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.

Lakeville Bike Ride

Yesterday I took a 41.2 mile ride to Lakeville, MI. Quite the feat, considering it would be a scorching hot day in the low 90's; I had to go as early as possible to avoid the worst of it. I woke up at 5:00 and by quarter to 6:00 I was on my way. Even with leaving so early, it was already in the low/mid 80's by 8:00, with a good chunk of my ride still left. I did the whole ride in 3 hours, 4 minutes, about 13.4mph. (Put to shame when I tuned into the Tour de France later that morning)

This was probably about 5:50am or so, aside from a few strays ones, not a single car on the road. Sunday morning + very early in the morning=NO CARS!!!!

Riding across Clarkston Rd ended up giving some good photo ops as always, especially at a farm by Stony Creek Rd. (A little before 7am)

and here we have Lakeville, MI, a small town that consists of an intersection, and a couple of small roads along a lake. It's directly east of Oxford and directly north of Rochester.

and there I am, successful in the ride to Lakeville. This ride was notable because I passed 2,000 miles for the year on it. Even more notable, I've never rode my bike 2,000 miles in a calender year so quickly before, July 17th is the new record. So hats off to biking in 2011, there's still loads of summer to go!!!

and yes, there lake is even called Lakeville Lake.

For anyone curious, my bike is a 2008 Trek 7300, with charcoal black and dark blue colors. I got it in April '08, and added on clip pedals for it around May 2009. I absolutely love this bike, I'd get a road bike, but Oakland County (like most other counties in Michigan) is a mix of paved roads and dirt roads. Being a hybrid bike, the 7300 works perfectly for the job, great on either surface. This 7300 has been through about 7,000 miles, 6 flat tires, and many wear and tear events along the way. But it still rides great! I can't imagine myself owning any other bike.