An April Biking Fool!

Tomorrow is April Fool’s Day, but instead of a gag, I’m going to become a fool for biking and take the pledge “30 Days of Biking.”

Started two years ago by a couple of Twin Citians, participants pledge to ride every day in April. Now that might sound like no big deal to those folks who live in warmer climes, but here in Minnesota, there are many years that would mean riding in snow, slush, sleet and even the odd blizzard. Not this year though, knock on wood. Tomorrow is supposed to be sunny and 80. With luck, I won't have to peddle through any snow at all.

This pledge thing seems to be catching on. According to the Star Tribune this morning, last year’s informal organizing netted pledges from about 2,000 bicyclists, some from as far away as England. This year, things are ramping up. I just became the 2555 person to register. There’s still time to join, and the best part is you don’t have to be in the Twin Cities to sign up. Pledge online and ride where you are. Ride around the block, ride around the lake, ride across the country. Just ride every day in April and share your experience and the joy of biking with others.

Happy trails to ya.

Ice out: March 18.

Ice out on Lake Nokomis March 18, 2012

Yep. Today the ice went out on Lake Nokomis, and probably the other lakes in the Minneapolis chain. For those who don’t live in the northern clime, this is a BIG DAY. It’s sort of the unofficial first day of spring. And this year it’s early. Very, very early.

Just yesterday, there was a sheet of ice over part of the lake. On the windward side, the ice had been pushed up against the shore, forming a 3-4 foot wide crust of crinkled shards glinting like broken  auto glass under the brilliant sun.

Today, no ice at all. And the weeping willow tendrils have turned that shocking dayglow green of early spring.

The average high temperature for Minneapolis on March 18 is 41 degrees. Today it will be 76 or so. Yesterday I think it got to 80. Crazy. Last winter at this time, we were still up to our butts in snowbanks. This winter, we have never had more than four inches on the ground at one time, at least at my house. And in the past seven days, we've broken multiple records: earliest 80 degree day, most days above 70 in March, and nearly every single day temperature record in the last week. Historical records. Global warming?

Everybody is out: cyclist, joggers, walkers, stroller moms, families barbecuing.

Another in the category of things that make you go huh, this morning, while riding along the Minnehaha Parkway, I passed a couple jogging with their dog. Nothing unusual there--except that the man was jogging on one of those high-tech carbon fiber legs (a cheetah) shaped like an upside down question mark.
Given his apparent age, close-cropped hair and muscular physic, I couldn’t help but wonder if he’d lost that leg in Iraq or Afghanistan. Stepping on one of those IEDs, maybe. It would have been rude to ask, so I just peddled by them at the green light. But it got me to thinking: this one man had so much to say about the world we live in. Not the war, although there’s plenty there to ruminate about, but the fact that human ingenuity was perhaps responsible for both the loss of his limb and his return to mobility. This is NOT a comment on the relative morality of either invention, the bomb or the limb. It's just food for the fishes.

Hoping to get in more rides in this week before the weather returns to some sense of normal.

Happy trails to ya.