Pics from Our Rides

Believe it or not Buffalo has a fair amount of cherry blossoms. We’re not very famous for them but my son and I took a ride around to check them out.

Some pics from yesterday's ride. Though largely ruined in perception by ongoing brake squeal and terrible timing at the light rail station, most of the miles were good. Early on, I ran across this guy:
That's a bull snake. Though they get much larger further south in states like NM, this one is very good sized for this region. In my experience, at least. I used to see them much more frequently when Mrs. Newleaf and I lived more toward the outskirts of the metro area. This one was a bit of a treat.

The spring green-up is beginning but not quite there yet.

Ahh, the smell of spring blossoms 🥰. They're pretty, too!

At Denver's Confluence Park. Note the unhappy looking sky in the limited background. The storm was pretty big, but proved quite fast moving.

Between Confluence Park where Cherry Creek and the Platte River come together and the light rail station, there are both light and industrial rail tracks, several sets of each. This is the pedestrian/cycle bridge over the tracks. Leading up and down on either side, there are stairs for pedestrians, formed concrete ramps with wheel guides for bikes. It is necessary to walk the bikes, of course. Sadly, I didn't think to get a pic of this system. It's pretty neat.

Looking back toward Confluence Park (just out of frame to the left) and another cool bike/pedestrian bridge, this one over the Platte River.

Note the rim viole strapped to the back of my bike. Current plan is to have that rebuilt and ditch the current rear wheel altogether. I brought it with me for that reason, before it appeared the latest wrench to look into the problem had actually fixed it. Alas, he had, but the fix only lasted ~10 mi.

I rolled, err, walked up just as the train I needed was pulling out. The platform was empty for maybe 10 minutes, then inundated with the crowd from the letout of a daytime baseball game. Not the best time to be riding the train with a regular bike, much less an extra-long one like this. Though allowed on this train line per RTD's website, the bike leans up against the wheelbase limit pretty firmly.

It didn't help that it was my first ever time taking a recumbent bike on the train. I've done it many times with my DF touring bike, but the 'bent is enough different to make things 'interesting'.

Today, a rain ride! One of my favorites, especially this time of year.




I was smart enough to call this one a 'nope'. The water was moving fast and is much deeper than it appears to be.

Great day for a ride!

Today found lots of evidence of the rain I enjoyed on a previous ride. We had something in excess of 42hrs of straight rain. It didn't come down hard, but was steady.
I love this underpass, but knew better than to go near it either when the rain was falling or for a few days afterward. Today I tried it and validated my previous decisions to stay out. Note the piles of sand at the tunnel's mouth and the muddy mess that extends about halfway through the tunnel. That's the worst I've seen it. Easy enough to negotiate now.



The rain sure did bring out the green!




This crevice was deep and just kept going.

All in all, a great day for a ride.

Once again, I failed to break the camera.

Did a ride around the north end of Grand Island and buckhorn state park. Never rode it before but I’ll be back! You can see the mist from the falls in one shot, but it wasn’t very pronounced today. Most days it’s much higher in the sky.

The Platte is flowing at about double the maximum safe level for tubing. Not an issue for those with kayaks, but best to know what you're doing.