Vistas and snakes

Today's ride was relatively short, but tiring. By design. Or at least the first part was.

I decided to do those "hills" I skipped last Sunday. The Twin Cities aren't known for their hills, for good reason. But I went to where there is one, and rode up and down it as fast as possible 10 times in the hardest gear I could tolerate. I saw one dead snake, a living garter snake, and a cute little brown snake of some variety. I also saw the most remarkable purple flowers, resembling globe thistle, but much brighter and larger.

Then I was not sure where to ride. I'm feeling kind of bored, especially since the flooding hasn't yet subsided. So I decided to explore, since that is fun. I went up a long, not super bike-friendly hill from Mendota to the Cherokee Park neighborhood.

I can't find much info about the history of this gem of a neighborhood, but did find a photo from about 1930 of a "tourist camp."

I took a picture by Cherokee Park of the river and cathedral, with the Smith Ave. Bridge ("The High Bridge") included. I also took a picture of downtown St. Paul. It was beautiful up there.

Also photographed: the swollen Minnesota River from by where I did those hills, with another secret staircase!!

I was hungry after that ride and devoured some jerky made by a company partly owned by one of my co-workers. It was fantastic. My neighbor Jen and I then went and had a real lunch and dessert in the neighborhood. I love living here.

I was feeling a bit apprehensive about the TRAM in two weeks, since I've only ridden about 955 miles so far this year. But I looked at last year's log, and I've done almost the exact same mileage as last year at this time. (This year I'm ahead about 21 miles, but 16 were on my fat tire bike, in the snow. So, I'm really about 5 miles ahead.)

Thank you for the donations that are helping me get closer to my TRAM fundraising goal!

http://main.nationalmssociety.org/goto/Maggie2014TRAM