Another in our on-going string of incredible days. Sunny & warm without much wind, at least at home. I parked at the pond; it was quiet as usual & decided to make the ride south again.
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| At Boehner Pond~ |
Just a short way out of town, the tree below caught my eye. It had been hollow, but it's still amazing the weird things the wind does to trees. This one looked like it had been twisted in at least three different directions.
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| Destroyed old tree~ |
It's just under four miles to the White Cloud Trestle. Now, it's the quieter spot of the two old bridges. The trail this far out gets used, but not as much as further north. With all the new homes being built in Malvern, I enjoy every quiet day. It helps that this section between towns is one of the longest of the 64-mile length of the trail.
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| On the White Cloud Trestle~ |
Besides the ongoing drought & ceaseless winds, the month of May has been beautiful. I've been riding, but have gained so much ground working at home, I have to almost toss a coin to decide if riding will win out over gardening.
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| Greens moving up! |
The day rapidly warmed & I ended up removing my windbreaker. The Phlox shows up so bright against all the shades of green.
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Phlox~
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I was approaching the bridge below, when an incredibly bright spot of blue caught my attention. It was on my right, so I was amazed I'd seen it. I stopped to look & saw the most beautiful bird! Such a bright, shiny blue he was impossible to miss. Sitting on a branch just shy of the bridge, the lower part of his body was turquoise. I only had a second to admire him, before with a tweet he took off!
After an internet search I discovered I'd seen an
Indigo Bunting. I knew he was too small to be a Bluebird, but I wouldn't have guessed he was related to Cardinals. A friend told me they are migrating through our area now. I felt very lucky to have seen one!
The wind was blowing, hence the blurry image, but I was thrilled to find just this one blooming Delphinium along the side of the trail.
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| Turnaround Point, 9.09 miles~ |
At the intersection of the Grade B Road, 370th, I turned back. Finn always looks for me to pick him up around 5 p.m. He's so darn cute standing at Doris's storm door when I pull in the driveway. Heading back would take longer, since I'd be riding into the wind.
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| Small creek~ |
This section of trail always seems to have more water in the small creeks than further north. I think the Malvern area gets more rain than we do in Glenwood. They seem to get the brunt of more storms too.
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| Shadow & blooming Phlox~ |
The Phlox through this area are so thick I had to stop for another photo. Back at the Trestle, I stopped for a few minutes, enjoying the peace & quiet of the trail.
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| White Cloud Trestle, northbound~ |
The new decking seems to be holding up well. Now, if riders would stop putting stickers on the steel struts. Here, different bike riding clubs have names & promote themselves with stickers. It seems it's ok to deface just about any object they see.
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| My route~ |
As you can tell from the Google Earth image above, the trail is unique in that you can actually ride out into the country, in spite of miles of planted fields. As of April, I've been riding a bike on this trail for five years.
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