Friday Afternoon Ride

After a couple failed attempts at getting out for a ride this week, we finally got out for one Friday afternoon.



Today we decided to head Southwest.



Normally we might roll though Chief Whitecap Park, but it's tick season and there can be pretty tall grass along the trails through there, so we went a little further east down Strathcona Avenue (Range Road 3055)



Went far enough south we hit gravel.



It was a beautiful day for riding. Sunny. Not to cold. Bit of a breeze, but not so much to feel like a killer headwind when we turned around into it.



One of the public notices at Cranberry flats indicated there have been cougar sightings in the area!

We stopped briefly here to have a snack, and I accidentally turned off the computer instead of pausing it, so my ride ended up being two...

Part One - on the way out and back to Cranberry Flats.



Part Two - on the way home with a detour through Riversides Estates.



We're heading into a long weekend and I'm hoping to get in a few morning rides...

A Little bit of Gravel

Went out for a quick ride this afternoon with the kids - just to get out and get some fresh air and get the road/gravel/cross bikes out and see how they fit...



It was a warm one. But not too terribly windy...



I feel like this one may be getting a bit small... Will we get one more year out of it?



On the flip side, the next size up is this Adult Small Soma cross bike... (seriously, smallest frame they made)... which, to me, still looks a bit big for Finnegan...

Kids... Sometimes it just feel like there just aren't really real any good bike fits for them...



Today we headed south out of town.



Hit a bit of gravel on the way to the city limits.



Wouldn't be a bike ride with this guy without blood sugar checks being alarmingly low... Not like panic-time low, but low enough to stop and have some juice to make sure it doesn't GET panic-time low!



We didn't go very far or very fast... just to the valley road.



Then turned back home... because we did have other stuff to do today...

Monday Ride to the North Bridge

Today the kids and I rode up to check out the progress on the new North Commuter Parkway bridge.



It was pretty overcast and there was a bit of a breeze - which was actually really nice, compared to Sunday, which had been rather warm!



Trees are starting to grow leaves, but things are still looking rather grey and brown...



Still heading north.



Crocuses!



I rode out this was last July and there has clearly been work done since then... but, like the Traffic Bridge downtown, it seems to be going at a snails pace. It also doesn't look like they've done any work on either side of the river to extend the Mewassin Trail to the Bridge. I hope they don't end up doing so as an afterthought - like they did with the South Bridge!



It was mostly overcast for most of the ride and I thought for sure a few times we might get rained on before we got home, but we seemed to dodge the rain, if there was any at all.



Heading south again.



Snack break.



the kids were very curious about this centre block in the brick work - it seemed to have metal handles... but it wasn't clear what they were for. It didn't seem like it was something that could actually be lifted out of there...? Time Capsule? Entrance to Evil Geniuses Secret Lair? Many possibilities were put forward, but no certain answers were found...



Twisty turns bit of trail.



I noticed a few bits across the river on the east bank that still had bits of snow and ice.



Checking out the weir and the pelicans.

I think I mentioned in the previous post I picked up a GPS bike computer to track how much I ride over the next year(s) - out of curiosity (not some serious sort of training program or anything - but maybe as a little bit of an incentive to get a bit more fit again and a little less fat...). I have been tracking it on Strava. Here is today's ride:



So far in they first week of May, I've ridden 112.5Km. It isn't much in the grand scheme of things. I used to do that on an average Sunday morning... but it's more than I've done in a week for a while, so... it's a start at getting fit again.

Spring Rides

It's spring! It's time to get out and ride... well... get out and ride just for the sake of getting out and riding - not just to get somewhere - like the riding we do every other day...

So today we went out and did a quick tour of the north and south bridges.



At the north end of the loop - crossing the Circle Drive Bridge.



Heading back down the east side of the river we past a big patch of crocuses! Of course once I noticed these I spotted a few more here and there along the edge of the riverbank.



It's been a long time since I've seen crocuses... somehow I seem to have missed them the last... I don't know how many years....



It used to be something I'd always see every spring - on those first trail rides in the spring - usually north of the Circle Drive bridge along those trails that are now part of the dog park.



Usually spotted them on rides with Amanda. But it's been a long time since we've gone for regular trail rides... Today she's on a plane to Quebec City for a conference.



A little further along, near the train bridge there were scores of swallows swooping and diving and darting about over the river and above us on the east bank. Must have been a lot of bugs app there, or something. The plus side of a late spring is I still haven't seen any mosquitoes!



Nearing the south end of our loop. Gordie Howe Bridge in sight.

I recently picked up a fancy new GPS bike computer - I thought it would be fun to keep track of all the cycling I do in a year - just to see how much I actually do DO! I picked it up a week or so ago, but finally sat down and figure out how to use it on the first. Started using Strava too...