Flooded Out

That shiny stuff down below? Water that doesn't belong there!

Wow! What a Fall we've started out having here. Water everywhere. Water in places we normally ride single track. Fall usually has this "golden time" for riding which is just awesome and I look forward to it every year. It looks like this time we're going to miss out.

Compare this to last year at this time when I was riding on the creek bed. Water levels were so low I was actually worried about a drought. The ground was rock hard, cracked, and everything was dusty or loose sand otherwise.

At least we could ride!

I suppose when they do the averages for this decade it will come out as, well........average. One year way over the line, the other way under it. Add together, divide by two, equals average. It won't tell the story though.

The bottom line is that I am terrible at math (just ask my old Trans Iowa recon buddy, J-Fry) and I am complaining about something that is, for sure, a first world problem. There are a lot bigger issues out there. I just am disappointed. That's all. I have miles of gravel to ride and if I were a pavement sort of guy, miles of that as well. Good, decent stuff. Nothing to sneeze at. So there is that to get to.

That said, it does affect business at the bike shops and it disappoints more folks than just myself. We've got a single track park about 12 miles from town that has been getting hit harder by traffic since that place is one of the only non-river bed single track systems around. The effects this has had are detrimental to the trails, which are seeing some erosion and breaking down due to the heavy traffic on the trails there of late. So, this flooding has been a real bummer.

With September on the way out the door and October coming on hard, we may be able to squeeze in some late fall activity. Of course, if snow holds off and the temperatures are moderate we may get November as a month to ride as well. So all is not lost. There is hope. That said, if we get a heavy rain anytime soon it won't take much to send the rivers and creeks back out of their banks. Let's hope that the rains hold off.