Trail Condition Report

The last week, I have been busy riding my bicycles and checking the various trails in Council Bluffs. We had some pretty miserable weather over the last week- hot and humid. Add in the regular storms during the week. The weekend turned out nice. Still got in 100 miles in the last 7 days.
Most of the rides have been between Xtreme Wheels and the Western Historic Trails Center. One ride up Dumfries Hill on the Wabash Trace. The last couple days I brought me D-SLR camera and shoot some HDR photos.
The top photo on today's posting is of the Dumfries Bridge on the Wabash Trace.
The Missouri River is up this week. There were heavy rains north (up-river) last week. Word is that the Corps of Engineers is also releasing more water through Gavin's Point Dam. I even heard that river level may rise as much as 3 feet from its current level!

Today, I headed out from the bike shop to the Trails Center. Rode the Lake Manawa Trail and stopped by the mountain bike trails to checkout their condition.
The second photo shows the flood waters over the THOR trails at Lake Manawa. The water is over the road that leads to the river boat ramp. Its going to be a long summer - hope the river drops so we can ride the dirt trails later this year!
Since the river rose back earlier this summer, the Iowa Riverfront Trail has been under water behind the Western Historic Trails Center. The waters have been slowly receding. The folks there have been busy clearing the trails of trees that dropped across the trail.
The next photo in this blog posting shows the water still over Iowa Riverfront Trail. There is a marked detour around that section of the trail.

From the Trails Center, I decided to complete the loop around Council Bluffs. The next section of the trail that was causing me concern was under Harrahs Casino. I had heard that the lower parking lot was under water.
There is water in the parking lot and the trail is flooded along the river. There is no marked path to ride under the parking structure. I dumped the bike on the mud riding past the equipment parked there. Not hurt, just some mud. Be careful riding under the structure - the pavement is slick with river silt mud.
In the final photo on this posting, you can see how high the river is.
Rode on up the trail to the Bob Bridge. Took a few of HDR (High Dynamic Range) photos along the way. In the 25 summer seasons that I have lived here, I do not remember seeing the Missouri River that high. Most times when there has been flooding on the Missouri, it has been downstream from Omaha/Council Bluffs.

The next stop was the end of the Iowa Riverfront Trails at Big Lake. The rode there has been flooded and is closed. The trail is high enough that is it dry. Big Lake is "full".
Headed on through town on N 8th and my normal route to Harry Langdon. After over 22 miles under my belt, I was pleased that my legs were strong enough to carry me up the hill there at 10 mph.
Ended up with 26 miles, about 2 hours and a quarter. A good ride, several good photos.

More Images From the Amish

How to Age a Map

I promised to tell you how I aged the giant map in our parlor. I bought it at Books-a-Million for about $7. When I got it home, I took a very wet washcloth and went over the map several times, letting the water stand. I then sprinkled it with coffee grounds.
I let it dry and liked the way the paper crinkled and the coffee has made dark little 'age' spots, but it wasn't dark enough. So I brewed some tea bags in water and soaked the map with that, letting it stay on for a few minutes. I kept doing that until it was the aged color I wanted.
I took it to Hobby Lobby for framing telling them to just attach the map by the top. I didn't want the wrinkles to be pressed out. I thought it turned out quite old looking. Double click on it to see a closeup.
This could also be done with copies of photos or maps. Just experiment until you get the desired effect and have fun with it!

After the gale

We had gales here on Saturday, and this was one result - the entrance to the University of Edinburgh's George Square Gardens blocked by a large fallen branch. There's a pale wound on the side of the tree where the branch tore off.

Why do hard and dangerous climbs?

Learning moves on a project. Photo: Steven Gordon
We can all readily appreciate the beauty of rock and the shapes it gives to the world, we just have to travel through the landscape. If we want to dig deeper, we can travel over mountains and look at them. A visual interaction with the rock.
Rock climbing is a deeper interaction with the rock. The medium of movement on rock allows us to crack open the beauty of rock not fully visible to the eye and get more back.
The harder the rock climb, the more we have to understand the rock to move, the more we learn. The more dangerous the rock climb, the more we have to understand the rock so we can stay alive.
The hardest and most dangerous climbs are the most meaningful, but they come at a cost most rock climbers wouldn’t dare to pay. Every climber finds their own balance of cost and reward.

The climb formerly known as...

Since I've now done nothing for two weeks (more on that later), it's probably time for some "filler" on this blog, being a report from a ride back on April 26. I set off with Martin for a 180km ride through Northern New South Wales, knowing full well that I already had 280km in my legs from the last two days. I'm nothing if not up for a challenge, and the wind threw that at us early in the morning, with a screaming southerly wind trying it's hardest to halt our progress. As we were both already a little sore and sorry from the previous two days, we opted not to attack it, but take our time down the coastal strip, until we found the protection of the rainforest of Urliup.

The wind seemed to ease off, and the ride settled down as these things tend to do. We climbed over a couple of hills on Round Mountain road, with some great views back over Murwillumbah, before heading for the dirt, switchback climb over Cudgera Creek. While this isn't exactly a massive climb, it is very beautiful, with the dirt road snaking back and forth through the Burringbar range, alternating between rainforest and sweeping views in various directions. Maybe I should head for the Andes in South America and see if I can find a climb like this that lasts all day. One day...

