Blog revival

It's alive! My ol' blog has been sitting here, patiently waiting for me to get some inspiration again. I have been feeling like doing a little writing lately, so let's pick right up where I left off a year and a half ago.

The weather report was not great today, at least if you were planning to be outside. The original plan for this weekend was to go camping with my dad at Port Crescent State Park, but the forecast was not great there, either. So we will try again next weekend. But this morning I managed to squeeze in a city ride before the rain started.

A new feature around town for this year is the Argo Cascades on the Huron River. Not surprisingly, it is near Argo Dam on the west side of town.

It has been immensely popular; there are always people walking along it and canoeing, kayaking, or tubing down it. It is certainly more appealing than the old weed-choked backwater that was there before. Somehow I have gone all summer without going down it myself. There is still time...

I rolled on into the Bluffs from there. Wow, I just took a look at the map in that link. Good luck finding your way around in there using that map. Plus, it's not very accurate. On the bright side, maybe that will help keep the Bluffs relatively wild.

From there I took a few passes through Kuebler-Langford. It is possible to link up the trails to make five different passes through it. Ever since I started riding the city loop in 1996 I have said that the Bluffs is the highlight of the loop, but Kuebler-Langford has really developed into a great ride and I think now rivals the Bluffs. The terrain has benefited the last ice age leaving a glacial moraine, specifically the Fort Wayne End Moraine of the Valparaiso Glacial Moraine.

 Most of Kuebler-Langford is wooded with large hardwoods, giving the appearance of an old-growth forest. But there is a section that must be too gravely and well-drained for trees to grow. The native grasses seem to like it, growing about four feet tall.

A quick zip through Bandemer Park and I picked up the "M-14 Trail." Part of this area on the east end is Cloverdale park, but I think part of it is just left over from a never-developed ramp onto M-14. Now it is a nice greenway, and a number of years ago the state even made a nice tunnel under M-14, replacing the older, smaller viaduct.

That picture is from a winter ride a couple years ago. The temperature was a little cool today, but no need yet for a jacket and bar mitts.

You probably know that today is the first day of Fall. What does that mean? Aside from the scientific definition, basically saying that daytime and night time are each exactly twelve hours, it means that the trees are starting to change color. This little white oak has really got a jump on the season.

A little further up the trail there is a nice field of goldenrod. When in bloom it makes quite a show, and apparently is not a source of stuffy noses for allergy sufferers such as myself.

 If you look carefully in the background, you can see the sky is starting to look a little ominous. Rain clouds were gathering and I was across town from home. I hit a few other choice trails, but mostly high-tailed it home.