After a great ride in the woods on Monday morning, Monday night brought some long overdue rain to mid-Michigan. The cool temperatures, dark clouds and knowledge that I had nowhere to be Tuesday morning made it real easy to sleep in and be no use to anyone. I like easy, so that’s what I did, and it felt damn good.
Once I finally hauled my carcass out from the confines of the Chamber of Farts, I set about figuring out what the hell to do with myself. Wifey is in Baltimore for work, B-Man is in western PA with his grandfather and I am not working at the shop this week.
The winds were blowing strong and I had no desire to fight both the strong winds and the soft, dirt road mud. I thought about returning to Mid to do another (longer) ride on singletrack, but decided that I would save that for Wednesday (I hope). You would never know it from my ever-increasing weight gain, but I hate not doing anything outside when there is something to do. So I decided a quick hike at Deerfield County Park followed by some fishing would be my outdoor plan for the late morning/afternoon.
As per usual, I hauled my DSLR with me to see what I could see. As you can see, I saw trees (one particularly scary and warned me of Orcs afoot in the woods), mushrooms, some flowers and a damselfly. You know, stuff in the woods type shit.
Beware the Pale Orc.
I hiked a three-mile loop and then decided I had enough of walking hiking and turned my attention towards doing some fishing. I could have just fished at Deerfield but opted to drive a few miles down the road to another access area for the river. Sadly, despite the rain overnight, the water was really low there, so I drove ANOTHER few miles to another fishing area I frequent. The water depth was much better there but it was also dark and muddy from the rain, making poor fishing conditions. With that I gave up and drove home, but first stopped to pick up some ingredients for a sausage heavy red sauce I wanted to make for dinner.
This may have not been the greatest Tuesday I ever had, but it wasn’t bad either. I love riding bikes, but it can be nice to do other outside activities too. I wouldn’t want to make a habit out of it, but it’s nice to mix things up. Plus it’s perfect practice for when I can’t find any 4XL jerseys and bibs to fit into and I’m forced to seek out tamer activities suited for big boned folks like myself who should maybe not be wearing lycra outside any longer. You know, ’cause it scares the kids.
Later.