Another day of clear skies, frosty morning, and temperatures into the 40s with calm winds.
When I happened to look at the February calendar this morning and saw it was the 15th, I remembered I had some paperwork due to the city today. Had I not turned it in, it would have been a $100 fee. Although I had some ambitions today, that took up the first half of my morning.
I went up to the first viewpoint on Verstovia while talking with my parents. I was tempted to go up to the second viewpoint, but decided to head back down for lunch, and get out somewhere else this afternoon.
It took me 35 minutes to get to the viewpoint, but that included stopping a couple times to fuss with an app on my phone. I theory, it should allow me to make a report of trail maintenance needed, in practice it didn’t work. Trail maintenance is needed. In several places trees had fallen across the trail. In one place a tree falling below the trail pulled up part of the trail. Everything was pretty easily passable, so navigating it didn’t slow me down too much.
Even with the delays, I was a bit faster than my last trip up. I think my cardiovascular capacity was the weak point, since my legs weren’t bothered at all.
I had anticipated seeing some snow on the trail, but didn’t run into any.
I was considering between biking the ATV trails at Starrigavan or biking out Green Lake Road. I decided the trails at Starrigavan were more likely to have enough snow to be a nuisance while on my bike, so opted for the other end of the road.
Initially I was thinking I would stop at the hatchery and go up to Medvejie Lake. Instead, I kept biking further out. My legs were feeling tired by the time I made it to the power house. I took a bit of a break there. Conditions were pleasant in the sun.
I had been noting cliffs with mosses to look at along the way and thought I might stop at one or two on the return. It didn’t end up working out that way, but I did check out a cliff by the power house. What first caught my attention was a bright green patch that turned out to be the most lush patch of Fissidens I can remember seeing.
When I stopped I expected I would go back to Herring Cove without side trips down to the boat landing or up to the dam. By the time I was done looking at the mosses and got started again, my legs felt a bit recovered.
I first went down to the boat landing, which wasn’t far down. I imagine they used it to bring in supplies for the dam, and perhaps still do on occasion.
I was still feeling okay, so decided to go at least a little ways up towards Green Lake Dam. I thought it would be helpful to at least have a bit of it for my trails site mapping.
Once I started, I kept going up. The last time I biked up to the dam was sometime between 1992 and 1996 (I suspect 1993 or 1994 is most likely). I was with friends who were in much better condition than I was. They made it up without stopping to walk. I did not. I didn’t today either. If I had been closer to the start of my riding, instead of nearly 7 miles in, I could have ground it out.
Near the top, there was snow and ice on the road. I didn’t want to bike down that, so stashed my bike and walked the remaining bit (which wasn’t much). Three swans flew over towards salt water as I neared the lake. When I came into sight of it, I appreciated the view of low sunlight on the mountains made.
I didn’t stay for long at the lake. I still hoped to be back in time to see the sunset. It had taken me about 50 minutes to bike out the road, and I expected to be a similar time going back.
One of the challenges for me today was how soft the road was. I don’t usually think of gravel roads being soft, even when wet. I think when it’s rainy, they aren’t. However, the freezing/thaw cycle seems to loosen the surface a bit. I wasn’t sinking in far. It was probably the equivalent of riding on a foam sleeping pad, but I could feel the increased resistance it created compared to riding on dry ground or still-frozen ground in shaded spots.
I chose to walk up a couple of the bigger hills to give my biking muscles (and my butt) a bit of a break. It seemed to help, as I had more to given when I did ride after doing that.
I did make it back in 45 minutes, so slightly better than my outbound time. I only had less than 20 minutes to sunset. If everything went well, I had a slight chance of getting to downtown and up the bridge in time. Unfortunately, my bicycle got hung up when I was putting it in the car, and that took a couple minutes to take care of.
The sensible decision was to stop at Whale Park and catch the sunset from there. It’s actually possible to see the sun setting below the horizon a bit later in the year than from the bridge. On the other side, closer to solstice it would set behind land. Today there were smaller islands, but I could see beyond them.
It was one of the cleanest sunsets I’ve ever seen. I later checked the satellite imagery and saw the nearest clouds in the direction of the sunset were close to 350 miles distant. I think those were probably marine layer-type clouds. The closest higher level clouds over 400 miles away. I don’t always check, but I think these may be the furthest I’ve yet seen.
Tonight trail works had a little think about mountain snow travel and safety. I went with Connor (since it was happening at the brewery, and he decided we would have pizza for dinner, Rowan stopped by after her route). Connor watched the presenation. I had thought I might, but was just too tired.
My iNaturalist Observations for Today
