Rails *on* trails?

Out of all of the images on the Internet, you'd think I could find one of a person with bricks as quadriceps, so that I could illustrate how my legs feel right now, after today's bike ride to the Coon Rapids Dam. I don't think it was the distance, but rather the temperature and my failure to stretch before walking the dog when I got home.

It was a nice day and a great ride up the east side of the Mississippi, despite the fact that there was a point where my occasionally-frequent riding partner Matt and I nearly collided, some young guys in a crappy car thought it would be cool to spin out on the pavement a bunch of times and we got hit by some rocks, my feet were numb for 3/4 of the ride, and we had some unintended detours. We explored some new streets/paths, which will make their way into a group training ride in the spring. 

The river isn't as scenic as it can be other times of years, but it still was really pretty, and we got really good views of the historic Minneapolis Water Works buildings in Fridley. I can't find any good photos of them, either, online, but did learn that Minneapolis first started distributing water for firefighting purposes and later for drinking purposes, and Minneapolis had a big typhoid outbreak in the early 1900s. 

When we looped back to the Fort, we took the Hwy 5 bridge, which we learned has these rail things to help you get your bike up the steps. I had been carrying it, but tested out this newfangled technology.

The sun on my face makes me look other worldly.

We've had a great, long riding season in 2015. I feel really lucky to have gotten out for a big ride today. I'm really close to hitting 3,000 miles for the year, which isn't a lot for people who commute nearly every day by bike, but is the most I've ridden in a year - - a year in which I had to take a few weeks off due to injuries. 

http://main.nationalmssociety.org/goto/MS150Maggie2016