Trip 20 -- Thawing Out; Flood Update

I was hesitant to call this my first trip of the year since I didn't go very far and I pretty much just wanted to get a look at the Red River from the Greenway. It just feels nice to get back out there. I didn't even use my bike, it's about time for it to be retired, so I'll be purchasing a new one very soon (any suggestions?)


The National Weather Service in Grand Forks is forecasting a significant storm in our area starting tomorrow and lasting into next week. This storm could bring with it around 2 inches of rain as well as a wide variety of other possibilities such as thunderstorms, freezing rain, and yes...snow. This is extremely unfortunate for our area as it will only worsen our flood situation. It's strange how all of these things seem to be falling into place to make this flood more intense.

Yesterday, I snapped a few pictures from my cell phone on the East Grand Forks side of the Red River by DeMers. I apologize for the quality, but you can see where the river stands now and it will be a good point of reference for when it starts rising. Like I said before, I plan to keep you updated with pictures of the river as it rises to various levels so check back often.




So today I took a brief stroll on the Greenway near the 47th Ave. S. access point.. or maybe it was 49th? Well, you get the idea. South.


It's kind of depressing to look at everything and see how brown and dead it is...on a cloudy day no less. This is a far cry from how great the Greenway looked in the summer. Soon enough we'll see green again.







The Mighty Red will rise again soon unfortunately...



Ah, my favorite piece of random playground equipment:



Not sure if this is flood preparation or if they just don't want anyone using this access point.



Just thought this was cool looking, whatever kind of plant it is. Are those clovers? Sorry, I'm definitely not a botanist.


That's all I have for today, check back often for more flood updates!

Trip 19 -- Fall!

Firstly, I'll spare you all any excuses for not updating in a long time...school, work, blah blah blah. I know you don't want to hear it. Updates will be more scarce as I said, but I'm going to really try to step it up before we start seeing that four-letter-word start falling from the sky. I really wanted to get out there today because the forecast for the weekend doesn't look too forgiving:

Today was a really nice day outside, except a little too windy and chilly maybe. Fall is great, the turning leaves and lack of bugs...but then you just know winter is coming real soon. Too soon.



I hate mushrooms, they're disgusting and I really don't understand how people can eat them. I'd rather put cardboard on my pizza than any kind of fungus.



No, this isn't my helmet and no I didn't steal it...but some poor girl named Amelia is probably missing her Bratz helmet. Hopefully it finds its way back to her. It looks like it has some battle scars too.




Thanks for reading, and try to not get too depressed during the upcoming monsoon. I've been meaning to get pictures of my bike up here, so I'll do that soon. I'll also need some suggestions for a new mountain bike for next year if anyone wants to throw me some.

Temp: 55

Trip 18 -- Uphill Both Ways...

Remember when I said the posts might get shorter and lack substance once school starts? Well, this is one of those posts unfortunately. It sucks getting older in college, the classes definitely get tougher. I already have a test on Tuesday! ARGHHHHH

I did go on a ride today, but it was just to school and back, so I won't bore you with the details. I do not have class on Fridays so I'll be definitely hitting the trails this weekend.

I'll actually post pictures of my bike this weekend, as per a reader's suggestion. But don't expect anything remotely fancy.

Oh, and NFL starts tomorrow...awesome.

Trip 17 -- Saying Goodbye to the Heat

This trip actually happened yesterday, when I left it was almost 90 degrees and windy (of course). I rode all the way over to the west side of town to visit some friends and while I was there, the cold front started to move in. Right when I decided to leave it started to rain, but it only lasted a few minutes. On my way home I could see that it was going to get worse, it was very dark to the south...so I decided to pick up the pace a little bit. Luckily I made it home just in time, a few minutes after I got home it started pouring and the wind increased. That would've been a nightmare to ride in...not to mention the dangerous lightning.

Well, as I look at the forecast it looks like it's gonna be cool for a while. Today's high is only 57 degrees (though the current temperature is 61 according to the NWS website). Pretty much the exact opposite of yesterday afternoon. I don't know if we're done with the heat for the year but it looks like we're done with it for at least a week. That's fine with me, I prefer this kind of weather.

This is from the University Ave. overpass in between downpours.



A view of a bunch of trains from the Columbia overpass over DeMers.



Hopefully we're done with the 80+ degree heat, I don't know if I'm alone here, but I prefer the cooler weather... I said cooler not cold. Winter can wait.

Time: N/A since I spent a while hanging out my friend's place.
Temp: 88 at the start and about 65 at the end





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Trip 16 -- Still Hot, Still Windy

The worst part about late summer/ early fall has to be the resurgence of insects everywhere. I don't know why the yellowjacket population quadruples this time of year, but it does...and I hate it. This probably stems from my irrational fear of spiders, which can be blamed on being exposed to the move Arachnophobia as a child. The violent video games had no effect on me, but of course the movie about spiders still gives me nightmares. (Ok, not really nightmares, but I still hate spiders).

I don't know how bugs manage to find my face every time I go on a ride, but it's getting ridiculous. I swear I'm gonna start wearing a paintball mask from now on.

Anyways...

Another cloudless sky.


Don't worry, I resisted the urge to jump into this "pond." Is that toxic waste?



This building is right off the Greenway access point on Belmont...so you know the drill people, someone tell me what it is please.


Jeez, I should have you guys do my homework too.


Start: 12:45
End: 2:05
Temp: 78
Trip: 10.06 mi



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Trip 15 -- Shadyridge Estates

Did you miss me? Finally got the computer working again and I'm ready to get back into the routine. This "lost" trip is from last Friday, and I don't remember much of the details like temperature and time, and most of it isn't even on Google Maps so I'm not going to bother with that. I do remember that it was very windy...hmm, not much had changed.

