Early season progress

A few weeks ago (wow, it was nearly a month ago!), I managed to get out for my first 40-mile ride of the year…and my third ever of that length.

It was a beautiful day, sunny with highs in the 60s or low 70s–perfect riding weather.  So I took advantage of it and headed out, aiming for about 30 miles.  Since my new parking spot (a little park near the trail that lets me ride after classes on weekdays so that I can avoid the roads to The Park at rush hour) results in a ride to Xenia that’s about 14 miles shorter, I decided to do some exploring of the northern section of Xenia-Cincinnati section of the Little Miami trail.

This was taken in roughly the same area as one of the pictures in the previous post. Talk about greening up!

Caboose at Xenia Station

Little Miami Trail, heading south from Xenia

I like taking my camera along with me on rides.  It does nothing for my ride time (and average speed, according to my computer!), but I like being able to go back and look at the pictures, as well as exercise my amateur interest in botany.

A violet! One of my favorite flowers.

A somewhat nicer example, probably a mile down the trail from the first.

I have no idea what this is, apart from yellow.

I don't know what these are either, but they like growing in low places in partial sun.

It took me a long time to snap this picture. The wind wouldn't cooperate!

Dandelion!

I don't know what this bush is, but I stopped next to it and it turned out to be full of bees. I took this and got out of there as quickly as possible.

I also just like taking pictures of the scenery, and sometimes artsy pictures because I can.

I think this may be the reason for the number of bugs...

Railroad leftovers

Redbuds

Somewhere south of Spring Valley

My temporary riding buddy disappearing into the distance. He turned around later, and on his way back told me to watch out for all the gnats up ahead.

I got a little caught up in the exploring, it seems, and found myself looking for mile markers!  (I no longer use my computer, due to the fact that Creekside pretty much follows the power lines and so I get a lot of interference.) Apparently, the mile markers aren’t painted at regular intervals, so they went from 2.3 to 6 to 8 to 9.5 miles south of Xenia. I told myself I’d turn around at 10.  Well, 10 wasn’t marked. But:

My turnaround point.

Travelling north. Farmland south of Spring Valley.

A stowaway!

Main drag through Spring Valley? This intersection is weird.

Not far from Xenia...but at least ten miles from the car!

Notice how different the light is in that last picture?  I was not expecting the ride to take quite that long.  I ended up stopping at McDonald’s for some quick carbs and what one may consider protein, and yet still had room for Dairy Queen on the way home from the parking lot.  The good news is that I was not horribly sore the next day; I was just sore.

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