Chain Break

One of many broken plates.

Once again, winter takes its toll. After five inches of snow fell this weekend I rode down the unplowed backstreets that have three to four inches of packed snow instead of riding in the salted wet mess of the main streets. At the end of each day I took the bike down into the basement to hose off the salt and lube the bike's vulnerable parts. Then I noticed a broken chain link and figured no big deal since I'd just replace it with a Quick Link. While wiping down the rest of the chain about a half-dozen more links show similar damage.

Even though it was a real workout trying to pedal through that frozen oatmeal-like snow, I can't believe a chain couldn't handle the stress. I picked up the bike used for a song so who knows what the previous owner did.

Tomorrow, a new chain and a Quick Link.

Winter Takes its Toll

Each year the mixture of road salt and slush eats away at my beater.

Last Tuesday

Another gravel grinder in the Thumb. I had a bit of a lot of trouble with wind noise in the audio and will either try to attach some sort of wind filter to the camera body, or just put an audio track over it in the future. Or maybe do both.

Experimental Video

I'm weary of posting the same old bike in a landscape photo so here are a few videos.




They're just snippets and eventually I'll to learn how to tweak the audio as I fiddle with the video software.

My Favorite Time of Year

Despite the many signs of spring - birds and waterfowl returning to nest in the north, trees greening and blossoming, farmers preparing their fields - temperatures were still in the thirties when I left home Saturday morning for a 30-mile gravel ride in the Thumb. Had the winter riding gear on starting off and should have planned for the warmer afternoon temps, but that's okay, the extra layer helped sweat off a few of those added winter pounds.



It's still hard to believe that everything growing is about a month ahead of schedule, and I haven't heard anyone complaining about the early warmth. Shoot, I even enjoyed getting chased by a yapping little ankle-biter that tried to take a hunk outta me - must be the weather.

So it's all good for the next five months as we break into my favorite time of year. That said, Old Man Winter can kiss my lycra-clad butt good-bye!

Vernal Equinox and Vernal Pools

Ah, spring! Renewal, a fresh start! Leaving dirty ol' winter behind - I love it!

Not that we had much of a winter, but signs of spring are about a month ahead of schedule. This past week temperatures reached into the seventies each day and the forecast for today and tomorrow are in the eighties - no way this could be global warming.

So I decided to take advantage of these summer-like temps with a ride to Tobico Marsh. Pedaling along the 3.5-mile trail that crosses and skirts numerous vernal pools, I'd occasionally catch an earful of croaks and peeps - the mating call of Wood Frogs and Northern Spring Peepers.


Who knew frogs could make such a racket?

In the video you can see ripples made from the frogs croaking and searching for a mate. I wasn't able to get close for video so I used a long lens to capture a solitary Wood Frog.

South End Rail Trail

A friendly reminder and not too subtle warning to hooligans using the rail trail.