Wet Long Ride

Some things are good when they are wet, long, and sloppy.

Long bike rides are not one of those things.

The best time for my weekend ride was early this morning. It could have happened nearly any time this weekend as a trainer ride, but if I wanted to be outside, it was going to happen this morning. It was damp when I got up, but not raining. I took off.

Near home: fog in areas, but just chilly and damp.


20 minutes into my ride crossing the Mississippi at I-35E. The river wasn't
foggy, but the valley (especially to the right and middle) was VERY foggy!

I went down Big Rivers trail and turned around near I-494. I did some extra along Water Street (and actually ran into a half marathon race - the "Tiki Run" I believe) before turning back to head up to 35E again. But it started raining when I was down there.

I crossed the river and WANTED to do more heading past downtown St. Paul over towards Hwy 61, but with the rain still falling (and slightly picking up), I figured it was safest to get back NEAR home before adding any more on. So I headed right up to 35 to cross the river, biked towards downtown, and then went straight up Ramsey Hill.

Stopped at a stoplight on Summit Ave. Nasty.

I got close to home, but added a bit more mileage on along Marshall so I'd be over 30 miles.

In my yard at home. After this photo, I took off my
socks and shoes, rinsed them, and hosed off my legs and bike.


A nice 30+ mile route. (Note the "100% humidity" - yeah, it was raining.)

It hit me in the middle of my ride: it was so damp that I wasn't seeing other cyclists. Over these 30+ miles WHICH ARE ALL BIKE TRAILS OR ROADS WITH BIKE LANES ON THEM EXECPT FOR ABOUT ONE MILE, I only saw 2 other cyclists. Huh, it's like it was sub-optimal biking conditions or something... ;)

Same map/route as above, with the few blocks of non-bike paths highlighted in blue.

Oh, and technically, around split "3" through Lilydale was on a road, but it's been closed to cars most of the summer, and that's why I added that bit on. There's a trail along the side of the road in that section as well. I love our cycling infrastructure around the Twin Cities!

This was 31.53 miles with 0.78 miles on city streets (coming up through the edge of downtown), and then 2 more blocks of city streets because of the Summit Ave / Ayd Mill bridge detour. So over 30 miles of this was on city streets with painted bike lanes or on separate bike trails. (Oh, after I created that last map, I realized there's 3 blocks around Ford Parkway in Highland Park that also don't have a specific bike lane. Still...)

I threw in a load of wet gross laundry as soon as I got in the house, and then I had a handful of some root beer popcorn from my favorite new(ish) local business down the street. Happy Saturday!