Day at the beach

Thought I'd take a trip over to the coast since the weather was spectacular.

The ride on the Kal Haven trail is well known but

 the western half has been rejuvenated and resurfaced.

There are several upgrades along the way 

with rest areas added to the more scenic spots.

and the surface has been graded and

 the packed limestone surface expanded.

Of course you never know who you might meet along the way.

Several smaller bridges have been replaced with steel structures

At the end near SH. They've made extensive upgrades with steel piling along

 the Black River and erosion control to prevent  dramatic washouts 

during the river floods

and despite the local protests, the "iconic" covered bridge has been replaced as well.  The campground at Van Buren State Park was overflowing.  It's nice to have a modern campground with showers and toilets but it's truck loads of kids crammed together to "experience" the outdoors and rough it in a trailer park.

With the weather as perfect as it could be, the town was en-thronged with tourists. So much that it took an hour to find a seat at a bar to order a burger at 1:30 on a Thursday afternoon.  It was in the the 60's during Thursday, so the beachcombers headed indoors and left most of the beach for the grazing seagulls.

It's always beyond beautiful on the coast 

and off the coast when taking a few days for the trip.  

The temps remained in the 50's to 70's for all three days 

which made the 130 miles pedaling a virtual dream.

When you gotta take a break.

Finally, there were three perfect days in the forecast when I had nothing else to do.

It seemed right to spend a few minutes packing the Hunq and gittin' out of town. With temps in the 70's during the day it was a perfect pedal to the Yankee Springs forest. To enjoy the views,

set up camp,

and pedal a few miles to Yankee Bill's Saloon

where the pizza is sublime, the beer is cold,

and the house was packed with 

a live folk singer for entertainment...

on Wednesday!

After a 45 mile day it was a simple task

to sleep really late, and take a nap after breakfast

before going out for a casual ride around the gravel

of the Barry-Roubaix course

meandering through the forests and farms

leading to Walldorff's Brewpub for lunch.

The town of Hastings is tearing up it's shopping district

and renovating the streets which was a pain in the ass

but looks to be quite the improvement when they finish.

I hope they reinstall the sculptures on the sidewalks.

After the break for lunch, the ride back was more

 bit's of gravel,back to enjoy the forest 

where the wind barely tickled the leaves

creating some color in the trees at sunset

while I listened to the cranes talking things 

over across the lake as the sun went down.

It was better to watch the campfire burn 

than a presidential debate and I slept well

before the ride home in the morning.

With a mild wind straight out of the South, 

it was a testier ride than Wednesday,

 a test of patience.

 

Psychcedelic Platypus

 Elated over her first ever multi (2) day bike ride, Leah Peterson gave me a real life glimpse at her latest Rivendell.  It's a purple Platypus, a very purple Platypus,

which she embellished with "oil slick" anodized everything

providing a swirl of color even when sitting still.

Her only disappointment was the rims 

which were "too red,"

they were supposed be fuchsia.

 (I had to Google that one for clarification)

She's obviously in the wrong era, 

Janis Joplin would have loved this bike.

We met to take a ride in the morning before the real heat

hit, neither was aware we'd had a storm.

Wandering through the trails in Portage

we found multiple problems left over night.

But, we meandered our way to Cold Stone Creamery 

for ice cream before finishing a hot 20 mile jaunt.

I was disappointed she didn't have 

a tie-dyed shirt to go with the bike,

but she made up for it with some 

color coordinated gloves.

If you want to see this bike, you'll find

 her and her Little Pony

on the nearest rainbow drafting the spirit

of Bill Walton riding his way to an

historical Grateful Dead concert.

Belated birthday ride

     My 72nd birthday was Thursday and came with two days of steady rain, but the weekend lived up to it's promise of beautiful weather so I took a belated birthday ride.  Clear blue skies led me through 60-70 degree temperatures over the Kal-Haven  trail on a test ride of the Yves Gomez.

I wanted to see how the new creation felt on a longer ride and South Haven is a nice 50 mile ride from home.  The rail trail eliminates any steep climbs, but not the wind and it was a relentless 20-25mph in my face the whole day.  It was one of those times when the only choice was to gear DOWN into a comfortable cadence and be patient. 

     The trail is in great shape for the spring.  The eastern half is hard packed and ready to ride.  I was concerned over the tires which are city slicks that measure about 33mm wide.  They were fine on the eastern end of the trai, the western half has been resurfaced and is, technically, still closed.   It looks to me that most work is done, a nice 15 foot surface has been laid and rickety wooden bridges replaced with new steel ones.

There's still a little work to be done

and the surface is really soft.  

     I found, not only deer, but even deep raccoon tracks.  I hope the DNR plans to compact this before it's officially open. Given the soft surface swallowing my narrow slick tires, I bailed out to the county roads where I only had the wind wrestling with me.  The bike was fine and comfortable all day but the wind was exhausting all afternoon.   It made for one tired rider who did not feel like anything but a dip in the pool and microwave whatever to eat while I vegged out in front of the tube. 

     In the morning I was blessed with even stronger winds and knowing the trail was not fun I stuck to the roads.  Phoenix St. in South Haven becomes CR 388 and leads all the way to Alamo outside Kzoo. I jumped all over that with the wind sailing me down the road.

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The sky was so bright even small lakes took on a brilliant blue

and I had a brisk and relaxing ramble through springtime. 

    It was a good couple days in the saddle.  The bike was comfortable through it all,  I made a minor adjustment to the handlebars but that's it.  The ride home with the wind took 2 hours and 1500 calories less than the ride against the wind.