Crawford Rd tunnel

Ahh yes, mid-October in mid-Michigan…fall colours and for some reason for the past week, beautiful weather in the high 60’s-mid 70’s! (And it’s OCTOBER of all things) On CMU’s campus, everything certainly looks a lot more beautiful, but signs are seen even more across all of Mount Pleasant.

Here’s what Millpond Park looked like a few days ago…

But of course, the most scenic spot in Mount Pleasant by far, is a spot I don’t think most people on campus know about. If you turn north onto Crawford Rd from Pickard on the outskirts of town, you drive/bike under a sea of orange, yellow, light green, red, and brown.

But the most beautiful spot is just south of the entrance to Mission Creek Park, a tunnel formed by all the trees along the side of the road, covering the road with shade for a stretch of about 300 feet or so. Looking to the left & the right, you would think you’re in a forest, and you certainly don't feel like you're near a city like Mount Pleasant.

It’s now a fall tradition, on my bike rides, I detour my route up Crawford Rd between Pickard & River as much as possible, while it looks so nice. I had only a single midterm this week, and that class won’t meet the rest of the week because of it. Now my Wednesday & Friday morning between 9 and noon is empty. Time for more bike rides!

64 mile Dryden bike ride

Just like I did last summer, I did a ride all the way from Clarkston, to Dryden in Lapeer County, then through Metamora and Hadley on the way back. It was quite the ride, taking five and a half hours, I left at 6am and got back at 11:30. Avg. speed was 11.77mph. It was a great day for it, not anywhere close to as hot as the past week...

For anyone not familiar with southeast michigan, here's a large field outside downtown Dryden about a mile or two, at the intersection of Bishop and Tubspring roads.

The sign reads "Welcome to Dryden: Where friendliness is served country style." So true! When I got into downtown I was completely drained, so I stopped in the local coney island restaurant and had a chili dog, and it wasn't even 9am. It was one of the best I've ever had because I had to actually use a fork, since the 'chili dog' was SMOTHERED in more chili! I couldn't even see the buns! Excellent way to spend $2.32. Then the guy next to me at the counter started comparing soil for farming between Clarkston and Dryden, (Dryden is much better) and then continued by talking about growing up in Colorado with hobos. Yep, the Dryden sign was right!

Overall I ended up riding 72.2 miles. The total for the month of july is 682, and 2295 on the year. In the last 3 days, I've gone 179 miles. I think tomorrow I'll take a break.