Thwarted

This flooded out grassy two-tracfk wasn't my first check.

The one day I could get out and ride this past week was on Friday. It was going to be a weird day because it was starting out a bit on the chilly/windy side, but it was supposed to get warmer, then storm severely, then get cold. The weather people were in a lather about it all saying things were going to be nigh unto apocalyptic and that we all should be "weather aware", or we might....

I dunno.....what would the weather people say?  You might suffer the consequences of ignoring the weather? And this is different than the past in what way, exactly? 

I'm telling you this whole society is based upon fear. 

Anyway, Yes, I get it. Weather can kill you. I survived an F5 tornado and other near-misses with tornadoes over the years. So I decided to run out to ride in the morning. My plan was to head over to Evansdale via the bike paths and get out on a little gravel. Get home around noon. Then ride the storm out, if any storms should come, at home. 

Well, it didn't take long and I ran up on a barricade where a City worker was messing with some equipment. He looked at me and explained that there was some maintenance work being done and the bridge was impassable by pedestrians and cyclists. I had to backtrack and go across a different bridge. So I did this.

But then I was turned back again by more barricades. So, taking this as a sign, I turned back the opposite way and headed toward the park on the North side of the Cedar River and to a different bridge to cross back to a point closer to home.  

One simply does not just ride by the cement elephant!

I cannot ever remember seeing bluebells bloom this early

I ended up on the Sans Souci Bridge and had a sudden thought. "Ya know, I've never been back in there. Maybe I'll check it out." Sans Souci Island in Waterloo has been the site of the Sans Souci Hotel, cottages, and eventually permanent residences were constructed here. Originally named Merwin Island in the mid-1800's, this 100 acre island, once covered in timber, provided wood for the first bridges across the Cedar River in Waterloo. 

In 2008, a catastrophic flood event wiped out all the homes on the island. The homes were never rebuilt, and now it is an obscure park with a shelter, some hiking trails, and lots of woods. I found a cleared, fairly wide path back into the woods a ways but was turned back by the recent flooding. N.Y. Roll later told me he has been thinking about how this area could stand a short single track loop. 

I ended up leaving, but before I got out of the gate, I met two young, what looked to me to be teenage girls walking into the park dressed in attire more akin to the late 19th Century than the 21st Century. I waved, they waved back, and I wondered if I had seen an apparition, but yeah.... I'm pretty sure that was real.  

Weird. 

And then I rode through the cemetery and headed home. The original plans were thwarted, but this ride had it's highlights. And I didn't get sucked up by a tornado. In fact, we escaped any severe weather Friday. The temperature went down a full 47 degrees in twelve hours though. 

All the best to those who did suffer damage Friday. I think we all could do with nicer weather for a while.