The first thing I noticed was this entire yard painted to be what I'm assuming is a football field. I thought that was pretty awesome, as I'm also a backyard sports enthusiast. Wiffle ball, football, frisbee, love 'em all.



Another lovely day in the Grand Cities.



I did my usual trek down the Greenway to the end of the trail and I never really think about this long road that seemingly goes to nowhere...but what would be the point of this blog if I didn't explore it?


WINDY!

Much to my surprise, I stumbled upon another mysterious part of Grand Forks.

Shadyridge Estates...shady indeed.

Is that an island? Where the hell am I?


I found this sketchy area where they're growing a lot of trees...probably some kind of black market tree distribution. I'm thinking mafia.



Oh don't worry, they do pine trees too. Does every tree in Grand Forks come from this place?

Looks like this guy's trying to compete with the others. By the way, all the houses back here look like that, they're all huge and very nice..




Thanks for bearing with me people.

Trip 14 -- Me: 1 Wind: 0

I already triumphed over rain, today's test was the high winds. The Weather Service says it's a south wind of 23 mph gusting to 35 mph. Riding north with the wind was no problem at all, but coming back was a beast. I had no idea bicycles could catch wind so bad, sometimes I felt like I was gonna get blown over. There was a point when I was on 55th st. and I came to a stop to take a picture. I stood up on my bike and my body was like a sail, the wind alone was pushing me down the road...it was pretty cool.

So I beat water, wind, and I guess you could say earth. I really hope I don't have to deal with fire, because I already concede.

Anyways,


Very windy today..that tree should be standing up straight.


So what exactly does a storm water pump station do?

Talk about homes being close to each other... at least they have alternating colors.


When I said I wanted to find crazy stuff in Grand Forks, this is what I meant. I have no idea why someone would put a chair on the top of a large dirt mound, but I'm glad they did.


The new welcome sign entering Grand Forks through highway 2. I do like it, it brings a little breath of fresh air to an otherwise unsightly road in GF.


Found this on the fitness trail by UND. I am completely stumped by what it is, but someone else was apparently curious as well and started taking bricks off.





People can be pretty frustrating sometimes...where the fitness trail crosses 17th ave there's one of those blinking light crosswalk beacons that I love so much. I pushed the button and a lady was nice enough to stop for me, even with like 5 cars behind her. I cross and the guy behind her just lays on his horn...I don't know if he was mad at me, her, or both...but really, guy? Did I slow you down that much? Did I make you late for some extremely important appointment? Jeez people, can we have just a little more patience? I never expect people to stop for me at those things, but I sure am grateful when they do.

Due to extremely high gas prices and a more health conscious nation, there are going to be more bicyclists than drivers are used to...we're going to have to find a way to coexist. Drivers are going to have to be more aware of bicyclists and vice versa.

Thanks for reading.


Start: 4:40
End: 6:20
Temp: 83
Trip: 12.66



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Trip 13 -- Morning Ride

I'm going to have to start getting used to these morning rides with fall semester on the horizon. It's been nice staying up until 2 am and waking up at noon...but it's time to adjust my sleep schedule back to college mode. One huge perk about riding in the morning is the temperature...it was still in the high 60s when I left, so that was really nice on a day where the high looks to be in the high 80s.
Some less aggressive birds...but the falcons were still cooler.


This is a very purple house, pretty cool though. Bravo to the owner for standing out a little bit from the crowd.


I was glad to see that the path had easy access to the downtown area, I haven't been down there yet on my bike so I thought I'd check it out.


This playground looks a little more fun than the lonely pull-up bars further south on the trail.

I've never actually been in the little ampitheater right by the bridge until now. That's what I love about doing this blog, I've seen a lot of things up close that I've always wondered about from afar.






That's all I got for today. You may notice that posts will (or already have) decreased in length and substance. That is the challenge of writing a daily blog...not every post is going to be a home run, but I'm trying. When school starts, these posts may become even smaller, but I will continue to put as much effort into it as I can. Thanks for reading!


Start: 8:17
End: 9:24
Temp: 69 degrees
Trip: 8.3



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Trip 12 -- When Falcons Attack

I didn't expect much to be going on tonight when I took a short ride to the Greenway, and not much really did happen until I got about half mile south on the path. I heard a unique bird call while riding, and it sounded close so I wanted to investigate. It took off and started flying around rather aggressively, like it was protecting its nest. I got a good look at it and it looked too small to be a hawk, but it definitely was something similar to a hawk, like a falcon. Anyways, while I was standing there trying to take pictures, someone rode past and another bird showed up and dove at him, I thought the guy was gonna lose control, but he didn't. I breathed a pretty big sigh of relief...but then i realized I was the only person there, so I didn't want to be the next target...I took a couple pictures real quick and got the hell out of there.

So I leave it up to you bird experts, is it a falcon?






This basketball hoop's seen better days. Pretty lame of someone to break it like that...I also saw what looked like graffiti on the Greenway today...let's hope that trend stops ASAP.


First time I've rode at dusk...looks great until you ride on the streets and can't see anything.


Rydell looks really cool at night, I figured I'd snap a quick pic of it.




The Twins series was great, we saw them sweep the Mariners...unfortunately I just watched them lose on TV tonight, so that's no good.

Anyways, I guess today's lesson is to respect wildlife. They were here first, and some falcons just reminded me and a few cyclists of that today.

Thanks for reading!

Start: 8:15
End: 9:12
Temp: 70 degrees
Trip: 7.75 mi



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