I rode my bicycle last week – for the first time this year. It has been a late start. I was going to start writing about the reason why this has happened, but then realized that I had a late start, for almost the same reasons, last year also. So my mindset in this regard, and the preparation for this first ride, mirror what happened last year. I wrote about it in the first section of this blog.
Truth of the matter is that I had gotten my bike cleaned up for a ride a couple of weeks earlier, but had never gotten around to actually taking the bike to the trail. This year, I am finding that the heat outside is discouraging me more than I expected from my efforts to exercise. I have become better at making excuses. Years are catching up.
There were three distinct stages to the ride last week.
The first stage was getting used to the feeling of being in the saddle once again after a very long time. When I am on a bike, the distances and the scenery pass by more quickly and smoothly than I am used to when on foot. I cannot pay as much attention as I usually do to things beside the trail. Nevertheless, it was difficult to miss the large number of birds at the pond at Riley’s lock. I had to stop to take pictures. There were an unusual number of egrets at this location.
There were also a few Great Blue Herons to be seen all along the trail. We have not seen them for quite a while, and their sight, for some reason, brings a feeling of comfort.
The second part of the ride was when I was transported into a world of happy fantasy, where my mind wandered away into some other space. The act of biking itself became completely instinctive. I even recited a nursery rhyme loudly when I went past a section with a lot of blackbirds. My song for the morning included the words – “I want to fly like an eagle, let my spirit carry me“! And then, there I was, chasing the butterfly, and the bird, and the rabbit, as they showed me the way ahead, each for a short distance – as they fluttered all over the place in the air in front of the moving bike, or skipped along in the grass beside the trail, or hopped for a while on the trail, all while staying in front of me. This was my Alice in Wonderland moment, and there were no magic mushrooms involved.
The last stage of the ride was the slog. This happened primarily because I am not fully in shape. (Thankfully, I had decided to do a shorter ride than I normally would have pushed myself to do.) If I had been in shape, I would have been in the zone by this point. This stage of the ride is usually notable because one can end up speeding without even realizing what is going on. But I had to slow down. I was feeling the effort. There were also a few distractions along the way, including having to deal with the hordes of people who had descended on the trail by this time.
I hope I can keep myself motivated to do more rides this year. The bicycle rack remains mounted on the car.
The egret was still there on our way back to Whites Ferry. This time, the egret was in the canal bed. Every time we approached it, it would get up and fly off further down the canal. I have great difficulty taking pictures of flying birds that are closer to me, especially with a zoom lens on the camera. These might have come out OK.
The bird finally settled down for a long enough time for me to get its picture. It was a majestic pose that it struck.
It was only later, when I looked at the pictures I had taken more carefully, that I noticed the green patch around the eyes. I looked it up on the Internet. This kind of egret is called a Great Egret (or Great White Egret).
This great blue heron is standing on ice while giving itself a scratch. It must feel good!
The twist in this egret’s neck seems a little unusual to me from this angle. It may have to do with the position of the wings.
Here is a bird among the twisted branches of one or more trees in winter.
The twisted branches of the trees can sure look like a mess from a distance in the woods in the early morning light. The sun has not quite hit the level of the trail in the following picture.
The turn in the trail appears at a distance in the following picture.
Splattered Brains 