteries in my camera needed recharging, so you'll have to settle for a word picture. He was friendly man in his 60's, kind of tall, with white hair, glasses and a hearing aid. she was quite a bit shorter, with short hair and a pleasant smile. In a basket attached to the handle bars of her bike was a little white dog, weighing about 5 lbs. He was a rescued dog, very shy and afraid when they got him. They started him out in the basket with a net over it, so he wouldn't jump out. Now he likes to ride along so much, that when the ride is over he doesn't want out of the basket. Shows you what a little love can do. They were a friendly couple, happy to be out enjoying nature.
We rode about 3 miles past the beaver pond, and then turned around. On the return ride, much of our shade was gone. When we found a shady spot we rode through it slowly. We stopped to rest in the shade and to wet Button down.
Deer flies were plentiful. They belong to the same family as horse flies. They are smaller than horse flies and wasps. The have coloured eyes, not that I've ever looked one in the eyes, and dark bands across their wings. Female deer flies feed on blood, while the males feed on pollen. When feeding, the females use knife like mandibles and maxillae to make a cross shaped incision in the skin, and then lap up the blood. The bite is painful not only when it occurs, but pain and itching can linger for a day or 2 afterwards. Some people can have an allergic reaction to the bite. Deer flies like damp environments such as wetlands and forests, which is exactly what surrounds the trail.
When a deer fly, or flies, gets a whiff of it's prey, (not sure they can smell, but somehow they know we are there.) it can be relentless in it's pursuit. In order to keep from being a meal for them, we have to go at least 10 MPH. Easy to do on a flat section, impossible on a hill. Thankfully the trail has only slight upgrades and no real hills, so we are able to maintain 10 MPH, or better, most of the time. When the deer flies begin to descend upon us I call out a "deer fly alert" to Tony, and he adds more power to his stoking so we can escape. This gives us some good training doing sprints, but can lead to sore legs later on. Sore legs usually lead to stronger legs, so we try and take a positive attitude towards it, knowing it will give us more stamina for the next "deer fly alert."
We stopped at Mr. Pibbs, in LeRoy for a late lunch. Found a nice shady spot for Button, wet him down good and headed inside to the air conditioning. He had a nice breeze, and settled down in his carrier, for a nap.
After a nice meal, we refilled our water bottles with lots of ice and headed home. Got home around 4PM. Rode 41 miles today.
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