Half and Half

For 22 miles it was a little blacktop and a little gravel for nice time on the cross bike.  For this ride the temp was about 60 degrees with a strong helping wind on the way out...and the fight was on for the way back.

This particular road is a dead end that goes in about six miles along the St.Croix river.  There are no structures of any kind along this road...just six miles to nowhere.

Two miles in is an abandon gravel pit along with an active one.  The picture of the bike has the abandon pit in the background.  On another note, we are hoping to hook the Bob trailer to back of the crossbike this weekend for a S240 trip. I sure hope this works out, as it will be our first bike/camp trip of the year.

This is a rock they decided not to crush to gravel.  I can't tell you what the lines mean, but I think they must have had some climate change back then too.

 

When a person gets to the end of this gravel road, a walking trail continues on.  From here on it was alternating between riding and hike-a-bike.

There are three streams this little trail crosses with this one being the smallest.

I had finished exploring the little trail and was back out on the gravel portion climbing a hill out of the saddle, when I noticed three of these climbing on my leg...Dermacentor variabilis...or as we common folks call, a Wood Tick.  I stopped and picked off nine of the little critters. 

We have seen a lot of Black Bear this spring...Lots.  The Black Bear is one of the biggest animals we have around here.  Some of their diet consists of some of the smallest things we have...Ants.  This is where a bear has dug the top from an ant hill looking for gourmet food...Ants.

Just an old White Pine that had the top damaged when it was much, much younger.  Cool looking tree.  Picture does it no justice.