After this it was time for a screaming descent into Burringbar, where a couple of stretches revealed that I felt absolutely fine, and the stretch into the wind was almost over. Did I say "almost" over? Maybe I was taking the section between Billinudgel and Main Arm a little lightly. The combination of westerly wind (yes, it was swinging around ominously), gradual climb and the worst section of chip seal in Australia slowed our progress for the next 10km or so. My progress was almost halted completely on the final descent into Main Arm itself when I totally misjudged a corner -- fortunately nobody was around to see me or hit me.

Now it was time for the climb formerly known as Mt Jerusalem -- largely because it passes through Mt Jerusalem National Park. We actually discovered the real one two years ago -- then earlier this year I discovered that it's now impossible to get through to it anymore. We now have to make do with the fake. Still, the climb over the fake is as beautiful as climbs get, at least from the southern side, with the dirt road winding through the rainforest, and a gradient that only reaches 13% (compared to 19% on the other side). I took my time and enjoyed it, and the ride through the cool forest at the top. I really need to come back here in the coming months to reacquaint myself with some of the attractions in the National Park.
We negotiated the screaming descent on the dirt into Uki, for some reason this one always scares me, even though I've never managed to crash on it (yet), and prepared for the ride home. The wind was still from the south-west, and this was promising to be only my third southern ride in two years to finish with a tailwind. The stretch to Murwillumbah was pleasant and uneventful, except that it confirmed my suspicions about the wind. Now it was time for the final climb over Tomewin, for the third time on the weekend. I actually struggled early on the climb, before finding my rhythm and cruising over the steep (11%) section.
With Tomewin safely in the bag for another day, it was now time to mop up the remaining kilometres, including another descent on which I almost misjudged a corner, and ride home with the tailwind. When we got back into Suburbia I decided to launch a stupid, crazy attack which served no real purpose other than to get the boring bit of the ride finished a little sooner (that's probably a notable goal in itself), and at the finish we were left to reflect on what had been a memorable long weekend. I hope there are plenty more like that to come.

Bike breaking ride

I suppose I should just be glad this happened before next weekend's 600k ride and not during it. The catalogue of things I've been forced to replace and/or repair on my bike this year is becoming quite extensive. I suppose the bright side of all this is that I've developed some new skills in repairs and/or simply coping with various problems.
This morning I headed for Springbrook, a ride that was something of a compromise. My legs wanted big km, but I'm supposed to be resting before the 600k, so I decided on a short ride which just happens to climb a mountain. Early on everything seemed to be OK. I handled the climb comfortably, and Springbrook turned on yet another glorious day, even if a little chilly. This place is known for it's waterfalls, but they weren't really at their spectacular best in the middle of the dry season. Cue a display of little-known wildflowers providing a burst of colour. After 11 years, I'm wondering if there is any thing that mountain can't do.


Even the local wildlife came out to greet me...

... even if I wasn't quite fast enough to take a picture of that Albert Lyrebird (note: the only known habitat of this species in the entire world is the Gold Coast Hinterland).
It was at the start of the ride home that the problems started. I noted the gearing at the rear wasn't shifting as it should. I made an adjustment to the rear derailleur, noting that I may have to replace a gear cable in the near future. Somewhere while descending a 7% gradient I heard a crack from my rear rack. It turns out the light mount I'd made for the rack had broken off (note: it wasn't my handywork that broke -- the bolt and the connection I had made was still intact, it was the metal itself that snapped). Incidentally, that was the rack I'd bought in Dunedin, after 600km of carrying a full touring load on another rack that I'd broken some days previously.
I salvaged what I could of the light, which may prevent me having to buy a replacement if I can assemble something from my garage. Further down the mountain the gear cable gave out completely. I was down to just two gears for the last 30km or so to get home. Granted, home was at a lower altitude, but there were still some nasty pinches around Mudgeeraba, not to mention the sea breeze from the coast to deal with. I now have a new found respect for people who ride singlespeed bikes.
As predicted, some of the hills around Mudgeeraba caused more difficulty than they normally would -- and it just had to be show day with the resultant traffic issues on a day when maintaining momentum was of unusual importance. However, in a grim kind of way, I was starting to enjoy the chase, the challenge of it all, and knowing that this ride had now transcended the usual "up and back" ride to Springbrook. I was actually a little disappointed to get back on the coast and out of the hills. Cruising along the flat, while easier, just didn't have the same interest -- even if a couple of red lights did provide some unexpected difficulty.
It's clear that I need to deal with this rack. It's been a problem since I bought it, and it just doesn't seem to be strong enough to cope with my demands. For the time being I think I'll swap the rack on my MTB over and use that. It seems to be a little more sturdy. This also means that I need to create a new mount for a tail light on the rack so I can continue to run two of them (the other attaches to a special hole cut into my saddlebag), but such is life. Maybe I'll start to look upon all these repairs as a grim kind of chase.
Finally (at last I hear you cry), it appears as though I've been tagged again. This time Allez is responsible. I'll deal with it tomorrow. Right now I need some sleep.